CARMEL RICKARD: Malawi’s war on corruption
Politically connected business leader Thomson Mpinganjira has been granted leave to appeal his conviction for corruption, and a nine-year sentence
Like SA and many other countries, Malawi has a problem with corruption. So, when it seemed that prominent, wealthy and politically connected business leader Thomson Mpinganjira might have tried to bribe the judges hearing a constitutional case about whether former president Peter Mutharika really did win a contentious election, the country’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) did everything it could to prosecute the matter.
Unsubstantiated claims of a bribable bench are as rife in Malawi as in SA, so the case — which seemed to show that those with money believed they could buy verdicts — was a sensation. It included the unusual sight of judges in the witness box: five of the six prosecution witnesses were judges who said they reported the attempted bribe to then chief justice Andrew Nyirenda, who in turn got the ACB involved...
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