As Malawi’s attorney general has issued a statement today declaring that he will be offering a 60 day amnesty to those who had corrupt dealings with Busineman Spammer Sattar, South African based professional, Danwood has faulted the Attorney General.
Writing on his Facebook wall , chirwa wrote “
“The weekend is private time. Plus I said we’ve lost the game already. This is my last post on this ‘regime’. The answers to the questions are:
- The Attorney General has no authority to terminate government contracts. The office can advise, but it’s a party to the contract that can terminate.
- There’s no amnesty law in Malawi and as such the Attorney General has no legal authority to issue amnesty from criminal prosecution. There is no precedence for it and such a practice won’t start now. There can be no justification for such a law, in any case. It would empower the Attorney General to act like God in a democratic state where equality before the law is sacrosanct.
- The Attorney General has no legal authority in criminal matters, both investigations and prosecutions. The office can issue general directions to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and Director of the ACB, but it cannot usurp the powers of the DPP or the ACB Director.
So the press statement is simply unlawful. - Lastly, the press statement amounts to unlawful interference by the Attorney General with the independence of the DPP and the ACB Director. The DPP and the ACB must continue with their work free from influence.
However, another legal commentator Negracious commonly known as Lord Denning-, answered the proffesor by defending Attorney General position . Writing on his Facebook , Lord Denning wrote
“From the acre of literature that the Cape Town – based professor cultivated with shrubs of insults spread over it, his main crop appeared to be his conviction that a rich private person cannot be a friend to a public officer, particularly a head of State. He intimately purported to highlight that when one becomes head of State, he has to severe all personal relationships or friendships with rich individuals, otherwise it would mean State Capture [sic].
It goes without any difficulties to understand that the professor’s point of view is nothing beyond laboratory – based sentiments of a clueless scientist who, in the first place, doesn’t know how to pass his time really. For a mere sake of insulting someone, his sentiments came about. If in doubt, remove the insults directed at the musicians, the host and the chief guest from his post and tell me if there is anything left out to be communicated with any sense. You see? None!
The sole motivation that pushed him to proceed with his innuendos, I have no doubt, was his anticipation to receive echoes from those in the business of throwing, or longing to throw, insults at the regime. Nothing else.
We talk of State Capture when private entities corruptly and significantly influence a state’s decision making process to the advantage of such private entities. The lab-based professor could not find any such incidences by Simbi Phiri on the state of Malawi hence could not highlight how he has captured the state. Instead, he went ahead with hollow claims and simply filled those empty spaces with insults.
We talk of State Capture when private entities, through the government system, manipulate laws and government policies to secure particular benefits to such private entities. A mere casual interaction between a rich individual and a head of state is not even closer to the definition of the concept. The sensational professor could not demonstrate how Simbi has, or is suspected to have, done that. It’s all because it was an empty allegation whose main aim was to simply insult the targeted characters.
That is how low this professor has always been. Nothing strange.
