Malawi’s Platform for Investigative Journalism reports that “the man widely accused of orchestrating one of the most brazen corruption schemes in Malawi’s history is now officially in the dock” (here).
As the Continent recounts (here), British-Malawian businessman Zuneth Sattar was indicted June 2 in the United Kingdom on 18 counts of bribery. The charging documents claim that in return for a raft of state contracts he bribed numerous high-ranking Malawian officials. Named in the documents are: a previous Vice President, the late Saulos Chilima; President Lazarus Chakwera’s chief of staff, Prince Kapondamgaga; former Malawi Police Inspector General George Kainja; former Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General and Solicitor General Reyneck Matemba; and Brigadier Dan Kuwali, a law professor and commandant at the Malawi Defence Force College.
The charges show how critical transnational cooperation can be when it comes to nailing “big fish.” They are the result of a several year collaboration between the UK’s National Crime Agency and Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
The case also shows that cross-border cooperation is critical not only when it comes to rooting out the facts.
For, as it became clear that top aides to President Lazarus Chakwera were implicated, he went from supporting the investigation to, if not ordering, at least acquiescing in the arrest of the then-ACB Director General Martha Chizuma on trumped-up charges (here).
The case might have ended there but for another form of international cooperation. Chizuma’s arrest was swiftly and unanimously condemned by the Malawi’s diplomatic community. She was quickly released from jail, and the charges later dropped. (Close observers credit both the public efforts (here) and the back channel pressure then U.S. ambassador to Malawi David Young and his team brought to bear to secure her release and protect her from reprisal. One only hopes the policy of protecting corruption hunters like Chizuma will continue under the Trump Administration.)
Some reports claim Zuneth Sattar captured the Malawian state, or at least enough of it to rob the citizens of one of the world’s poorest states of millions year after year. The success in bringing him to the bar of justice underlines once more the indispensable role of transnational cooperation in ending such thievery.
