Government has categorically denied allegations that it has new contract with businessman Zuneith Sattar, or any of his business associates, and has no plans of establishing any business dealings with the corruption suspect. The government also refuted claims that the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) is trailing journalist Gregory Gondwe who authored an article purportedly exposing that MDF had paid Zuneith Sattar with an aim to arrest him.
These remarks were made at a press briefing jointly organized by Moses Kunkuyu Kalonga Shaba, Minister of Information and that of Defence Hon Harry Mkandawire on Wednesday with an aim of demystifying allegations of continued government dealings with businessman Sattar.
The Information Minister stated that the payment that the government has approved is for goods that one of the companies belonging to Sattar had already supplied and that the same was already approved by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Kunkuyu simply meant there is no new contract as widely circulated.
The Minister of Information also dispelled rumours that MDF is hunting the controversial journalist, and revealed that government has been aware of Gregory Gondwe’s whereabouts even prior to his departure from the airport when leaving Malawi. According to Kunkuyu, had it been that MDF or government wanted to arrest Gregory Gondwe they would have easily done so or prevented him from leaving the country since they knew about his whereabouts.
An article by legal scholar Lord Denning exposes the legal gap that might have misled some journalists into believing that MDF’s payment was towards a new contract altogether and as such it translated to corruption. Denning states that the timeline of events is, to some journalists, evoking a thought that Government has entered a new contract with Sattar company, Malachitte FZE.
Denning further argued that it must be acknowledged that in order to understand matters of contract, one must have sufficient understanding of matter Contract Law. From Contract Law, you will understand something called Collateral Law.
According to Denning, while by the time Government was terminating all contracts with Sattar companies in line with section 46(b) of the PPDA Act the Malachitte FZE had already delivered some equipment to the Malawi Police Service and some to the MDF, it is understood that some equipment was yet to be delivered to the MDF. He stated that superficial understanding then would be that all other equipment that was not yet delivered faced the effect of the termination.