Senzani’s sentence should set tone for Malawi Cashgate thieves

Justice has been administered and through it the Malawian people have had their dish of revenge served cold with the sentencing of Treza Senzani Namathanfa, former Ministry of Tourism principal secretary, to three years imprisonment for stealing from poor taxpayers a whopping K63 million.

The trial of Senzani for theft and money laundering brought with it interesting developments top of which was her voluntary guilty plea thereby sparing the court the dreary nightmare of a lengthy process to arrive at the conviction.

We do not wish to discuss the merits and demerits of that action as she was entitled to it. Our position, on the other hand, is the wish and belief that Senzani’s short trial, her voluntary guilty plea and swift sentencing should set the tone of all other Cashgate trials currently raging in courts all over the country.

Through the Cashgate pilferage, Malawians were robbed by fellow Malawians with crooked minds resulting in lack of drugs in hospitals, school children still learning under trees and left general infrastructure in tatters, among the few evils of this national heist.

What hardworking and honest Malawians would desire is the return of this money to national Treasury apart from the fact that the perpetrators should spending some years behind bars where they would do some soul-searching and hopefully come back better individuals and not the greedy get-rich-quick type they currently are.

Only then would the damage have been minimized.

We, at Nyasa Times, believe the Senzani trial script is the one to follow and must set the tone for all Cashgate trials following in its footsteps for justice to quickly take its course.