DPP’s Chaponda speaks out: Smear campaign fails, truth has come out

May 18, 2018 Chancy Namazunda - Nyasa Times 50 Comments

Malawi’s Former Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda has spoken out for the first time  after being acquitted by the Zomba Magistrate Court in corruption-related charges regarding the 2017 maize procurement deal from Zambia, saying he has been vindicated that there was no case at all to answer.

Malawi’s former agricutulre minister Chaponda set free after found he had no case to answer in corruption-related charges regarding the 2017 maize procurement deal from Zambia.

Chaponda was found with no case to answer on Friday by Chief resident magistrate (CRM) Paul Chiotcha who also acquitted Rashid Tayub, one of the directors of Transglobe Produce Export Limited, after trashing the State’s evidence in its totality.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Nyasa Times soon  after the ruling, Chaponda said his vindication comes following his insistence that everything was done in the best interest of the people in view of the dire food situation we faced.

“Unfortunately, this matter was greatly politicized and the facts were twisted as part of a systematic and vicious smear campaign against me. Notwithstanding the attempts to tarnish my name, I am grateful that the truth has come out today.

“The court has shown without a shadow of doubt that there was no legitimate case against me. In fact, there was never a case even though ACB looked under every bush and every rock, they found nothing because there was nothing to hide.” he told Nyasa Times .

He added that he has absolutely nothing to hide and they also know it even though ACB tried to distort the truth and to mislead the public.

He further expressed his gratitude to President  Peter Mutharika for allowing him continue serving the ruling party at top level.

Chaponda is Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president for the South.

“I am happy and grateful that the  President allowed me to continue serving the DPP and I will continue to do so to the best of my ability. It is important that we always uphold the rule of law in this country.

“It is also important we base public discourse and reporting on proper information and on hard facts. Once again I thank the President and the DPP for their continued confidence in me and for allowing me to prove my innocence in the court. It has been a very difficult time for me and my family this past 14 months but we are strong and we have nothing to hide,” he said.

Chaponda was arrested on July 19 last year alongside Tayub, and Grace Mijiga Mhango, a businesswoman and also chairperson of the Grain Traders and Processors Association of Malawi (GTPA).

Malawi President Peter Mutharika in January ordered an investigation into a $34.5 million government maize order, after a Zambian opposition leader said he had seen documents showing Malawi had been charged $345 per ton for 100 000 tonnes of Zambian white maize worth $215 a ton.

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50 replies on “DPP’s Chaponda speaks out: Smear campaign fails, truth has come out”

  1. The real truth hasn’t come out yet Dr Chaponda. We have the ruth and will be laid to bare very soon especially at the trial that will follow with The Times. Linda madzi apite ndiye udziti ndadala. We are no longer in the paper world where one can just shred evidence and it disappears; we are in the digital world and some of us will side with The Times and reveal all the evidence available to build the case for Times. This time around the judges won’t be able to ignore the glaring evidence and will have no choice butbe transparent. Let the game begin Dr Chaponda and see whether indeed the truth and the whole truth is indeed in the open.

  2. The learned Magistrate misdirected himself by using the Evidence Beyond Reasonable test instead of using the Prema facie test at such an early stage of the case. Honestly, I submit that Dr Chaponda had a case to answer though the I am not saying he was guilty but he had a prema facie case to answer if one takes into account his behaviour before, during and after the alleged crime which to me constituted enough circumstancial evidence to warrant a case to answer verdict.

    1. God will punish all of us for castigating Chaponda based on allegations.He will also reward him bigly

  4. Shame!!! just found with that huge amount of money is enough to be prosecuted becoz you work in the public sector Mr Chaponda!!!
    One day the truth will come out!! GOD LOVES MALAWI

    1. O koluya, First of all its Dr. Chaponda not mister like your father or master,secondly he is not poor like yourself! mpikene???

  5. Chaponda should know the truth as it is. If he pretends not know, Malawians are confident enough that God knows! The coincidental gutting of his office leaves a lot to be desired!

    1. Vuto la anthu mumaona ngati Mulungu amasamala inu nokha. You think Chaponda alibe mulungu wake? uyu wake wazatheka bwanji!

  6. Chaponda wakupondaniti a nyapapi inu. Ntchito nsanje ndi kudana ndi mitundu ina basi. Ulesi thooo muli mbuuu kuzikanda. Ena ndi awa akuona ngati APM angadzaluze 2019. Mudzalira blood tears 2019. Chipani cha crocodile Party kuchigulitsa kwa Mia ndi a PP anzake ati chifukwa cha upmhawi. Lero ana a mnyumba ali pa mphepo kusowa chochita mulendo atalanda malo. Choncho nkumazikwata ndi chala mwati mungadzawine. No structures at grassroot level apart from central region ndiye muziti ndi inu national party?

  7. Mafia leaders and sh……..hole judiciary are flagship of a state undercapture! CRY MY BELOVED COUNTRY.

  9. This is a sign of the impartiality of courts. ACB challenge this judgement if you are indeed non political interference organ. Not challenging will show that you are being controlled by DPP

    1. Jesus told the gathering who geared themselves to stone the woman caught in adultery if you have never sinned before stone her. All went away meaning they had once sinned so all of you commenting against Chaponda seem to be holy but mind Jesus said do not judge for you shall be judged. what do i mean here? you prejudged chaponda as a wrong doer and was dragged to court where justice has prevailed and yet you don’t trust the courts. Surprisingly if somebody other thatn chaponda win a case you claim courts are independent and are doing a good job; you hypocrites! if you feel have capacity to judge other than our courts then set up your own courts to judge those that are innocent for the sake of pleasing jim and jack. Mind you God loves everybody a sinner and not a sinner. More importantly Jesus said he came to save the lost!! You are the very same people when IMF ceases aid to Malawi you make a lot of noise and if the same IMF applauds govt for managing the economy well you remain quiet, why? Inflation rate is at single digit you say nothing but when it was double digit noise all over. Is this the way Malawi should be like? Lets change our mindset ladies and gentlemen for this is our land. And all politicians are our children, brothers, sisters, cousins we shall be with them lets respect each other irrespective of our political differences. I rest my case and i love you all.

    2. Nankhumwa ndi Chilima ndi omwe adaotcha office ya Chaponda chifukwa they wanted to influence the outcome kuti anthu adzakwiye kuti Chaponda adasowetsa evidence.Ife tikukumbukira kuti nthawi yomwe office imapsa ACB inali itatenga chilichonse mu office ya bulldozer

  11. The crux of the matter is the claimants of unearthing the story , parliamentary joint commissione of enquiry amd ACB did not have knowledge of international trade. They did not realise that the k9 billion was coming from the difference in price between zcf and kaloswe/transglobe(private traders). In a nutshell, they dragged into Zambian politics by the opposition leader from whom they picked the the story. Now it will be Times Group’s turn to dance to Chaponda’s tune. Kamlepo and malunga should thank their parliamentary immunity .

    1. The evil Chidanti-Malunga hated Chaponda because he wanted to replace him as minister of agriculture.Pano wakwera ya Saulosi Chilima and they had a meeting last friday kunyumba kwa SAULOSI PLANNING THEIR COUP koma ana achepa!

  13. Malawi Judiciary too shameful and many countries talk about us this corruption is too much. Truly we need to abolish this arm of government because only the poor ones are sent to jail. It is very impossible the Tayubs and chapondas to be sent to prison because they have money to feed the entire Judiciary in Malawi. The country is so pathetic kulibe COURT LENI LENI

  15. NKHANI YA MA JUDGE NDI MA MAGISTRATE NDIYAUMVE KWAMBIRI NDIPO AMBUYE NGATI NDINUDI MULUNGU LANGANI ANTHU AMENEWA ND I MA BANJA AWO ONSE AKUZIWENI. IWO AKUWONA NGATI NDIWOCHENJERA PAMOZI NDI TIMALOYA TAOTO. ANTHU AKUBA OKHA OKHA NGATI INU AMBUYE KUMWAMBAKO KULIBE INE NDIYE WASIYENI CHONCHO INU MULUNGU MWALEPHERA CHIFUKWA IWOWA NDIWOPHUNZIRA KWAMBIRI KOPOSA INU MULUNGU NGATI MUWASIYA CHONCHO. MULUNGU MWALEPHERA

  16. I sorely agree with Upheriyo our judicial system is fake one and we need to abolish it because they only think of their bank accounts. The general public should know these magistrates and judges are too poor and yet they are given posh cars and many benefits using our tax payers money and in turn they fix us. Lawyers sit down with the judge privately kodi bwana mufunapo zingati, K40m okay chabwino I will tell my client he is very rich akupatsani bwana. But I want deposit before we start the case of K20m.and try to make noise for speedy of the case to be concluded fast. Judges and magistrates are busy doing this now and if you are poor dont take the case to any court in Malawi just surrender it to GOD

  17. Malawi has dual justice system; one for the poor and effective and the other for the wealthy and is very ineffective. All Malawi jails are full of poor people and no rich person (it cant be a coincidence). So people like Kaukonde, oMachemba, Morgan please apply your mind before posting comments. Whilst we are not judges or experts in law, but surely we have eyes to see that there’s corruption all over Malawi perpatrated by politicians and Dr Chaponda isnt innocent.

  18. Malawians you are hereby advised that dont fear to commit any form of offence in Malawi as long as you have good sums of money for the presiding judge or magistrate you will never be jailed. These guys they discuss with your lawyers behind and thereafter agree on the millions to share then you are set free. Even if you steal whatever amount of money dont spend it all rather reserve some for the judge. This arm of government so called judiciary is so rotten in Malawi. The judges are so thirsty for money to build up their mansions and send their children to schools abroad.

  20. Mtumbuka kudzagwanayo kachikena pamenepaja. After the shameful 50+1 also foiled in Parliament.

    Chaponda ndintunda winatu. Ana mwachepa. Bravo Chaponda.

    Watsala bakha joice banda naye akalowe.

    Tumbukas and PAC, and Kasakula of Times, and MCP, and CSOs you are a bunch of shameless failures, loosers, hypocrites. Why are you not talking of arresting joice banda despite all incriminating evidence that she was the chief cashgater?

  22. Chaponda should take Brian Banda and George Kasakula to court. These two think they have the right to insult people in their useless program called hot current. I knew it right from the beginning that there was no case but Kajoloweka nad his friends wanted us to believe otherwise. Chaponda should now fight to become Malawi president and I know he is a serious man and he will lock up all these corrupt people who are terrorising Malawi.

    1. How can somebody who works in the public office,,keep that large amount of money in the house? Are you really a person with senses and conscious?Just found with that money is a case!!!!

  23. The rules are simple take him to court but sabotage the case. Another problem there is no door for private prosecutors in Malawi. So Malawi is in another planet

  24. Reasonable Malawians were never in doubt about the spurious nature of the charges, Bwana. And those dogone NGOs, Pac, Times rag and their Kasakula: one wonders how they ever recon with the truth, in life. How they peddle false news and throw facts out the window, like zinyalala or garbage; perhaps without seriously considering possible blow back.
    Time to sue some of these, even to their personal bankruptcy.

  25. La chiforty lidzakwana bwana! Theres no secret under the sun, you may be in peace of mind now yet you have twisted the real truth, ZGOD IS NOT MULLI NOR MUTHARIKA, GOD IS NOT MALAWI COURTS WHERE THE POOR GETS PERSECUTED LIVING BIGGER THIEVES SCOTTING FREE. JUST WAIT A LITTLE BIT, LSNU LA CHIFOTE LAYANDIKIRA!

    1. There is God in heaven and he also loves Chaponda that he created him his image.God answer prayers.Today Chaponda has been freed and next is you, pray hard.

    1. Inu munaziwa bwanji kuti Chaponda anaotcha ma Office? Malawians are not fool.You tried to implicate chaponda koma zakanika.

  28. I think the issue is that we have useless prosecutors at ACB and combined with our corrupt judicial system, Malawians always get a raw deal in such high profile cases.

    Chaponda was found with millions of kwachas in his house which he claimed belonged to DPP, was he telling the truth? Apparently no, so why did he lie, what was he trying to hide?

    Of late he has been at the fore front campaigning for APM to stand again together with his accomplice the finance minister a mr Gondwe, the same Gondwe who issued a license to Chaponda to keep millions in foreign currency in his house whe the is is lacking enough import cover…….

    I think is indeed a moral responsibility for every patriotic Malawian to get lid of these three old men Chaponda Gondwe and APM out Malawian politics once and for all for the country to move forward .

    1. its unfortunate that people can not present their facts correctly in a court of law- our lawyers were not bright students when we were at primary and secondary school levels. most bright students persued engineering ,medicine, accounting- these left overs went for these useless courses that have put malawi in a failed state. President Trump calls our countries Shit hole countries.

    2. If you think this is unfair appeal and i challenge you Chaponda will win again.Everyone knows this was political.

  29. I gave a prophesy that chiponda will be freed and bounce back to front line politics. This will not be good for kondwani nankhumwa. Dr chaponda please thank God for protecting you. U seem to be more thankful to the president than God. Now go and give your tithe to God this month.

    1. IN MALAWI ANYONE CAN DO ANY FORM OF OFFENCE EVEN STEALING BILLIONS OF KWACHAS OR ANY CURRENCY BUT WHAT IS IMPORTANT MOSTLY IS NOT TO SPEND ALL OF IT. KEEP SOME MONEY FOR BOTH YOUR LAWYERS TO SHARE WITH JUDICIARY. MALAWIANS BE ADVISED THAT DONT FEAR ANY FORM OF OFFENCE IN MALAWI AS LONG AS YOU HAVE MONEY ENOUGH FOR THE JUDGE TO SHARE WITH YOUR LAWYERS THEN YOU ARE FREE.

    2. Please abolish Judiciary system in Malawi we are fed up with this arm of government its too USELESS

      1. Nankhumwa and Chilima are the big loosers of this outcome. Maizegate hoax was their own baby.

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