LILONGWE (Reuters) – Malawi’s former president denied on Tuesday any wrongdoing in a corruption scandal that erupted when she was in office, saying she will be going back to the southern African nation to prove her innocence.
Joyce Banda is wanted for arrest over alleged abuse of office and money-laundering offenses, police said on Monday. Government officials are accused of siphoning off millions of dollars from state funds in the scandal, which was revealed in 2013.
Banda, who was Malawi’s president for two years from 2012, left the country when she lost in an election to Peter Mutharika. She has not returned since 2014.
Banda has been living in the United States, serving as a distinguished fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center and the Center for Global Development in Washington DC.
“I will be coming back because I never did anything wrong and I am innocent,” Banda told Reuters in a telephone interview from South Africa, where she had arrived from the U.S.
“I am the only President who got to the bottom of corruption and instituted the first-ever commission of inquiry into corruption,” she added.
She was expected to proceed to Malawi after carrying out some charity work in South Africa.
James Kadadzera, a police public relations officer, said authorities had obtained an arrest warrant for Banda.
While president, Banda ordered an independent audit of the corruption revelations, which was conducted by British firm Baker Tilly. The findings were released in 2014.
“Baker Tilly never linked me to any corruption and the rest is what everyone knows, that even some of my cabinet members were arrested. I never shielded anyone who was found to have been part of this,” she said.
A former justice minister and attorney general were convicted over “cashgate”, as the scandal came to be known, and is in jail, along with a number of former high-ranking government officials and business persons.
The corruption scandal led to international donors halting aid to Malawi.
Joyce Banda to hand herself into Malawi Police – Spokesman
Former president Joyce Banda would surrender to police once a warrant of arrest is served on her, her spokesperson has said following disclosure by Malawi police of an arrest warrant over alleged abuse of office and money laundering offenses over a two-year period when she was in office.
Andekuche Chamthuya, Banda’s spokesperson, said his office is yet to get the warrant of arrest which the police say has been issued.
“I have been to the police to get the warrant of arrest but I have been tossed from one office to another,” Chamthunya, a trained lawyer, said.
He said the former president would cooperate with authorities once the warrant of arrest is served to her.
Chanthunya said the former president was not guilty of anything.
“As far as we are concerned she has not done anything wrong,” he said.
Banda left the country soon after losing the 2014 election to Peter Mutharika and is believed to be in self-imposed exile in the US.
The alleged offenses were part of a wider corruption scandal uncovered in 2013, in which senior government office siphoned millions of dollars from state coffers, national police spokesman James Kadadzera said.
Investigations by police’s fiscal and fraud department had “unearthed credible evidence” against Banda, he said.
“The evidence gathered raises reasonable suspicion that the former President committed offenses related to abuse of office and money laundering. The warrant of arrest is in force and necessary legal formalities are being pursued,” Kadadzera said in a statement.
Political analyst at the University of Livingstonia George Phiri said the issuance of the warrant of arrest has not come as a surprise because some convicts mentioned her as an accomplice in the looting of the public money.
The corruption scandal, dubbed “cashgate”, led to international donors halting aid to the country.
A former justice minister Ralph Kasambara was convicted over “cashgate” related matter and is in jail, along with a number of former high-ranking government officials and business persons.
