Chaponda arrives Wednesday, appears before maizegate inquiry Friday

Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development Minister George Chaponda who sneaked to Germany on official duties despite a court order restraining him from conducting official assignments will return home this Wednesday and is scheduled to appear before  a parliamentary inquiry on maizegate on Friday.

Chaponda is expected to jet through Kamuzu International Airport  in Lilongwe on a South African Airways flight at 2pm.

Representatives of civil society organisations that sought an injunction to stop the minister from working, said they would move the courts on the purported contempt of court.

Attorney General Kalekeni Kaphale said in a contempt of court case,  it is an individual who is prosecuted and in this case it will be Chaponda  dragged to court

Law professor Danwood Chirwa who is  based at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said Chaponda must be prosecuted if he is proven to have conducted government business, saying hus  behaviour is “worrying for the rule of law and constitutionalism .”

German Ambassador to Jurgen Borsch confirmed Chaponda was invited by the German government through the German Minister of Agriculture in December for a conference in Berlin.

Government spokesman Nicholas Dausi, who is also Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Presidential spokesman Mgeme Kalilani have all refused to speak on the matter.

Meanwhile, parliamentary inquiry on the procurement of maize say they  expect to grill Chaponda on Friday.

Two committees of Parliament—the Public Accounts Committee and the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development—are conducting an inquiry into the procurement of maize by State grain marketer – Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc) – to establish whether there was an element of fraud and corruption in the deal.

Chairman of the inquiry Dr Jospeh Chidanti Malunga said Chaponda has been invited to appear before the inquiry on Friday.

Chaponda and Admarc CEO Foster Mulumbe are grilled on  corruption element in the procurement of maize.

Both Chaponda and Mulumbe denies any wrong doing.

The Parliamentary Agriculture Committee and the Public Accounts Committee which forms the parliamentary inquiry finishes its job this Friday.