Kumpukwe denies role in PP-DPP alliance talks: JB’s sisters says ‘God forbid’

Former president Joyce Banda’s sister, Cecilia Kumpukwe, has categorically denied that she had been involved in discussion with the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for a possible parliamentary alliance with the opposition People’s Party (PP).

Kumpukwe took to social media when she posted on her Facebook page to deny that she facilitated the meeting of PP legislators with President Peter Mutharika at Kamuzu Palace.

“I am not part of the negotiations,” she said.

Kumpukwe said she is not meeting any DPP official and was not party to the PP meetings with the governing party on the possible alliance.

She said is a victim of DPP political persercution together with her sister, the former president.

Kumpukwe is currently in bail following her arrest earlier this year as government accused her of online rumour-mongering at the expense of the vice-president, Dr Saulos Chilima.

Kumpukwe is accused to have allegedly authoring a letter purporting the resignation of vice president Chilima.

The allegations remain unsubstantiated but nonetheless she has to report to the police every Tuesday and her passport has been withdrawn by the government, stranding her in Malawi and preventing travel to South Africa for important medical treatment.

PP vice president Kamlepo Kalua disclosed that the party legislator went to plead with the President to ensure former president Banda should be allowed to return home and not be arrested.

Banda, fondly addressed as JB by her followers, is founder and president of PP and has been living abroad since losing the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections.

Malawi police issued an arrest warrant JB in connection with the country’s “Cashgate” corruption scandal, which involved large-scale looting of government coffers.

The national police spokesman James Kadadzera said Banda is “suspected of abusing her office” in the Cashgate scandal.

But Banda’s aides claim she is not seeking amnesty from arrest, rejecting any wrong doing in Cashgate.

Cashgate is the biggest financial scandal in Malawi’s history and helped push Banda out of power in 2014.

That came after she ordered an audit the previous year which discovered that $30 million had been looted by officials in less than six months in 2013.

Dozens of civil servants, business people and politicians have since been implicated in the scam, and some have been jailed.

International donors pulled the plug on aid of around $150 million over the scandal.