MP says govt sold Lake Malawi to Mota Engil

Malawi Parliament was nearly thrown in turmoil on Monday afternoon after Mzimba West MP Harry Mkandawire claimed the government has sold Lake Malawi to Mota Engil, a Portuguese construction company with close links to the President Peter Mutharika family.

Mkandawire said he had evidence to show that the government of Malawi had given a 40 year concession to run the affairs of Lake Malawi.

The legislators were debating on a Land bill.

Cabinet ministers, including Leader of the House George Chaponda, Chief whip Henry Mussa and Information minister Patricia Kaliati were on their feet, refuting the allegations as unfounded and baseless.

A report which Mkandawire presented to the House recently showed that former president Bingu wa Mutharika had a cut of 10 per cent as commission on the company’s lucrative government contracts, a claim denied by the government of Peter Mutharika, brother to the late president.

However,  the determined but soft spoken Mkandawire, said he had all the documentation and evidence to prove his point to which Speaker Richard Msowoya asked him to bring all the evidence on Tuesday.

However, opposition members of parliament, who included Zomba Changalume MP John Chikalimba and Dedza east MP Juliana Lunguzi wondered why the senior cabinet ministers were fast to defend Mota Engil when the parliamentarians also attacked Crown for taking a chunk of land along the M1 Road between Zalewa and Chingeni turn offs.

There was total silence from the government side.

The legislators said it was sad that most of productive land is in the hands of Asians and Burundians among others who corruptly acquire it from corrupt officials from the Lands ministry.

Mota Engil made separate cheque payments to the late president wa Mutharika personal accounts at some commercial banks from as low as K1 million (about $4 000) to as high as K10 million (about $40 000) at a time.

Among others, Mota-Engil made the cheque deposits into the late president’s personal bank account number 0140001886701 at Capital City Branch of Standard Bank.

One cheque worth K10 million was deposited into Mutharika’s Standard Bank account number 0140001886701 on March 3 2010.

On the deposit slip, the depositor only identified himself as Mota-Engil, but the signature is the same as the one on an FMB cheque number 9480 belonging to Mota-Engil.  The other signature on the three cheques is for managing director Antonmarco Zorzi.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.

The other two cheques are numbered 12570 (worth K2.5 million) and 12571 (worth K1 million). These cheques were written on March 24 2011.