Presidential aspirant and leader of the Liberation for Economic Freedom (LEF), Prophet David Mbewe, has added his voice to public condemnation of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Masauko Chamkakala for dropping corruption charges against high profile personalities.
Since he assumed the office of the country’s topmost prosecutor, Chamkakala has discontinued six high profile corruption cases, with the latest one being that of the Vice President (The State v Saulos Chilima).
Reacting to the development in a telephone interview on Thursday afternoon, Prophet Mbewe described the discontinuation of these cases as an abuse of the prosecutorial discretion by Chamkakala.
“This shows that as a country, we are not ready and we don’t know how to fight corruption. It simply shows that the fight against corruption lacks political will,” he said.
Mbewe feared that the discontinuation of the Chilima case will not help in restoring the integrity the Second Citizen used to enjoy before his arrest on corruption charges.
The Liberation for Economic Freedom leader foresaw curious Malawians groping about in search of answers on whether Chilima was indeed involved in corruption or not.
“Just like many other keen Malawians, I expected that the case would be prosecuted to the end so that we know the truth. Otherwise the decision by the DPP to discontinue the case has left us in suspense and this does not set a good precedent in the country’s fight against graft,” he said.
In view of the recent developments in the fight against corruption, Prophet Mbewe proposed that the government should establish a special court to hear corruption cases.
He also asked the government to give the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) full independence, stressing that this is key in dealing with political interference in the prosecution of corruption cases.
“If we feel we still don’t have the capacity, we can as well consider hiring international experts to help in prosecuting these corruption cases,” he said.
