A former cabinet minister who was serving a five-year sentence after being found guilty of abusing his position has been pardoned by Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera.
In 2020, Uladi Mussa received a six-year prison term for corruption related to the unauthorized issuance of passports.
According to Ken Zikhale Ng’oma, minister of homeland security, his release was a kindness gesture over the Easter season.
Between 1994 and 2019, Mr. Mussa served as a minister under four different presidents, and he is still a powerful politician in the nation.
He was involved in the passport scam when former President Joyce Banda was in office.
In 2019, the US government imposed a travel ban against him and his spouse over his role in the scandal.
Mr Mussa was released together with 199 other convicts, who “committed minor offenses and have demonstrated good behaviour during their stay in prison”.
They include a driver who was arrested and charged last year after refusing to give way to President Chakwera’s convoy.
Cyclone Freddy struck southern Malawi on Monday, leaving at least 99 people dead, according to Charles Kalemba, the country’s commissioner for disaster management affairs, who spoke to CNN.
According to Kalemba, the majority of the fatalities occurred in Blantyre, Malawi’s commercial center.
According to Kalemba, “We have recorded 99 persons dead in roughly seven councils, with Blantyre city as the highest with 85 dead and about 134 people in Blantyre alone hospitalized.” Kalemba made the statement to CNN on Monday night. He said there could be more casualties and injuries.
The southern part of Malawi has been proclaimed to be in a “state of catastrophe” by the government.
The country’s President, Lazarus Chakwera, “has noted with grave concern the devastation that Cyclone Freddy is currently bringing to most districts in Malawi’s Southern region,” a government press release said.
“Accordingly, government is already responding to the emergencies, rendering urgent assistance to all affected districts, and appealing for local and international support for all the families affected by this disaster,” the statement continued.
Schools will remain shut in 10 of the worst affected districts until Wednesday, Malawi’s education ministry said in a statement Sunday.
Earlier on Monday, Malawi police spokesman Peter Kalaya told CNN the destruction caused by the storm had inundated roadways and triggered blackouts in the worst affected areas.
Kalemba said rescue efforts have been “tough”.
“We are still having a lot of rains coming down. We are now experiencing landslides, flash floods and stones rolling down some hills. Because of the weather, rescue efforts are not easy. Some of the places we have to go and rescue people, it’s not easy to get there. It’s tough but we are making sure we do the job that we need to do,” he said.
The deadly Cyclone Freddy has broken records for the longest-lasting storm of its kind and has struck neighboring Mozambique and also Madagascar, killing more than 20 people and displacing thousands of others across both countries.
It has been described as a “very rare” storm by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which called its journey so far “incredible and dangerous.”
Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has reduced the size of his cabinet in a reshuffle that also saw the appointment of seven new faces, including an opposition lawmaker.
The list of ministers and deputy ministers has been reduced from 33 to 27, but critics say it is still too large.
The reshuffle was expected following reports that a number of ministers were implicated in a corruption investigation being carried out by Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the UK’s National Crime Agency.
In his New Year message, President Chakwera had promised to name a new and leaner cabinet.
The list of the new cabinet minister was released on Tuesday at around midnight local time.
Mr Chakwera has not allocated himself a ministerial portfolio as was the case previously. He also did not allocate ministerial responsibilities to his Vice-President Saulos Chilima – who is facing corruption charges that he denies.
The vice-president remains in office because under Malawi law he cannot be sacked.
Senior party members from the ruling coalition were also left out of the new cabinet.
