Lameck Jongwe – Contributor
Social media influencers have challenged Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa to clear himself on allegations that he illegally bought a government house at K125 million.
The influencers, who include Tiwonge Kumwenda, Banankhulani Chisambi and Felix Katemula, fear that some politically-connected individuals would use failure by the law enforcement agencies to investigate Nankhumwa to also bypass laws when taking over public properties.
Kumwenda wonders “if Nankhumwa illegally bought government house K125 million when he was a mere minister, how many government properties will he buy when he becomes a president of this nation.”
“He needs to clear himself from this rather than continuing with his rallies,” she stresses.
Chisambi wondered why Nankhumwa is posing himself as an angel when he takes to the political podium when “actually, he is one of the perpetrators of public plunder.”
He said the Leader of Opposition should have been the last person to comment on the deteriorating social and economic standards of Malawians because “he contributed to the current situation.”
“I believe that if given a position such as that of President, Nankhumwa could be more wasteful and can as well grab any government property. He proved lethal to the principles of transparency and accountability when he pocketed Covid-19 allowances on the pretext that he operates from Mulanje, yet the truth is that he stays in Lilongwe as Leader of Opposition. He is better avoided,” said Chisambi.
On the other hand, Katemula advised Malawians to vote in people of integrity in the next General Elections in 2025.
There was no immediate comment from Nankhumwa.
THE TRUTH ABOUT DR. NANKHUMWA AND THE FORMER TC HOUSE
In 2019, the Tobacco Commission expressed interest to dispose off two of its properties one in Lilongwe and another one in Blantyre.
This offer was made public to everyone via different channels.
The Lilongwe based house wa valued at K87 million as its market price. This meant that TC could only allow buyers who could offer an amount not less than K87 million.
By then, Hon. Kondwani Nankhumwa was serving as the Minister of Agriculture and he expressed interest to buy the Lilongwe house and offered to pay K125 million cash.
The decison to finally sell the house to the Minister was arrived at by both TC management and the Board after he had satisfied all the contract of sale conditions including the payment method which was a once-off.
When TC changed its top management and the board, following the change of government, the new management led by a UTM operative who is now serving as CEO, wrote the Leader of Opposition, expressing interest to repossess the house.
In response the LoP advised TC to proceed to either court or ACB, so that the matter could be investigated and solved.
Surprisingly, TC refused and chose to remain quiet.
For starters Chidanti claimed that Nankhumwa bought the house at a lower price using Ministerial powers.
This is laughable! Why?
The house in question was valued at K87 million and the LoP bought it at K125 million! How does the issue of a lower price come about? One wonders🤷🏻♂️
It is possible that there could be other bidders who had offered to pay a higher amount, but as long as a bidder has offered an amount higher than the market value of the commodity, the seller is at liberty to sell to him or her, as long as the buyer has satisfied all the contract conditions.
In this case the LoP had offered more than the market value and TC proceeded to sell the house to him.
Legally, TC has no case and that’s why when the buyer asked the seller to go to court or ACB, the later recoiled and went silent.