Bendulo tells court his expertise: Chakwera’s witness is Malawi’s unsung hero in IT
Anthony Bendulo, fourth witness for Malawi Congress Party (MCP) presidential hopeful Lazarus Chakwera in the elections petition case, on Friday told the Constitutional Court his wealth of experience in Information technology (IT) which was so inspiring to downplay the assertions of having no academic qualification in IT field.
On Thursday during the cross- examination, President Peter Mutharika’s lawyer in the elections case Frank Mbeta questioned the credential of Bendulo.
Bendulo, who worked at IT analyst for MCP during the May 21 Tripartite Elections, was asked by Mbeta on his education qualifications, in which he conceded he had no professional or academic training in IT but has acquired experience in the field.
Lawyer Mbeta capitalised on that and told the five-judge panel of the High Court sitting as Constitutional Court that the witness should not be considered as an expert on IT.
But on Friday at the start of friendly re-examination by lead lawyer for Chakwera, Mordecai Msisha SC, Bendulo was guided to explain his expertise in IT field.
Msisha guided Bendulo to explain to court his “competence in IT.”
In response Bendulo said: “My Lady, My Lords, I have professional skills in the IT field but not the academic qualifications for simple basic reason that I lost my mum and dad at the age of 9 years.
“But after finishing my MSCE, I was privileged to be part and parcel of the workshop that was organised by technocrats from Spain.”
Bendulo, who has been talking technical jargons on IT in court including his explanation of the Java Script, said for the past 13 years he has learnt programming, computer language and designing, photography and videography.
“I was the first Malawians in 2007 to be a video animator – an advanced stage of videography and Java Script,” said Bendulo.
He said his expertise is even recognised by the Malawi government.
“Ministry of Culture gave me a recommendation letter on the same,” he pointed out.
“So my skills that I acquired are mutisectoral, rotating from IT to multimedia and I have showcased these skills to Malawi government and foreign countries, for example the Road Traffic Department in Malawi I designed and directed the programme of Zapamseu.
Bendulo further told the court that he has been main IT expert for National Organisation of Nurses and Midwives of Malawi (Nonm).
“One of the most outstanding activities [I carried for Nonm] was to recover the data base of all the nurses that was accidentally deleted and formatted by one of their qualified IT expert and the organisation engaged a lot of companies within Malawi who are IT related and they rendered the situation impossible but I recovered the data within 3 days,” said Bendulo.
He continued: “The database from 1968 that Nonm have I retrieved using the computer skills of programming that I have.”
Bendulo said he also has a registered business that offers IT services in South Africa.
Commenting on Bendulo expertise without formal knowledge Chris Chaima Banda, a development economist and long serving British civil servant, said most of talented people in the developed world derive their expertise from passion.
“Bendulo represents the raw talent in ICT that is derived from a passion. Most experts I have worked in complex technical areas of my work as a technocrat in the British Civil Service have not based their credit and know how on qualifications,” said Chaima Banda.
He said Bendulo stands shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Malawian self-made engineer William Kamkwamba, who is now a global phenomena from the humble villages as “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.”
Chaima Banda told Nyasa Times: “I applaud the rise of another young Malawian who believes in himself, self learnt and you can’t beat that propelling force of self intellectual enrichment in Bendulo.”
Outspoken writer and social media activist Stanley Onjezani Kenani wrote on Facebook about Bendulo: “I am writing this message on Facebook, a global phenomenon that was created by someone who does not possess a university degree, on a computer that was created by someone without a university degree, using Windows, created by someone without a university degree.
“It is, therefore, total nonsense to discredit a court witness who is an IT expert just because he does not have a university degree, especially if he has an impeccable record of providing IT solutions to reputable institutions, including government agencies.”
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Bendulo Bendulo so you are an expert kudutsa all the Degree guys mwava akuti nonse ma IT expert ndinu mazoba you failed to retrieve the data
A software can do that, one dont an expert.
Bendulo, your capacity beyond lambe bota za dpp….
This is complete chuff and if MCP relies on such caliber then we are doomed. For starters anybody can come up with any figure but the same such be substanciated with actual recounting of the votes to prove the contrary figure right. Its like one who claims that you have MK50,000 in your pocket and the only way to prove that is to take out the money and count it physically to prove that it is indeed MK50,000. Now you have three different MCP witnesses coming up with different figures on what MCP got in the elections and which one… Read more »
Ma Cadeti vuto lanu ndi Chani apa. Leave Bendulo alone. There so many graduates who are shaped by the same people who have not gone far with their education but have vast expertise in some some field so much that these touted graduates, when they come on the ground, amakhala ngati a bolodi, starting shaping them from the scratch and wonder how did these graduate obtain their qualifications. When u are discrediting Bendulo, bear in mind that all the most guys who achiebed in IT had no useless degrees. That is why degrees are not utilized in Malawi. Poor thinking… Read more »
After listening to the evidence from the “EXPERT ” I am left flabbergasted. Most of his evidence is countering his own theories (Rigging). Simple question is: Chakwera’s votes were short, so was Chilima’s. Mutharika’s was the same and yet the assertion is MEC stole the first two contestants votes but where is the stolen numbers depicted and in whose favour? Bottom-line is that this was a sheer mistake by the ill-trained officials, hence the massive use of correction fluid. This Bendulo was just bent on confusing the audience by coming up with useless figures that didn’t make any sense. You… Read more »
iwenso ndi bulutu koma
The definition of expert is: “A person who has a great deal of KNOWLEDGE or SKILL in a particular area”. Sindikuonapo degree kapena pepala lirilonse apa so get your pieces of mucus condensed first before you start criticising what you don’t know. I hate hypocrisy
Bendulo is good more than an expert. You can have a qualification but if you do not have experience you are NOT even near to be expert so i wonder why qualification should be an issue here. My simple search has defined an expert as “someone with a high level of knowledge or skills relating to a particular subject or activity” There is no definitive way of accumulating this experience and skills. We have useless people who have graduated at Polytechnic but have failed to do what those who have not gone to school are doing .It is very naive… Read more »
#Ansa got degree but can’t speak proper English
He is not an expert. You must show the court your supporting documents. Operating a computer isn’t a qualification on its own. That’s fooling the court!!
anthu enadi ndinu okanika eti
As a lesson stop dishing out degrees to graduates based on class work only . Let them have work experience first at least for a year in their field of study before they think they own the world. Bendulo has proved hard work makes you get recognized instead of having degrees paid off by exchanging one’s thighs. Our universities don’t prepare our Youth for a real world. Re look at our syllabus and get rid of archaic stuff. We are good at writing our names and surnames and our reasoning is below par. That’s why we have too many highly… Read more »
Please leave this guy alone. The problem in Malawi we have people qualified based on theory and when they go into field they are a complete flop. Look at the so many technical schools we have but we have the most shocking artisans when it comes to producing results. Look at the so called managers In different spheres of Government, most can’t even produce convincing reports. Bendulo can back up his work with results. It’s a lesson to university graduates, your education must produce solutions to world problems don’t be satisfied by a piece of paper that might turn absolete… Read more »