Members of Parliament (MPs) on the opposition side of Parliament on Friday ganged up to accuse Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Samuel Tembenu, of presiding over selective justice in the country.<\/p>\n
Lawmaker for Lilongwe Msozi South Vitus Dzoole Mwale opened the can of worms when he asked Tembenu to provide information on what government is doing to tame rampant corruption in the country.<\/p>\n
Dzoole Mwale wanted to know reasons behind what he said are cases of selective justice on cabinet ministers who are suspected to be mentioned in the K236 billion cashgate of Bingu wa Mutharika era, former president Bakili Muluzi\u2019s K1.7 billion corruption case and former Minister of Agriculture George Chaponda\u2019s issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of hearing about the case of the former president, what we are hearing is a dubious relationship between UDF and the DPP. Tell us the truth,\u201d Mwale said.<\/p>\n
But the response that Tembenu provided did not amuse some opposition block MPs including Lilongwe Mapuyu South legislator Joseph Njovuyalema, Dowa West lawmaker Alexander Kusamba Dzonzi, People\u2019s Party Leader in the House, Uladi Mussa and Dzoole Mwale himself.<\/p>\n
Tembenu said some of the cases that Mwale mentioned are in court and appropriate government agencies are handling some and it would not be proper for him to comment on them, in line with Standing Order 192.<\/p>\n
He also said some of the areas that Dzoole has touched on in his question will be covered in his ministerial report on corruption.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm I aware of selective justice? I am not aware because the ministry that I head is not involved in selective justice,\u201d Tembenu said.<\/p>\n
Mussa asked Tembenu if he is aware that had it been that Chaponda was Uladi Mussa or Lazarus Chakwera, he would have been arrested by now.<\/p>\n
He also asked if Tembenu knows that holding a lot of forex in the house as Chaponda did is an offence.<\/p>\n
The minister responded by saying he is not aware that the situation of Chaponda would lead to the arrest of either Mussa or Chakwera but said he is aware that holding a lot of forex is an offence.<\/p>\n
Kusamba Dzonzi said in his address President Peter Mutharika talked about his government\u2019s commitment to stamp out corruption but at the same time he conceded that out of 200 corruption cases, only 15 have been completed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat should we do with the Anti-Corruption Bureau to get value for our money?\u201d Kusamba Dzonzi queried.<\/p>\n
Njovuyalema told Tembenu to know that he is the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs for all Malawians and not for selected few.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he cannot represent all Malawians then he can just resign,\u201d Njovuyalema said.<\/p>\n
When Njovuyalema insisted that the country needed to get information on selective justice from Tembenu, his microphone got switched off.<\/p>\n
Deputy Government Chief Whip Grace Chiumia asked the First Deputy Speaker Esther Mcheka Chilenje to curtail debate on the question and allow government business to continue.<\/p>\n
Chilenje, who had been pleading with the lawmakers to avoid being emotional, stopped the debate amidst noise and some MPs continued commenting on President Peter Mutarika\u2019s State of the Nation Address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of Parliament (MPs) on the opposition side of Parliament on Friday ganged up to accuse Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Samuel Tembenu, of presiding over selective justice in the country. Lawmaker for Lilongwe Msozi South Vitus Dzoole Mwale opened the can of worms when he asked Tembenu to provide information on what government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46336,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46331\/revisions\/46336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}