[Civsoc-mw] J Banda, Guardian (UK) 14-11-17

[Diana Cammack]

Death threats and a 'ghost warrant' - why is Malawi hounding Joyce Banda? 

 <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/cherie-blair> Cherie Blair 

The rule of law is failing in this important African state, as the former
president is forced to stay in exile amid a culture of fear and impunity

. Cherie Blair is the chair of Omnia Strategy LLP

 
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/joyce-banda-malawi-af
rican-cherie-blair#img-1> 

 
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/joyce-banda-malawi-af
rican-cherie-blair#img-1> 

'During Banda's two-year administration from 2012 to 2014, an imminent
economic collapse was averted through the implementation of vital economic
reform.' Photograph: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images 

 

Tuesday 14 November 2017 09.30 GMT Last modified on Tuesday 14 November 2017
11.37 GMT 

A country of spectacular natural beauty, boasting one of Africa's Great
Lakes, sprawling forests and the mist-laced Shire Highlands, Malawi is a
small land-locked country in east Africa. It is rarely in the spotlight and,
even then, it's most likely because of a celebrity sighting: Madonna has
<https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/07/madonna-adopts-twin-girls-fro
m-malawi-stella-esther> adopted four Malawian children and visited most
recently to build a  <http://> paediatric hospital; Prince Harry is a
regular, lately
<https://www.royal.uk/prince-harry-malawi-working-african-parks>
volunteering in the relocation of elephants with the NGO African Parks.

While Malawi does not enjoy the same international attention as heavyweights
South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya, it is a regional leader boasting the first
elected female vice-president of any African country, and only the second
country on the continent to have a female president,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17662916> Joyce Banda, whom I have
known for many years.

During Banda's two-year administration from 2012 to 2014, an imminent
economic collapse was averted through the implementation of vital economic
reforms, the country's economic growth rate rose from 1.8% in 2012 to
<http://www.50x50movement.org/person/he-dr-joyce-banda> 6.2% in 2014 and
draconian laws were repealed, strengthening the rule of law. In healthcare,
the Banda administration promoted safe motherhood initiatives and maternal
mortality rates were slashed from
<https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/joyce-banda> 675 per 100,000 live
births to 460.

What Banda had done to receive this treatment was to oversee the exposure of
the largest governmental corruption scheme

Today, progress has stagnated and the government of Peter Mutharika is
presiding over the country's sad deterioration.
<https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/pol1048002017english_0.pdf> Mutharika's
regime exhibits troubling governance tendencies such as flagrant abuses of
the international legal system and political persecution. The principles of
democracy, transparency and the rule of law that Banda and her
administration re-established during her presidency have been systematically
demolished. The case of Banda herself is telling.

The former president was completing a year-long residency earlier this year
as a  <https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/joyce-banda> distinguished fellow
at the Wilson Center in Washington - before she came to power she was a
celebrated civil society advocate - when she publicly announced her
intention to return to Malawi.

Within days, the national police spokesman James Kadadzera had organised a
press conference in which he declared that an arrest warrant had been signed
to investigate the former president for "
<http://mwnation.com/arrest-warrant-issued-jb/> alleged abuse of office and
money laundering". Two months on, neither Banda nor her lawyers have been
served a copy of the warrant and all attempts to see it have been thwarted
by the authorities.

What Banda had done to receive this treatment was to oversee the exposure of
the largest governmental corruption scheme ever uncovered in Malawi.
"Cashgate" is reported to have involved $250m being stolen from government
coffers and British auditors investigating just one six-month period found
that tens of millions of dollars
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25912652> had been fraudulently
claimed. Neither the audit report nor any other evidence has been produced
to implicate Banda, despite wild allegations thrown by her accusers.

However, in threatening what had been a profitable scheme for many, Banda
made enemies in the new authoritarian administration that succeeded her. As
others have learned to their detriment, in many countries today there is
more danger from calling out corruption than there is in engaging in it.
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/malawi> Malawi today is characterised by
a culture of fear and impunity; the origins of which Banda had sought to
expose during her term in office.

Much like the Russian authorities have repeatedly done against
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/-sp-bill-browder-kremlin-thre
atened-to-kill-me-vladimir-putin> Bill Browder, the Malawian authorities
announced they had sent a request to Interpol
<http://www.africanews.com/2017/07/31/malawi-ex-president-joyce-banda-wanted
-by-police-over-250m-corruption/> to prevent Banda from lawfully travelling
without being arrested. Browder, who lives in the UK, has spent the past
eight years investigating the murder of
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Magnitsky> Sergei Magnitsky in a
Russian prison and calling for sanctions against Russia. He was recently
prevented from travelling to the US because of an Interpol-issued "diffusion
notice" instituted at the request of Russian authorities; a process that has
come under increasing scrutiny as a tool of political persecution by
authoritarian states.

Banda is not only confronted by a politically motivated investigation and
the threat of arrest, but has
<https://www.enca.com/africa/malawis-banda-gets-death-threaths> received
numerous death threats aimed at her and her family. These threats explicitly
warn that if she continues speaking out about political corruption and dares
set foot in Malawi, she will be killed.

So while the "ghost warrant" was being contrived to deter Banda from
returning home, her sister, Cecilia Kumpukwe,
<https://www.nyasatimes.com/jbs-sister-cecilia-kumpukwe-arrested/> was being
arrested in Malawi - accused of online rumour-mongering at the expense of
the vice-president, Saulos Chilima. The allegations remain unsubstantiated
but nonetheless she has to report to the police every Tuesday and her
passport has been withdrawn by the government, stranding her in Malawi and
preventing travel to South Africa for important medical treatment.



Malawi mobs kill two more people accused of being vampires 

Read more 

Even more chillingly, Banda's son has been publicly labelled a "vampire" - a
ridiculous, but fatal designation in Malawi which has seen eight people
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/19/malawi-mobs-kill-two-more-peo
ple-accused-of-being-vampires> murdered by lynch mobs in the last month
alone, spurred to violence by this pernicious libel.

The treatment of Banda and her family serves as a stark reminder that Malawi
must recommit to higher standards of governance and the rule of law or risk
failing its citizens and finding itself attracting the wrong sort of
headlines. Yet Malawi is not alone in needing to show proper respect for due
process. Recent events across the region and in the west, only serve to
emphasise the need for deeply rooted institutions with the resilience to
withstand those who, in power, might seek to undermine and subvert them for
personal and political gain.

. Cherie Blair is the chair of Omnia Strategy LLP

Topics 

*	 <https://www.theguardian.com/world/malawi> Malawi 
*	 <https://www.theguardian.com/uk/commentisfree> Opinion 

*	 <https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa> Africa 
*	 <https://www.theguardian.com/tone/comment> comment 

 

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