Pressure forces govt to release full report on Chizuma’s arrest

Public uproar demanding government to release full report of investigations on the arrest of Director General of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Martha Chizuma left government with no choice but to make the full report public.

On January 3, 2023, the Commission of Inquiry presented a report to President Lazarus Chakwera on findings and recommendations surrounding the controversial arrest of ACB Czar on the dawn of December 6, 2022.

The report was later made public as ordered by the President but the citizenry was shocked to find out that some chapters of the report were missing, this raised more questions than answers.

In no time, different stakeholders started calling out for the president to make the remaining part of the report available to the public.

Responding to the calls, government’s spokesperson Gospel Kazako told the public that the second part of the report was not presented to the president adding that once the president gets his hands on the report and done studying it, it will be made public immediately.

“The Commission of Inquiry on the arrest of ACB director Martha Chizuma presented its findings and recommendations to His Excellency President Lazarus Chakwera at Kamuzu Palace on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. The President directed that the findings be released to the public immediately which was done same night,” Kazako said.

He continued; “The remaining part of the report was not presented to the President at that point. It will instead be released to the public as soon as the President completes reading and studying it.”

In less than 30 minutes, Kazako updated the nation saying the president had finished reading the report and has directed that it should be made it public.

“Today, January 4, 2023 His Excellency the President has completed reading the remaining chapters on the report and further directed that the report should be released in full,” read the statement signed by Secretary to the President (SPC) Colleen Zamba.

Malawians on social media told the information minister that the public noise demanding the full report would have been avoided if government would have communicated earlier that the second part of report is coming.

On December 10, 2022, Chakwera instituted a 12 member commission of inquiry to investigating the circumstances surrounding the controversial arrest of Chizuma after the suspended Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Steve Kayuni lodged a complaint against her in relation with a leaked audio in January last year.

According to Kayuni, he felt offended by Chizuma’s judgement when she discussed sensitive issues with a third party regarding the on-going investigations against corruption suspect UK based businessperson Zuneth Sattar.

According to State House’ communications department, Chakwera is yet to give short and long term decisions on Chizuma’s arrest in reference to the commission of inquiry’s report.