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| National |
| ‘Muluzi breached Constitution on his Keza Building ’ |
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by
Mabvuto Banda, 13 August 2004
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15:49:29
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Bakili Muluzi breached the Constitution when he, then as president of the Republic, decided to set up Keza Developments and Atupele Properties Limited, owners of Keza Office Park in Blantyre, Nation Online has established.
Records at the Registrar of Companies indicate that the former president registered Keza Developments on January 24, 2002 with a capital injection of a million kwacha ($9,259).
The records also reveal that Muluzi chairs Atupele Properties Limited and it is managed by his son Atupele.
Nation Online found out this week that Muluzi’s actions as president were in direct conflict with the Constitution which stops not only the president, but his ministers and MPs from holding any business interests.
Head of Law Department at Chancellor College Edge Kanyongolo said on Monday that Muluzi contravened the Constitution when he set up companies while being head of state.
“Muluzi breached the constitution by running a business as president. Chapter 88 (4) says that any business interests held by the president and members of the cabinet shall be held on their behalf in a beneficial trust which shall be managed in such manner as to ensure conformity and this is not the case with Muluzi,” explained Kanyongolo.
He said this act by Muluzi was an impeachable offence in Parliament.
But Kanyongolo was quick to point out that as it is, “the law does not spell out any punishment for acting unconstitutionally when he was president.”
Malawi Law Society Treasurer Alick Msowoya concurred with Kanyongolo, saying it is clear Muluzi was chairman of Keza when he was president and that this was a breach of the Constitution.
Msowoya blamed Muluzi’s legal advisers for failing to advise him that by chairing a company, he was in fact contravening the Constitution.
But Muluzi’s lawyer, Shabil Latif of Sacranie & Gow, on Tuesday this week said he did not want to commit himself to any discussion on Muluzi’s companies.
“I am not in a position to comment on those matters,” Shabil said and hang up.
Atupele Properties Limited and its investment arm, Keza Development, have since rented out Keza Office Park to Malawi Revenue Authority for the next five years.
The relationship between the two, as Nation Online found out, has become more than an arms-length relationship of tenant and landlord.
In the month leading to MRA’s occupation of the building, Atupele Properties got a K3 million boost from the tax collectors to help with celebrations to open Keza Office Park.
A K2.2 million budget drawn on October 17 and approved on October 22, 2004, indicates that the authority spent K180,000 on fuel, K220,000 as accommodation for 10 MRA officers for two nights at Le Meridien Mount Soche Hotel and K455,000 as subsistence allowances for 65 people from the three regions.
Nation Online also discovered that MRA bought 5,000 metres of the yellow Keza cloth worth K800,000 for distribution during the opening ceremony last October.
A memo dated November 3, 2003, from Margaret Mbilizi then chief executive for Bakili Muluzi Institute (BMI) asked MRA boss Ernest Mtingwi to pay K800,000 for 5,000 metres of cloth bought from David Whitehead in Zimbabwe.
In return the tax collectors also benefited from Atupele properties when on October 2, 2003, they managed to get a soft loan of K10 million to buy furniture for Keza building.
Knight Frank, property administrators for Atupele Properties, proposed that MRA gets the K10 million loan as the cost of buying new unbudgeted for furniture.
Last week Wednesday Mbilizi admitted in a telephone interview having asked MRA for the K800,000, saying it was easy to sell the cloth that way. But she insisted the cloth was meant for MRA staff only and not the public.
Lewis Kulisewa, MRA Deputy Manager for Public Relations also confirmed in a written response on Thursday that they bought the cloth for the celebrations but said “it was not bought from Zimbabwe but within Malawi”.
Kulisewa said the authority decided to contribute to the celebrations because management was excited with the benefits that Keza was offering, “like making the life of taxpayers and potential taxpayers easier”.
But Nation Online discovered that in the case of getting a loan from its landlords, the MRA Act does not stop the authority from soliciting funds from anyone—be it outside Malawi or within.
On MRA making donations, the law only talks about the tax collectors being at liberty to invest its money subject to ministerial approval and is silent on whether they can donate any funds or not.
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