Days after Religious Leaders in Malawi Call for Cabinet Reshuffle, President Takes Action

He explained that the decision to exclude Mr. Msukwa from the Cabinet to be reconfigured was made following the receipt of an official Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) report on the charges the Minister is facing.

President Chakwera is also said to have given a stern warning to ACB Director, Martha Chizuma for making public revelations about a high-level corruption in a phone conversation. Details of the graft case were leaked to the public.

In his January 24 national address, the Malawian Head of State confirmed that the leaked conversation by ACB boss, Ms. Chizuma, is authentic and constitutes misconduct on her part. 

The President, however, announced that he will retain Ms. Chizuma at ACB and monitor her progress. 

“I have determined that the best thing to do in this instance is to keep a watchful eye on her general conduct of the bureau's affairs in order to ensure that there are no other incidents of concern about her fitness for office going forward,” he said.

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Ms. Chizuma allegedly told a friend that judges and magistrates in Malawi have been receiving bribes in a leaked phone conversation. 

She reportedly said that a case that her office is currently working on will not be won in the courts alone but through public pressure because “the judge has already been bribed. We knew before going to court; the case was on Friday but we knew by Wednesday that something was wrong.” 

Last week, Catholic Bishops in Malawi called on the government to beef up the security of Ms. Chizuma and all ACB employees after a politician accused the Anti-Corruption officials of allowing foreign agencies to dictate its operations in the prosecution of a British businessman.

“We appeal to the Head of State, Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera, the Vice President, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima and all relevant State institutions and their Heads to ensure the security of the ACB staff; especially the Director General,” members of the Episcopal Conference of Malawi (ECM) said in their January 19 statement.

ECM members added that no Malawian “should be pressurized, intimidated or influenced by threats or any other means in the carrying out of their work for the good of the country.”