Bwande, a radio satire program which airs on MIJ FM Radio and is also shared widely through other platforms, has reprimanded Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) director Martha Chizuma of being slow in her operations and incompetent at her job.
Bwande says since Chizuma assumed office she has failed to expedite cases after initiating arrests on so many cases.
Using a skit around a lady named Mwandida who has been suspended from work and arrested for alleged corruption, Bwande points out at how the bureau is leaving everyone it arrests in suspense for a long time.
True to this, Chizuma’s ACB has arrested so many people since February 2021. To everyone’s surprise those arrests have not yielded anything as the suspects have not been taken to court after their successful bail application.
This tendency, Bwande argues, destroys livelihoods as people start suffering socially and economically even when they are innocent until proven guilty.
Most of the people that were arrested lost their jobs or were suspended waiting for the courts to clear them through a judicial process.
Bwande’s take has over the past months been shared by other quarters as well.
Others that have spoken on the same include governance experts Humphreys Mvula, Unandi Banda of National Electoral Systems Trust (Nest) and legal experts Kamudoni Nyasulu.
Other reasons attributed to Chizuma’s incompetence are to do with her failure to work in coordination with other state agencies in the fight against corruption. These include offices of Attorney General, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Malawi Police, Malawi Revenue Authority and Financial Intelligence Authority.