Bophani arrested in Malawi cashgate crackdown

October 22, 2014 Hudson Mphande - Nyasa Times 70 Comments

As earlier reported by Nyasa Times that former  Deputy Inspector General of Malawi Police Nelson Bophan was marked for an arrest,  Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday arrested hm on ‘cashgate’-related charges.

Bophani: Arrested
Bophani: Arrested

Bophani was also chairing the Investigation Committee , a multi-agency special unit that initiated the probe on the  “cashgate” scandal, a systematic looting of public money.

There has not been an official confirmation of Baphani’s arrest  but a team of journalists that camped at at Lilongwe Police Station till late in the evening saw a convoy of police vehicles drive into the yard with an unidentified man, who sources later confirmed that it was Bophani.

Sources say that senior police officers reportedly first looked for Bophani at his residence in Chinsapo before they arrested him at his home village at Nathenje along the Blantyre-Lilongwe M1 Road.

Over 70 civil servants and businessmen are currently in court answering ‘cashgate’ charges ranging from theft, theft by public officers to possession of  property suspected of having been stolen, fraud and money laundering.

Former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Theresa Senzani was first to be convicted in ‘cashgate’-related charges. She is now serving a three-year jail term.

On Friday an Accounts Assistant in the Ministry of Energy, Mining and Natural Resources, Victor Sithole, was also convicted in the ‘cashgate’-related charges but he is yet to be sentenced.

An independent report into the scandal by Baker Tilly, a British accountancy firm, describes the scale of the theft and how it operated.

Drawing on a sample of 501 suspicious transactions between April and September, the auditors found that around 6.1 billion kwacha ($14.5m) had been paid out to 16 companies for services that had not been supplied.

Payments with no further documents accounted for a further 4 billion kwacha. The bean-counters also found that supply contracts had been inflated by 3.6 billion kwacha.

All told, K13 billion went missing during the Joyce Banda reign from April 2012. Probably another K90 billion went missing over the eight years of the presidency of the late Bingu wa Mutharika.

In total, about 30 per cent of the country’s budget could have been looted over a decade – almost as much as donors have provided Malawi over the same period.

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70 replies on “Bophani arrested in Malawi cashgate crackdown”

  2. Keep on arresting them-shameless thieves of the centuary.These are the thieving baboons who have made Malawi poorer despite so much financial aid trickling in. Please don’t forget to squeeze their balls once convicted .

  3. Keep on arresting them-shameless thieves of the centuary.These are the thieving baboons who have made Malawi poorer despite so much financial aid. Trickling in. Please don’t forget to squeeze their balls once convicted .

  11. I believe Bophani is paying for being an obedient servant during the arrest of the Midnight Six and the treason arrest for the latter.

    Citizen

  12. How can MCP be clean??? Mwaiwala NDUNA zitatu ndi PHUNGU wa ku Chikwawa munapha uja???Chipani chakupha ndi chakuba WHICH IS BETTER?????

  19. Arrest and take them to gallows,no mercy,poor country and yet thieves,amangeni pliz,kumangotinamiza basi,anthu oipa

  20. Koma ndalamazo abweze anthu osauka kumasonkha msonkho koma ndalamazake nkumagawana mulungu wakuyikani poyera mumabisala mmbatata pamsana paonekera

  23. Mbamva zimenezi osazisekerera olo pang’ono timamva kuwawa misonkho mukamatidula nde tisamve zoti mwawatayaaa!!

  24. To Mapasa!!!!
    You are too dull indeed. Mphwiyo , Kasambara, Lutepo, Manondo, Bophani etc cant win this case, no matter what.

  27. Anayamba kuba kale uyu,ndalama za Mec za ma officers anaba kumufunsa kumaopseza anthu chifukwa cha rank.Chimangeni chakuba ichi,icho chimaoneka ngati cha polisi chotentha mutu uku chikuba.

  30. WAPOLISI ALI MMBUYOYO AKUKHALA NGATI AKUMUOPA BOPHANIYO BWANJI!!!??…PANOTU BOPHANI NDI MBALA YANDALAMA ZA NKHANINKHANI OSATINSO WAULEMU WAKE UJA….NKWIDZINGENI KOMANSO MUKAMUPONYE KWA AKAIDI OTOPA AKAMMENYE MATHANYULA GALU AMENEYO. DOLAR PANO INGOKWELA ,MANKHWALA NZIPATALA MULIBE KAMBA KA MBALA ZOOPSYA ZIMENEZI. HAVE NO MERCY APM. PLEASE LET THEM FEEL AS BAD AS WEARE FEELING….

  32. bophani was appointed chair of cashgate investigations committee by amayi. surely and slowly i have started believing that abiti mchila knows something about cashgate. another thing, she refused to return the vehicles donated by loot epo and she was also busy praising and protecting mphwiyo to the extent of announcing that she knew those who shot mphwiyo. can all this be a coincidence????????????????????

  33. Don’t forget“ after this 13 billion, Germany will start 92 Billion, no-one is safe here, DPP your next turn is around the corner. you should not rough PP, but MCP still remain the clean Party.

  34. Bopani ana nama to the Public accounts committee of parliament kuti he was just passing through Jo’burg and just happened to meet Paul Mphwiyo while he had been sent to go and pick him

  36. Amene ukuti 92 akamufuse mtila naziphwisi chifukwa chimene samayambisa mlandu ankangokhalira kutokota. Akakhala uyu Bophani amangidwe ndiposo malo amene anapeza ku Zomba ku Old Naisi chifukwa cha ndalama ya cashgate mothandizidwa ndi DC wa nthawi ya mayi uja tilanda

  37. if and IF indeed found guilty, was the Investigation Committee to probe into the cashgate just to cover face? to push the real cashgaters/esses under the carpet?
    What does this say about these public appointments at the higher level? for the good of the cause? sha!

    Tiye nazoni ..we are here to see and here….

  38. They say names can dictate a life style, I guess this is a full proof. For those who are not profiecient in Zulu, Bophani = Mangani .

  39. This is a sign of good political will to deal with the cashgate issues. It must be appreciated very much that the next on the queue is Brown Mpinganjira before capturing the big ….at the airport from where one may be.

  40. kodi inu a ACB muli busy kumanga anthu apa ifenso tibwela konko tidzamange anthu a ku ACB inu kumeneko muli busy kusowetsa ma docket a kalonga muli busy kupanga fire anthu kwanuko.

    Yanu ifika osadanda

  42. TO THE MALAWI GOVERNMENT///////. But why cant you release the whole list of the Cashgaters? for all to see, We are becoming worried now with the personalities being arrested at the moment, they seem to belong to one political camp, but I believe that if the whole list from the Billy Ticker auditors was shown in the Open, it could have been fare for all to see for oneself.
    Any way were are here to see how it goes and don’t think that if you spare some one out there it will work, it wont work for you.

  43. If you analyse how much was lost through cashgate you clearly notice Quota System of cashgating with the North taking a slice of the rooting & plundering of government money. Well good Malawians take keen interest in this issue because Muluzi, Bingu, JB & Peter are one & the same people very dirty politicians; 1.7 billion, 92 billion, 13 billion & within 92 billion plus MHC houses respectively. Don’t lose focus or else the cashgate money will be cashgated by DPP. Mark my words. Don’t applaud a devil before he repents.

  44. ACB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! one is defrauding MRA in Millions daily.Publish your numbers pliz.

  45. Azathu inu ukundiye kupha nthawi Anduna alikuti, nanga 92b zilipati izi ndiye ndale zabodza apa palibe chilipo

    1. za 92 billion ukanamfunsa mako uja amasunga siwa uja, anakanika kutulutsa mlandu that means palibe umboni. Tiyeni tione za lero iwowo nthawi anali nayo koma kuthamangila kuba basi kuyiwala kumanga anzawo.

  46. is his not the same guy who helped shiraz zeka and his alies to cash huge amount of cheqs from the banks, now please ACB arrest Zeka and his team to pay back the stolen money

  47. Kumachimo Satana amakuperekeza nkumaku sangalatsa.He makes the idea very attractive. After comitting the crime amakuthawa nkumakusekanso. Alone in prison. Just reveal the true and it will set you free from grip of Satan.

  49. JUdges, please work around the clock. Convict these thugs! We want to recover our money and also win donors confidence!! ACB go go go! You have money to move around, arrest all the thugs

  50. Moyo uli ngati perete akati about turn wotsogola amakhala womaliza. So watch out politicians and everybody closer to that bcoz of connections.

  52. Foolish people wake up. When did any government work the truth . The only truth their are working on is revenge on a former corrupt leader before them. It will play its card right to get who they want. Wether its a white man a Asian or a local. No one is safe if the government wants to pull you down it has all the authority to pull anyone’s pants down for abit of a show till you scream out “JB! JB! JB!” . Everyone can see the writing on the wall the big fish will only get caught if she’s in our lakes not in the Atlantic ocean.We are going to another level of corruption once the dust settles and all the foreign aid is pumped but only this time to a bigger more secretive level I call it the ” British Level” .

    All the cash gate suspects in court all who have not featured will all breathe a sigh of relief the minute the donors release aid then they can all start their crap all over again.

  53. Heh nanunso o Dama Duncan Phoya? Mmakhethula nawo?
    Chaka chino kunja kuno tikhalapo
    onthufe? Ha mishilo iyi.

  55. Guys this is a big lesson to everyone . We need to save our resources for a fast developmental pace. From the highest ranking bosses to the lowest labourers, from the most educated to the least educated, let us work with integrity and objectivity. Don’t steal, cheat, or get involved in any corrupt activities. Soon we will witness our country turn into a South Korea of Africa.

  56. Osakhalira matako 90 billion ya nthawi ya DPP. Ndalama zathu tikuzifuna zigwire ntchito za chitukuko cha dziko lonse osati pa banja panu pokhapo ayi shitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

  58. Ok, ameneyu ndiye Bophani?? Ndakhala ndikuva zambiri za munthu ameneyu nthawi ya Joyce Banda. Munthu wake ndi ameneyu kani?? Now it’s Mr Lot Dzozi’s turn to laugh, for it is said , “he who laughs last, laughs longest!!!!” Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Nnnnnn

  60. AT LAST we have some slightly bigger fish in the net! My guess is that the ACB is being allowed to operate more freely than it is usually allowed to do by greedy Presidents of Malawi. Full marks to Justice Minister Tembenu, Reyneck Matemba of the ACB, and to the President himself!!
    This would never have happened under Joyce Banda (whose PP now seems heavily involved in Cashgate) or Bingu who never let ACB work independently.
    I have some hopes for Malawi, after many years of despair!!

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