…USA informed him of bans, complicity
…US$300,000 paid for his accommodation, use in the USA
President Lazarus Chakwera has now placed himself between a hard place and a rock as he has to decide if he will still travel to a country he has just told Malawians that is “drug-infested, Police killing black people, racist and heaven for criminality with every 5 seconds a crime being committed.”
The President is scheduled to attend the US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas, Texas, which will take place from the 6th to 9th of May, and a flyer for the conference shows him as a confirmed alongside Presidents of Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Liberia, and Togo.
Credible Capital Hill sources have informed the Investigator Magazine that US$300 000 (about K700 million) was remitted to the Malawi Embassy in Washington DC to prepare for the president’s travel, and the payment caused a huge blackhole on thin cash flow, resulting in a delay in March salaries for some public workers.
“Everyone who is involved in his trip must have been very shocked with the Presidents reaction. He was attacking the very same country he is set to travel in less than two weeks. The most dignified way to save his face would be to cancel the trip and show that he is protesting the USA travel bans on the four officials,” said a Capital Hill source.
Foreign Affairs sources also confirmed that they have been helping to issue official notes backing visa applications for some State House and Government officials.
The US Embassy in Malawi told local paper Malawi News that it acted based on credible evidence about the four former public procurement, justice, and police officials from 2020 to 2022 which is after the President took office.
“The USA ban is pointed. The President’s reaction, for a man who hides when things happen, this shows has hit him below the belt. Others claim he was informed of his complicity in the case, other claim he knows the evidence the Americans hold points at him, that’s why he acted so fast. This was very fast for a man who can’t reshuffle his cabinet for 15 months despite its underperformance. The story is yet to be told,” said The Investigator Magazine political analyst.
“The anger, the tone and the claims, shows President Chakwera knows more than we are being told or what is coming,” said another source.
The President who speaks with a Texan American accent has travelled to the USA at least twice every year, with the longer stay being the United Nations General Assembly and his below-standard-undiplomatic outbursts puts him in awkward position in his future engagements with the USA.
The President shocked even his supporters when he declared that Malawi has a better anti-corruption and judicial set up than the USA.
Some sources indicate that some of his immediate family members are set to relocate to the USA this summer with some of his grandchildren picking up places in American schools. Other reports indicate some property purchases in Maryland by his closest associates.
“The United States stands with Malawians working towards a mnyore just and prosperous nation by promoting accountability for corrupt officials, including advocating for transparency and accountability in government procurement processes” a statement posted on US mission website said on Wednesday.
The statement continued, “These designations reaffirm the United States commitment to counter corruption, which stifles economic growth and development, hinders investment, and erodes trust in government.”
The banned are Former Secretary for Justice Reyneck Matemba and his wife Rhoda Violet Matemba Maxwell, former Inspector General of Police George Kainja and his wife Jaqueline de Silva Kainja, for Director of Public Procurement John Suzi Banda and his wife Mariana Ismael Suzi Banda and former Malawi Police Service legal head Mwabi Kaluwa and his partner Bernadette Mwangosi.
On Friday the President while opening an Agricultural Investment fair in Lilongwe, spent half of his 19-minute speech to rebuke the USA for the ban, saying the Americans were being buoyed by Malawians who spread negative information about the country.
“When I heard of the ban of the four as being the worst thieves, I nearly chocked with laughter. USA has the highest gun violence. High drugs related crimes. High rates of illegal immigration. Has highest cases of racism against black people. USA Police kill black people and at least 10 million crimes are committed every year, something every 5 seconds there is a crime,” Chakwera told the audience using Chichewa vernacular.
