2014 Amazed Them

Post was last updated: January 20, 2020

The taxpayer has always thought Paul Mphwiyo was part of the scam. It was always irritating when the former president made him look a lamb struggling to fight off angry wolves. It was interesting listening to some international media reports that sympathised with our hero’s efforts in fighting high level corruption. We always laughed our lungs out as we all waited for time to unveil the inglorious bastard. It did in October 2014 and, in November again.

With Oswald Lutepo in the cooler too, there should be a mermaid trembling at the bottom of some sea we always thought. Lutepo’s insanity always disappointed the expectant taxpayers. He had to be declared unreliable at some point. Remember the man had been buying gifts to some political party? That’s just nothing before the party’s own plea in court later to sell these allegedly fraudulently-purchased buses though. It sounds too fake to be real: evidence, to be sold away?

And oh, just days before Lutepo found himself drowning in deep oceanic waters; some local paper had reported that he was in the course of registering an airline company, or whatever they call it. The man is damn rich people. He can buy lawyers the Bakili Muluzi way.
Look, some had lost hope. They never thought we would at some point be talking of Saint Paul’s arrest. Not just that; the sentencing of a former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism Treza Senzani brought some little light: Sithole’s nine years too. They thought Cashgate would experience some tragic end as the 1994 presidential election winner’s embezzlement case a decade later. Didn’t people talk of political will in pursuing such cases?

The Anti-Corruption Bureau appears to have come out with sharp iron canines this time around. The Director of Public Officers’ Declarations Christopher Tukula was arrested too, and got bail later. I only heard about him once in the thick of things some months back. They said he had grabbed an injunction from the Mzuzu High Court halting an approaching ACB arrest warrant. The next time we heard of him was the appointment that made him known to many. But this is not important. I don’t even understand the charges levelled against him but some, a lot, understand.

Oh, they say he was interfering with Cashgate cases. No man, these aren’t cases to interfere with! I haven’t looked into the details. You know how it hurts to read through woes of a brother. I know they are lying though; and I’m pretty sure lawyer Ralphael Kasambara will make them pay. This man though! I can never forget how he sent back police to draft a new arrest warrant after they wrongly addressed him as Ralph. The guy is Ralphael men. I’ve forgotten what the case was, but I heard he later filed for a request that then president Dr Joyce Banda be his witness!

How the former president’s name pops up at the mention of the looting cases leaves the taxpayer with no option: she must be the quake’s focus. Did we all not hear her tell the public she knew who shot Paul Mphwiyo? And she once publicly said cashgate beneficiaries had no case to answer anywhere on earth: woe to the benefactor. She also sought an injunction mounting barricades against any mobile service provider from releasing details of her phone calls for some period as per Lutepo’s court plea. I understand her on this one though: it infringes on her right to privacy.

Suppose these calls included those made in the restless voting period, considering the drama that besieged the elections, aren’t there chances we would all get to know of some call between a then sitting president and some retired army generals? I’m exaggerating, this is not Mali, nor Guinea, any of the neighbouring Guineas, nor Mauritania; but she has the right to privacy most definitely.

But, of late, we have gone through unbearable pain pertaining to the sentences that are being served in the judiciary’s dish. Dozens of millions of plundered money and all a culprit gets is three years! Oh, Sithole got nine on his back. Maybe we don’t understand these things, and who wants to find himself on the battlefront repelling long range ballistic missiles of the judicial system on earth? You’ll definitely lose, and spend the rest of your miserable life in jail complaining to smelly walls. We better go for anger management classes: the earlier the better.

So, we are thinking if over 60 million kwacha of plundered money lands you not more than three years in jail, the mermaid should be somewhere rejoicing. That’s good news. Billions won’t land you over a hundred years in jail as we hear is sometimes the case in American money-laundering cases. Don’t ask me specifics, I don’t remember any, and I’m not so sure if the cases here mount to the act of laundering. Alvaro López Tardón got 150 years in Miami just last September. Relax, he laundered drug money.
Laugh off the poor logic too: it’s merely the noise people advise us to leave out of arguments.

But the storm is not so far away, we can all predict it coming. Fish are escaping to safety: falling into the fisherman’s trap. We are waiting for the day we will have the biggest catch. Then, we will construct a canal to delink the one big ocean. We will rejoice too at the thought of resurrected justice. We know October and November are hot months here, but it never gets this hot. Lutepo is seeing, and saying things.

Latest posts by Beaton Galafa (see all)
Post Views: 2,731