MALAWI LEADER FACES CORRUPTION SCANDAL

0
77
President Mutharika of Malawi

Malawian President, Peter Mutharika, is facing corruption scandal ahead of next year’s election after a leaked report from the country’s anti-graft body allegedly accused him of fraud. Civil action groups called for Mutharika to resign over claims that he and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) received about $195,000 from a contractor supplying food rations to Malawi police.
The Civil Service Organisations Action Group says if the President does not resign after 14 days it will call out its members to the streets in protest. However, Mutharika’s spokesman insisted that the president had done nothing wrong after the leaked report by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, ACB, was published in newspapers at the weekend.
The Director of ACB, Reyneck Matemba, confirmed it was probing the contract over police food but declined to give further details. Malawi will hold presidential and parliamentary elections in May 2019.
Mutharika was elected in 2014 after his predecessor, Joyce Banda, was embroiled in the “Cashgate” scandal when government officials siphoned off millions of dollars of public money. Mrs. Banda returned to Malawi last April after four years of self-imposed exile and said she was ready to run in the elections against Mutharika.
It will be recalled that at her return, thousands of Malawians took part in the country’s first nationwide anti-government demonstrations since 2011. The marches, organised by civil action groups, were meant to draw attention to the alleged corruption and poor governance under Mutharika.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here