The Ibrahim Matola lie: Malawi sikhola la ng'ombe ayi..

The house as it appears on the valuation report

Last week has been eventful in Parliament. The much dubbed cash gate scandal has turned our politicians into a bunch of clowns who instead of working to get rid of the dirty in government are busy throwing punches at each other. The PP administration took plenty of time to show us how clueless they can be on matters of national importance such as this.

What drew my attention most were remarks made by PP’s Ibrahim Matola who accused the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party DPP Professor Arthur peter Mutharika of buying some Lilongwe City Council house in Area 10 fraudulently and snatching pieces of land for the Bineth Trust.

After hearing all the political guzzles I was like wow! “He who seeks equity must come with hands”. But wait a minute, I never stopped there. I took time to investigate and these are my findings:

The interior view of the said house before the facelift.

•  The inspection for the property was done on 12^th  October, 2005.
• The property in question is Plot No 10/457 Ulemu Road
• According to a valuation report that I have, done by Property Management Development Valuation, the house was being described as a modern house which situated in a very desirable part of Lilongwe, Area 10. However the report states that the property that time was in a very poor state of repair and was not occupied. Who would be occupying a house like that anyway?
• The report states that the property was in a bad state and extensively vandalised as it had been vacant for so many years and LL City Council had literally abandoned it (see pictures)   
•  

  

  The servant's quarters

• Some of the defects noted during valuation include;

§  Broken glass and missing louver panes in many windows

§  Damaged doors, cupboards and other wooden fittings

§  Leaking roof, torn fly screens, missing electrical fittings, missing mortice locks, damaged sagging and stained ceiling boards.

§  Defective garage door

§  Property requires internal redecoration

§  Damaged sanitary fittings

§  Termite attack on woodwork, rusty roof sheets, vandalised kitchen sink.

§  The servant’s quarters had missing locks, damaged doors, and cracked floors, broken glazing and damaged floor screed.

• The property in question was owned leasehold by Lilongwe City Assembly from Malawi Government and the annual ground rent was pegged at K73.00 at the time of inspection.
• I have also established that this was not a house for the mayor, it once occupied by some officer from the City Council's accounts department as propagated by some party zealots.

What attracted me most on the valuation report is the rating assessment which categorised the property in the “current Valuation roll for the City of Lilongwe as House and Premises. No wonder I was not surprised seeing that the land (0.384 hectors) with the property being pegged at close to K3 million.
 

The actual pricing

Now my point is, PP stop bumping Malawi as your ball. Go out there and take responsibility of the mess as people in charge of Malawi. We are sick and tired of this your blame game, DPP this, DPP that. You have a government to run, osati khola la ng’ombe kapena kowumba zidina ayi. Malawi is for us all therefore we all need to develop. This cash gate scandal is becoming boring because we cant even see your seriousness in all this. 

I rest my case!

The Lutepo hoax: His details not appearing on interpol’s wanted list.

International Police (Interpol) have not put PP’s senior member Osward Lutepo on their wanted list days after Malawi Police Service was reported to have alerted the security agency to issue a warrant of arrest for the business man.

On Thursday last week Police Deputy Inspector General Nelson Bophani who is also chairing the newly instituted  Crime Investigations Committee that is probing the much publicised fraud at Capital Hill told the media that Interpol have been alerted to arrest Lutepo who is wanted in connection with the alleged looting of public resources.

  

A visit on Interpol’s website under country name Malawi http://www.interpol.int/Wanted-Persons?wanted_search=&IPSGT_Interpol_Office=250 , only four names have been listed without the details of business tycoon casting doubts as to whether Interpol have really received any alerts from Area 30 regarding Lutepo. 

 

The wanted list however includes details of Pika Manondo who is also wanted in connection to the shooting of Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo.

According to a security expert who spoke to this reporter, it is strange that days have passed without Interpol listing Lutepo on their website as a wanted person. He said under normal circumstances Interpol updates names of wanted persons as soon as an alert has been issued to them. The security expert therefore doubted if at all the Police have been in touch with Interpol on the same.

Lutepo’s company International Procurement Services is suspected to have been a conduit in defrauding government billions of kwachas.

His other companies are also been investigated by the Anti Corruption Bureau ABC and some of the companies accounts have been frozen.

Wise words from the village idiot: another breakthrough, pay tax and become a bad citizen… don’t vote.

Another breakthrough happening in my village.. as a village idiot I can’t make sense out of it. Cabinet dissolved and I am expected to clap hands to this. Okey, maybe I will try to sing all the songs of praise touting amayi chiwongolero for being a listening president barely 24 hours after we all thought dissolving the cabinet would be the last thing she would do. 

Why am I being incredulous here? Are village idiots not supposed to be sceptical over things that do not make sense in their little brain? Look here, this is not the first time that we have had a seating president dissolving his cabinet (“her” in this case) ministers have been dropped and picked, chopped and re-hired, booted out and re-appointed, so goes the extravaganza. 

What we keep having are the very same names either changing portfolios, given long breaks or assigned to other duties. You get fired today be assured that you will be re-hired in future either by the same president or by his or her successor. Just make sure that you keep showing all the traits of a hand-clapper in you and to some extent that you are still keeping your old dirty mouth. You will be picked as an influential cabinet minister and in charge of campaign and insulting people during political rallies.

For example the name Brown Mpinganjira, how do you remember him? From being an influential UDF figure, fired, formed his NDA, rejoined UDF, then there was MCP, then he became an apostle, bishop, founder, general overseer, prophet, reverend, moderator of some church, now we are talking about him being PP as a cabinet minister, former of course. Do you see him not bouncing back? I am seeing him back in cabinet unless otherwise.

Uladi Mussa, remember him? Another greedy politician who survives on nothing but our tax. Don’t re-appoint him in cabinet and you will hear he is back revamping his Maravi party as president. All he cares about is power and hurling insults at people in the name of campaigning.

Should I go on? Yes, there is Ken Lipenga, served as cabinet minister from the time of Muluzi, he was there with Bingu, so close. Guys, the village idiot is talking the very same names here. 

You remember the likes of Kandodo, Sidik Mia, Gotani Hara, Ephraim Mganda Chiume. Then there is Hennery Phoya, Ralph Kasambara, John Bande, the list is endless. Just two years ago they all sang “amayi a bingu ifeyo,” ate our tax money, destroyed everything about Malawi only to abandon the late Bingu because it meant the end of their treasure hunt. They saw an opening lock somewhere and couldn’t afford to let it go because they are so addicted to money and power. 

Now they wanted us to believe that JB is the messiah that we all have been longing for forgetting that just some 18 months ago some of them called JB all sorts of names and she was a brand they couldn’t want to be seen being associated with. POLITICS! Mmmmmmmh!

They from nowhere threw in the ocean their blue attire because orange became the real deal. This colour was the talk of town. Not because they loved the orange, but rather the money that was wrapped in the colour orange. They couldn’t afford to be talking in thousands yet the opening lock was there to give them an opportunity where they would be talking in millions and billions once again. 

What else are these politicians doing? Putting together some brilliant young men, turning them into hand-clappers forgetting that for our political system to be overhauled us as the youths need to be greatly involved and chase all these greedy politicians and take charge. There are better ways we can participate in our political system than being cheer leaders iwo azitipakulira pamutu basi ife busy kusenza zithunzi ndiku waombela mmanja basi. Geese! 

Hey maybe you have forgotten, JB is not dumb no wonder she started business at the age of 21 so money is not a problem with her, hahahahaha! Where did that come from? Maso pa next cabinet, trust me the very same names are bouncing back, besides JB herself was UDF, DPP and now PP there is no problem with that. Hahahahahaha to this again..  So the village idiot is saying he will continue paying tax but will not vote in 2014 because he wants to become a very bad citizen.

Breakthrough for a village idiot... Pay tax for Mphwiyo to remain in SA.

Picture this: Kumudzi munthu oti anakhala nthawi yayitali asanadye nsima kumangogonela mango ndi nandolo akangoyipeza nsima amayithyolatu mpakana mitanda 7 amatha kumaliza. Komanso munthu oti wakhala akugona ndi njala kwa kanthawi, ikamulengula njala kapena akakomoka nayo samangofikila kumupatsa nsima yangungungu amawopa kuti ikhoza kumupha, amamupatsa kaye kaphala kamadzimadzi kuti apezeko ka moyo. Olo mwana oti akudwala matenda opelewela zakudya mthupi samangofikila kumukhutulira mikute yonse basi, amayamba nditakudya tamadzimadzi kaye.

This is what I call a PP story. You may be asking me why and how? Here is my simple answer; PP was in the cold, its leader was chased from the then ruling DPP for creating parallel structures. Their language was in thousand kwachas not millions or billions. Ask them if they knew or dreamt of driving or owning any Toyota fortuner, the Jeeps we are seeing in town, the Pathfinders, Prados and all the posh cars that are being associated with them now, no! Their types were the Toyota corollas and carinas. The best they could at least afford was a Rav 4.

Just like that village person who was surviving on mangoes and nandolo, now that he has access to nsima what is expected of him? Kupakulatu basi. And again just like that person who was being starved to death, instead of taking the phala therapy, he is busy guzzling solid foods. No wonder nsima ikufuna kuwapha anthuwa.

To sum it up I would be agreeing with a number of observers who have hinted that most of the governance problems facing our country should be attributed to a leadership crisis. Most of our leaders have turned out to be more concerned with self aggrandizement and material gain than development.

Just take a look at the PP, the very same greedy politicians who sang “amayi a Bingu ifeyo” forgetting that they were men are still calling the shots and are the lead praise singers in the chiwongolero amayi chorus.

They are the people that have added to the confusion and desperation that has characterised our political system for years, switching from one party to another, abandoning principles for which they had once campaigned.

Now a little comment on the capital cash-gate, forgive my ignorance over these issues, I am not an accountant and I don’t think I will ever become one but my little understanding of the system tells me that an accounts assistant is somebody who just prepares a payment voucher. He doesn’t authorise payment.

This is where I am having more questions especially hearing news that an accounts assistant was found with K120 million cash, K10 million, K7 million bla bla bla! Where are the people that authorised such payments? Why are the police not pouncing on them? What we are seeing next is those controlling officers and some of the signatories to government cheques holding press briefings giving us that middle finger altitude describing the whole episode as a breakthrough.

By the way, we are talking government cheques here right? Cashed by the Reserve Bank of Malawi? Ehem! So the Reserve Bank cashed K120, million and all the mentioned sums without raising eyebrows? Hahahaha!

And now my take on the media, geese! You mean facebook has now become a reliable source of news than our newspapers? Nowadays am turning to facebook to be updated on current affairs than our newspapers. News have been making rounds on the social network, giving us leads, no paper  has taken courage to dig deeper and follow all the leads and give us a comprehensive piece. 

The watch dog role has been abandoned completely. What am seeing now is event based journalism just waiting for Hawa Ndilowe to hold a press briefing and that automatically becomes a front page material. C’mon go to Capital hill and investigate. We need to know who signs government cheques, who is involved? Is Kasambara part of the syndicate? Follow up on documents, am sure there are some disgruntled fellas at capital hill who can talk anonymously, aaaaaah!

Hey you village idiot, don’t worry about these other things because Mphwiyo is to remain in South Africa, still on your tax, we are told for security reasons. Be a good and responsible idiot, eeeeeer citizen by paying tax, Mphiyo needs the money in South Africa.