Counsel (in suit) with the two clients and ALAO (far right)
Two employees of the Smallholder Farmers Fertilizer Revolving Fund of Malawi (SFFRFM) have been acquitted by the First Grade Magistrate Court sitting in Nkhotakota in a case relating to alleged corruption.
The two, Lovemore Kandu and Maria Chilinda, who were serving as Sales Clerk and Porter, respectively, at SFFRFM and stationed at Benga Admarc, were arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
In Court, they were charged with three offences: corrupt practices by public officers, abuse of public office, and neglect of official duty, contrary to Sections 24(1) and 25B(1) of the Corrupt Practices Act and Section 121 of the Penal Code, respectively.
The accused denied all the charges and sought legal representation from the Legal Aid Bureau. Their case was handled by Senior Legal Aid Advocate Mphatso Mmangitsa, with assistance from Assistant Legal Aid Officer Dumisani Ziba.
The Court heard that, on the first count, between 2 and 23 November 2023, Chilinda and another co-accused Sales Clerk conspired with Kandu and another co-accused person to corruptly solicit money from Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) beneficiaries, allegedly demanding between K5,000 and K7,000 on top of the official K15,000 per 50-kilogram bag of fertilizer.
On the second count, during the same period at Benga Admarc, Kandu and Chilinda were accused of abusing their offices in the execution of their duties. On the third count, Chilinda was accused of neglecting her official duty by failing to capture the faces of AIP beneficiaries during the 2023–2024 growing season at the depot.
Since the two pleaded not guilty, the State, through the ACB, paraded eight witnesses to prove the charges. The defence, in turn, filed written submissions on case to answer to guide the Court in its ruling.
After reviewing arguments from both sides, the Court found that no testimony presented by the State implicated Chilinda in any of the three counts. She was therefore acquitted. Similarly, in relation to Kandu, the Court found the evidence insufficient to warrant him entering a defence, and he was also acquitted on all counts.
The Court, however, found their co-accused with a case to answer.
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