Martha Chizuma left the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) yesterday as the organisation’s director general (DG). She did not renew the contract. In this article I argue that President Lazarus Chawera’s plan to hire Chizuma in his efforts to fight graft in the country was a good move. But unfortunately he abandoned the campaign a few months down the line. There was no execution of the well-meaning plan. So, it is a misnomer to talk about how well Chizuma performed as DG at ACB. The system clipped her wings so the bird could not fly and the whole thing became a poisoned chalice.
It is not speculation that President Lazarus Chakwera appointed Chizuma as ACB DG with good intentions. She was appointed from a list of three best candidates that the selection team submitted to the President. Her name was then submitted to the Public Appointments Committee of Parliament (PAC) to confirm the appointment. But the committee initially rejected her, which to me, was the first tell-tale sign that some people were clearly not comfortable with this fearless legal bulldozer heading the country’s graft-busting body.
But there was a public outcry against her rejection. And in his State of the Nation Address, Chakwera added his weight to the public’s outcry describing PAC’s stand as being based on personal and political interests and against the spirit of fighting graft in the country.
It is worth noting that the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) protested the re-tabling of the motion for PAC to reconsider its position on Chizuma. But her stellar performance as Ombudsman made her a public favourite. PAC, therefore, had no choice but to confirm Chizuma.
It can be surmised without fear of contradiction that her rejection was motivated by the fact that while serving as Ombudsman, Chizuma riled many senior public servants. Among other things, she ordered senior technocrats at the Office of the President and Cabinet, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture to issue an apology for their handling of a $50 million loan from an Indian bank to procure tractors for rural farmers. She also investigated how State machinery abused Covid-19 funds as well as the unprocedural recruitments of top executives in various State agencies including the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority.
All seemed to be well between Chizuma and President Chakwera with the latter, as of November 26 2021, declaring that he fully supported her crusade against corruption in the country.
Then boom!! On January 2022, a corruption scandal emerged. A UK-based businessman, Zuneth Sattar, was accused of allegedly bribing several government officials in order to obtain hefty contracts in Malawi government. Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and ACB had launched an investigation into Sattar’s alleged State capture. ACB arrested one Cabinet minister, Kezzie Msukwa in connection with the alleged bribes.
Chakwera had previously fired two Cabinet ministers who were embroiled in graft or abuse of office. But this time around, he failed to fire Msukwa from Cabinet prompting angry rebuke from influential actors, the church and members of the public.
Relenting, Chakwera, soon after dissolved Cabinet and he also concurrently launched a scathing attack on Chizuma for allegedly breaking her oath of office. This was to do with a recording in which Chizuma was heard commenting on issues surrounding the Sattar investigation with an unknown third party, was in circulation.
She had been duped.
Not only was the attack on Chizuma a foreboding of her troubled stay for the rest of her days at ACB, but more malignantly, it oiled the undercurrents against her by the army of those who never wanted her anywhere near the graft-busting body in the first place. But be that as it may, Chakwera who had now fired Msukwa from Cabinet, retained Chizuma as the ACB boss.
On December 6 2022, police arrested Chizuma over the leaked audio recorded in January 2022. Invading her house at 3:00 am in a Swat-style raid, police whisked her to Namitete where, among other things, she was ordered to kneel down during the morning’s roll call. It is obvious the police were only carrying orders from some higher mortals.
All Chizuma’s adversaries were now firing on all cylinders in a war of paralysis and annihilation with the express aim of not only frustrating her but also getting her out of ACB as soon as yesterday. The message could not have been clearer to anyone who had been following the goings-on in the fight against corruption in the country. The system and the powers that be were telling Chizuma that the Sattar issue was a death-dealing explosive she better not dare touch.
Who was Chizuma to fight the whole system? At one point she admitted not being fully supported in the campaign. Indeed she was both not supported and protected.
maSo, if you ask me how Chizuma faired at the ACB, I would say the system abandoned the project for which she was hired. It also made no pretence it wanted to make her and ACB succeed in leading the fight against corruption in the country. There is a saying that ‘who comes to equity must come with clean hands’.
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