Wed, 08 Feb 2017 09:36:20 +0000
By AARON CHIYANZO
OPPOSITION United Progressive Party (UPP) leader Saviour Chishimba has been disowned by Malawi’s joint parliamentary committee for creating the infamous maizegate hoax.
The committee has since warned that the whole thing was political and that Dr Chishimba who gave them information has his own corruption case and created the story to divert attention.
Dr Chishimba has been accused by the committee of creating the maizegate hoax after he falsely accused Malawi’s Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation ADMARC of having a contract with Transglobe Produce Export Limited to supply 50,000 tonnes of maize from Zambia when that was totally false.
Dr Chishimba told the committee at the weekend during its investigations that apart from the Zambia Cooperative Federation (ZCF), ADMARC also contracted Transglobe to deliver 50, 000 metric tonnes of maize.
Parliamentary committee chairperson Joseph Malunga said that this piece of information that Transglobe Produce Export Limited was involved in the maize deal had confused the committee.
According to the Nyasa Times, the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) never entered into any deal with Transglobe which was only transporting maize on behalf of ZCF which had the export permit.
“Transglobe was given a permit to export 50,000 metric tonnes but in the end they did not use it because it was an oversight as Transglobe did not have any contract with government or any government agency to deliver the maize.
“In the end Transglobe exported only around 1,500 metric tonnes to Malawi under contract to ZCF and under the ZFC permit,” said an insider at ADMARC told the Nyasa Times.
The source has also accused Dr Chishimba of creating a hoax in order to divert attention from his own corruption case.
Meanwhile, Dr Chishimba generated the Maizegate hoax based on the information provided to him by a relative at Kaloswe Commuter and Courier Services.
One of the bosses at Kaloswe presented the documents to Dr Chishimba so that he would use his influence to blow the whole transaction into what it is not.
He was also misled that the Letter of Credit (LC) from PTA Bank of Malawi to ZCF was the actual wiring of money for the initial contract.
ZCF has however maintained that it had never received any money from ADMARC as the ferrying of maize to Malawi was on-oing and that they had agreed payment would be made after ferrying a least 10,000 tonnes to Malawi.
Meanwhile, the joint committee of Malawian parliament conducting the inquiry into the Maizegate has summoned officials of Transglobe Produce Export Limited as well as Grain Traders Association of Malawi chairperson.
