By Staff Reporter
The Minister for National Unity Hon Timothy Pagonachi Mtambo says the tough stance and unity of purpose expressed by the President and ACB Director during the International Day for Anti-corruption is highly commendable.
Hon Mtambo has reiterated his earlier statement made when ACB interviewed him for his comments during the 20 weeks anti-corruption campaign. The Minister says ACB Director and State President have in their statements displayed further determination and even greater resolve to combat corruption, leave no stone unturned, leave nobody behind, and gave back hope to all Malawians who were starting to doubt.
Mtambo says ACB and President alone can not win fight against this evil in our society, and that the two need our collective efforts. He says this collective effort starts with Mindset Change and embracing national collective values such as patriotism. The Minister says the citizens have an even greater responsibility to detect, reject and report corruption at all levels of the social fabric. As Minister responsible for Civic Education, he says his Ministry will continue to partner with ACB and the President even with a greater resolve in order to implement Mindset Change which is one of the key enablers for the Mw2063.
Commenting on the recent ACB Director’s arrest, Mtambo describes this as quite concerning and a sad development especially looking at how much pain the arrest has caused and the extent to which others have gone to disrupt the fight against corruption. He says Malawians will not sleep, slumber nor blink untill corruption is removed from all Government institutions. In the Minister’s own words, “Corruption is an evil that takes away development from the majority citizens and places resources in the hands of the selfish few. Such resources are vital for health services, education, roads, bridges, agriculture, electricity, water, security and many more.”
Mtambo however is skeptical about the Opposition’s feigned support for Chizuma saying the real support must be seen from positive action in their constituencies where in some cases money meant for development goes missing, coupled with no accountability and transparency. “These are people who initially rejected Chizuma’s appointment in Parliament, have fought her all the way even using demonstrations,” he said.
“Purely these are hypocrites. Without President Chakwera standing firm, trust me the appointment of Ms. Chizuma would have been an impossible mission. Their visit to ACB director’s home after the tragic arrest is merely political and hypocritical. We all know that when they were in power, they were deliberately underfunding ACB to cripple it. But Chakwera has increased the budget for ACB so much, apart from introducing an independent court to deal with corruption and other financial crimes.” said Mtambo.
“Malawi is at a crossroads in our history on the trajectory of the fight against corruption; either to give up and go back OR keep up the fight and win. The good thing is that Malawians want real change. Malawians are tired of living in a substandard country impoverished by poverty and underdevelopment. This is how I know we will win the fight against corruption,” said Mtambo. Mtambo says fighting corruption is God’s work and an honourable great service to the people, and that he believes always God wins against evil. The Minister has therefore called upon all citizens, all God loving Malawians and religious leaders to keep praying for the ACB Director and President for more wisdom and courage as they continue to lead the nation in waging the difficult fight against corruption.
