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

Fri Nov 17 08:11:58 CAT 2017

It is interesting that the Blairs were contracted to provide PR facilities
for the JB government in those two years.

On 17 November 2017 at 07:23, Diana Cammack <cammack at mweb.co.za> wrote:

> *Death threats and a ‘ghost warrant’ – why is Malawi hounding Joyce Banda?
> *
>
> Cherie Blair <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/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-african-cherie-blair#img-1>
>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/joyce-banda-malawi-african-cherie-blair#img-1>[image:
> Joyce Banda in 2012.]
> <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/14/joyce-banda-malawi-african-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 adopted four Malawian children
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/07/madonna-adopts-twin-girls-from-malawi-stella-esther>
> and visited most recently to build a paediatric hospital; Prince Harry is
> a regular, lately volunteering in the relocation of elephants
> <https://www.royal.uk/prince-harry-malawi-working-african-parks> 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, Joyce
> Banda <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17662916>, 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 6.2%
> in 2014 <http://www.50x50movement.org/person/he-dr-joyce-banda> 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 675 per 100,000 live births to 460
> <https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/joyce-banda>.
>
> 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. Mutharika’s regime
> <https://www.amnestyusa.org/files/pol1048002017english_0.pdf> 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 distinguished fellow at the Wilson Center
> <https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/joyce-banda> 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 “alleged abuse of office
> and money laundering <http://mwnation.com/arrest-warrant-issued-jb/>”.
> 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 had been fraudulently claimed
> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25912652>. 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.
> Malawi <https://www.theguardian.com/world/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 Bill
> Browder
> <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/-sp-bill-browder-kremlin-threatened-to-kill-me-vladimir-putin>,
> the Malawian authorities announced they had sent a request to Interpol to
> prevent Banda from lawfully travelling
> <http://www.africanews.com/2017/07/31/malawi-ex-president-joyce-banda-wanted-by-police-over-250m-corruption/>
> without being arrested. Browder, who lives in the UK, has spent the past
> eight years investigating the murder of Sergei Magnitsky
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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 received numerous death threats
> <https://www.enca.com/africa/malawis-banda-gets-death-threaths> 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, was being arrested in Malawi
> <https://www.nyasatimes.com/jbs-sister-cecilia-kumpukwe-arrested/> –
> 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.
>
> [image:
> https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e28ab281b6c30404a896fe3ce94b20c0ca2691ef/708_165_4048_2429/master/4048.jpg?w=460&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=max&s=b63ca8afd69f4388025a94ac61b120a7]
>
> *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 murdered
> by lynch mobs
> <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/19/malawi-mobs-kill-two-more-people-accused-of-being-vampires>
> 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
>
>    - Malawi <https://www.theguardian.com/world/malawi>
>    - Opinion <https://www.theguardian.com/uk/commentisfree>
>
>
>    - Africa <https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa>
>    - comment <https://www.theguardian.com/tone/comment>
>
>
>
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>
>

-- 
Adamson S. Muula PhD, MPH, MBBS, CPH, PGDip (Public Health Ethics), PGDip
(Global Health), PGD (Palliative Care)
Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health
University of Malawi, College of Medicine
School of Public Health and Family Medicine
Department of Public Health
Chimutu Building Room 850
Private Bag 360, Chichiri
Blantyre 3
Malawi
Email: amuula at medcol.mw
Cell: +265 884233486
Publications list: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Muula
*orcid.org/0000-0003-4412-9773 <http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4412-9773>*
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