“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…” says Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible, John 10: 10.
That’s exactly what the embattled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) Director General George Kasakula and his disgraced Board Chairperson Reverend Vasco Kachipapa came to do at the state broadcaster, we can confirm.
Former President Lazarus Chakwera hired both Kasakula and Kachipapa as Director General and Board Chairperson respectively. They stayed in their capacities the entire 5 years that Chakwera and his MCP were in power.
Following non remittance of pension funds deductions by MBC Management between 2021 and 2022, the combination of Kasakula and Kachipapa announced they had a very good rescue plan. However, the so called liberation plan was later discovered to have been a self enrichment exercise and a total ripoff for Malawians.
It is not exactly known why the MBC management were failing to make monthly pension remittances to Old Mutual Limited after collecting the same from staff salaries.
As a result of this serious MBC management failure, Old Mutual Limited stopped processing gratuities for deceased, dismissed, resigned and retired employees.
Following some bulldozing and cosmetic approvals from other MBC Board Members, in 2023 MBC put up a notice to sell all prime land on some of its transmitter sites in order to raise funds to clear off the pension arrears with Old Mutual Limited.
Outgoing MBC Director General George Kasakula told the Malawian public through the media then that the land sale was going to fetch the broadcaster between Mk 6 billion and Mk 7 billion and at the moment there is no trace of such money after the exercise.
An MBC Land Disposal Committee was quickly established chaired by Kasakula’s trustee ally in Aidan Gumeni, the former Director of Engineering.
Our investigations have established that other members of the Committee included Controller of Administration Timpunza Mwamsambo, Procurement Manager Hastings Manda and former Director of Finance Jack Kamwachale Khomba.
On instructions from Kasakula and Kachipapa the team visited all the MBC transmitter sites including Bangula in Nsanje, Ngumbe in Blantyre, Mangochi, Chankhandwe in Lilongwe, Nkhotakota, Ekwendeni in Mzimba, Karonga and Chitipa among others.
A land surveyor consultant was engaged and the transmitter sites put on the market were subdivided into plots for people to start acquiring.
According to our investigations when purchasing of the plots begun in October 2023, it was purely a Kasakula and Kachipapa show as these were the ones calling shots on who was to get what plot and where.
MBC insiders speak of Kasakula, Kachipapa, Gumeni, Kamwachale, Manda and other MBC officials getting plots at the key sites that included Bangula in Nsanje, Ngumbe in the city of Blantyre, Chankhandwe in Lilongwe city and Nkhotakota. The acquisition of these plots was being done through proxies including relatives, friends and other business associates. No declaration of conflict of interest was registered.
A beehive of activities was at Ngumbe in Blantyre and Chankhandwe in Lilongwe as both sites are seen to be very prime because of their proximity to the main tarmac road and closer to the CBDs.
Ngumbe transmitter site is adjacent to Malawi Housing Corporation houses in commercial city whilst Chankhwandwe is directly opposite Lilongwe Water Board headquarters in capital city.
Some MBC members of staff report of verbal and telephonic instructions from Kasakula and Kachipapa on who to get what.
According to information we have in our possession, over 200 plots were sold at Ngumbe in Blantyre and Chankhandwe in Lilongwe.
Some of the plot owners are reported to have taken ownership just by name and without paying a penny to MBC.
Some are reported to have directly paid the cash to MBC Director General Kasakula who in turn is reported to have been sharing the same with Board Chairperson Kachipapa.
In Blantyre, MBC is reported to have received several complaints from individuals who paid for their plots but when they wanted to start developing they discovered the same plots were already sold to others. The other owners claimed they had given the cash directly to Kasakula and had no receipts to show.
In Lilongwe, a businessman running a popular bus company also complained to MBC after discovering three plots he had acquired were actually in water and also owned by someone else.
As the Kasakula and Kachipapa underhand activities show their ugly head, it’s been discovered that the MBC Director General sold 35 plots to his close friend and business associate.
We have since submitted the name of the businessman and the name of his company to the ACB for further processing and evidence of his association with Kasakula.
Despite the selling over 200 plots MBC still has outstanding pensions.
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