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The High Court sheriffs have sealed Aford headquarters in Lilongwe for failing to settle a debt of over K200,000 to Andrews Car Hire, the party confirmed on Wednesday.
An accountant for Andrews Car hire Denily Chamgwela confirmed in an interview that Aford, one of the parties in government, owes the firm over K200,000 ($1,851) for vehicles they hired between 1993 and 1994.
According to Chamgwela, the matter went to court where Aford agreed to settle the debt in monthly instalments of K50,000 “but they only paid once last year”.
Aford secretary general Wallace Chiume confirmed that their offices have been sealed for failing to settle a debt to Andrews Car Hire but said the total amount is only K100,000 according to the records that they have.
He also confirmed the debt “which has been bothering us for all some time” is for vehicles the party hired for campaigning purposes in 1994.
According to sources, one of the vehicles was hired for the party president Chakufwa Chihana who is now Minister of Agriculture.
Eye witness told Nation Online that people were forced out of the offices when the sheriffs went to seal the offices last Tuesday.
But Chiume said he did not understand why the sheriffs decided to cripple the party’s operations by closing their offices for such a small debt.
“I didn’t know that it would go this far. Sometimes they just want to discredit and embarrass us,” said Chiume.
The offices were still closed as of yesterday and Chiume said they were still discussing with the creditors to have them opened so that the party’s operations should not be affected.
But Chamgwela said they did not receive any communication from their lawyers about the debt as of 4 PM on Wednesday.
Chiume said the party is in difficult financial problems because it is no longer entitled to parliamentary funding.
Clerk of Parliament Roosevelt Gondwe told The Nation in September that only MCP and UDF are entitled to the quarterly funding from Parliament because the other parties did not get 10 percent of the total votes as required by the Constitution.
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