..President reacts to rumours about his health, not state issues
..Jacob Hara’s OptCoin Accountancy belongs to Kamwangala
..a cartel that wanted all government business
123 days after the Vice President Saulos Chilima was killed in a plane crash and three weeks after the uncovering of illegal contracts worth over K1.5 trillion orchestrated by his own office- President Chakwera sees no need to react, act or even respond to Malawians but less than 24 hours of social media rumours of his health, he organized a parade, video and street push ups like a circus patron.
Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba seems to have been appointed by President Chakwera to manage looting and transfer of public funds in a shocking state capture that involved fake companies, accounts of the Presidents relations and embarrassing fake statements with wrong logos.
The President also shifted Sosten Gwengwe as Minister of Finance and moved Secretary to Treasury and Secretary for Transport to have people that could help in “state capture” as huge contracts- starting with fuel and fertlisers were to be given to the “fake Sheikh Ahmed Al Qassimi” and more using Hara and Zamba as coordinators.
The OPC has had an embarrassing childish cover up episode this week, when it produced a fake statement and forgot to copy the right eagle logo, confirming that the whole episode was an attempt to fleece public funds and The Investigator Magazine has been told that President Chakwera “will ignore” noise from opposition and civic groups asking for investigations and removal of Zamba.
“Zamba is not going anywhere, he won’t do anything. In short Malawians can think all they can about their leader, but he sees no wrong in what happened- attempt to defraud and deceive – the public,” said an advisor to the President.
But we had to find the reasons why the President will pretend the scandal has not happened. He is at the epicenter of the deal.
Chakwera’s relations accounts were to pocket K32 billion G.E.T fuel deal
The scandal, one of the lowest moral character for any political leader, exposed Transport Minister Jacob Hara’s letter to SPC Zamba which had a bank account number of a private company that K32 billion of public funds was supposed to be transferred to.
“Collect sales and all payments to OptiCoin Malawi, Standard Bank, City Centre Branch, Kwacha Account number 9100006975205,” wrote Hara in a letter dated 27 August 2024 addressed to the Board Chairperson of NOCMA who Zamba is.
The company registration shows that is owned by Clement Kamwangala, a direct relation of President Chakwera and husband to Evalitsa Kamwangala, a close associate of Zamba already mentioned by Helen Buluma as having been appointed by the SPC to receive “fuel contracts.”
The other partner is Stefan Grobler who is said to be owner of OptCoin Malawi but based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
“The Kamwangala’s come from Kasiya with the President, you should have known that the deal had the blessings of the President and in this case Jacob Hara and SPC Zamba are safe. They cant fires as the President is the one who can explain how the deal came about,” said a Chakwera associate.
This means that Hara and Zamba planned to transfer K32 billion to OptCoin to the Kamwangala’s whose accounts have been tracked to be cashed at Standard Bank in South Africa where they are based. The total 40,000 mt of fuel would translate to K64 billion paid in advance before delivery.
“The fact that the accounts belong to someone whose wife has already been mentioned on record as an associate of SPC Zamba that should send red flags that public money would be paid to a fake company, as G.E.T Global Ltd shows that is dormant,” explained an anti-fraud expert we consulted.
The Transport Ministry fuel deal is a London-registered company, G.E.T Global Ltd, a family business owned by Roy Miller and Jullie Miller since 2022 and is only valued at GBP2 (K6000) only.
Minister Hara’s letter, highly unusual for the political head of an MDA, appoints NOCMA as its agent to handle its fuel, and despite all the documents from the alleged Roy Miller of dormant G.E.T Global Ltd to him, he wants payment done in Malawi kwacha at an account of one OptCoin Malawi
But according to Senior government officials the Evalitsa-Zamba alliance was a proper state capture deal that was to change the entire government procurement.
Zamba, Hara and Eva’s state capture plan started in 2022
In December 2022, a trip termed as part of public service delivery unit tour which Zamba headed in the OPC, saw the Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Transport Minister Jacob Hara, Treasury, Energy and Transport officials visit the gulf and some Arab nations.
“The visit included the Kuwait Fund, Badea and other legitimate institutions until the team reached Dubai. They were informed that a certain “sheikh” will be meeting them, and meetings will take place,” said an official from OPC who has details of the trip.
Several people The Investigator Magazine spoke to said whilst reports of the other institutions were submitted, there was no Dubai report and all those that had travelled had remained tight lipped on what transpired in Dubai.
However, our search shows that in Dubai, the Malawi government team was joined by Evalister Kamwangala who was referred to as “Eva” by the SPC and was allowed to run the whole trip.
“Three people standout on this mission are Zamba, Hara and Eva. There was suggestion that Eva be honorary consul for Malawi in Dubai to hasten the deal. We are not sure if it was followed through,” said another source.
In Dubai officials stayed in hotels without any meetings and Hara was accommodated at a posh five-star hotel which was way beyond the Ministerial allowance normally around US$480 per day.
There was a talk of the Dubai team travelling to Malawi.
Fake Dubai team visited Malawi
Though there was no report from the Dubai leg of the tour officials in the Ministries of Energy, Transport and the Treasury and NOCMA received a two paged proposal that was worth billions of dollars of projects that would be covered under the agreement signed by SPC Zamba alone without any official witnessing it.
“Everyone who questioned the document or did not show interest were immediately removed from the Ministries, this was in preparation for something big that could capture every major government procurement,” said a source familiar with the matter.
A Dubai team visited Malawi and among the key projects it was supposed to support included Mzuzu Airport, major roads, fuel, fertilisers and energy contracts. These are the core procurement programmes with huge expenditure that would be allocated to this firm<” explained another.
The multitrillion dollar projects would require including local Malawians and some were found and also capital raised through sovereign guarantees.
Chakwera shifts Gwengwe to accommodate East Bridge, fake Sheikh deals
The extent of President Chakwera’s personal involvement and why he can’t institute a probe is that he directly removed all government officials that had expressed doubts of the so many deals State House and OPC were bringing, especially for Treasury to issue sovereign guarantees.
“This was at the time East Bridge was to get sovereign guarantees worth US$250 million, Nendongo through Auzamo about US$170 million and the Dubai deal was supposed to get more than US$1 billion. Treasury was discussing with IMF new programme, but Zamba wanted these done pronto. She told the President to move some people,” said a person familiar with the happenings between August and October 2023.
President Chakwera on 8 October 2023 while then Finance Minister Sosten Gwengwe was in Morrocco for an IMF programme could not wait for his return as the deal was very important to the presidency.
“The President moved Gwengwe for his saying he will cancel sovereign guarantees that had been questioned by every sane official in Treasury. He was seen as not capable of facilitating the state capture planned by Chakwera, Zamba and Hara.
“It was embarrassing in Morrocco that Malawi had two Finance Ministers, but the President seemed to be in hurry to have the right person in office. He could not wait for a few days for the meetings to end unless he wants to tell Malawians that Zamba shifted the Ministers without his knowledge,” explained a Treasury official.
Transport Secretary was replaced with one Hara could work with and deliver the “state capture” so too Secretary to the Treasury was “promoted back to where he came from” and junior officials in the Ministries were also given an exit.
The President facilitated and approved the changes Zamba wanted meaning had some whistleblower not leaked the documents, trillions of kwacha deals could have gone through, and money paid to companies owned by the Presidents relations.
Jesus would have wept over Chakwera, Zamba, Hara and Eva all professed pastors
The state capture facilitated President Chakwera and the other three is unique in the sense that while the President and Hara are ordained pastors- SPC Zamba poses as a “born again Christian” while her associate Evalister calls herself an “evangelist.”
“Jesus would have wept to see how people proclaiming to be his disciples can sit and plan day light looting of public finances and award themselves contracts through deception. The Sheikh is fake, the public caught OPC red handed trying to dupe them with a fake statement and the President has no shame to respond only to rumours about his health but fail to explain to Malawians how his office- the OPC tried to procure fuel and fertlisers from a fake entity,” charged an angry Pentecostal preacher who said the conduct of the President does not reflect any Christian values.
He said if Zamba and Hara were Christians they would have felt sorry for Malawians eating “chitedze” and try to lessen the impact of food shortages but not to enrich themselves.
“By appearing smiling with Zamba with her Nigerian prophet days after the scandal, the President is telling Malawians, go to hell. He needs to seriously do some soul searching if God can start answering his players,” said a senior official from Assemblies of God in Lilongwe.
Our next story: How MITC boss has been removed for defying Zamba’s orders