{"id":4774,"date":"2018-02-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/amabhungane\/stories\/private-company-captured-malawis-attorney-general-office\/"},"modified":"2024-09-22T13:52:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T13:52:05","slug":"private-company-captured-malawis-attorney-general-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/private-company-captured-malawis-attorney-general-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Private company \u2018captured\u2019 Malawi\u2019s attorney-general office"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malawi\u2019s attorney-general \u2013 the government\u2019s legal adviser and representative in all court cases against the state \u2013 improperly acted for a multinational company embroiled in a long-running legal dispute, the Centre for Investigative Journalism Malawi <\/a>(CIJM) can reveal.<\/em><\/p>\n

The fact that A-G Charles Mhango represented timber processing company Raiply Malawi in the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal is seen as highlighting the powerful influence the company exercises in government circles.<\/p>\n

The CIJM has uncovered evidence that as soon as the centre began asking questions about Raiply\u2019s relationship with the A-G\u2019s office, the company applied to have its legal representation switched to a private law firm.<\/p>\n

The CIJM was also unable to find records showing that the A-G formally applied to represent the company, as per normal procedure.<\/p>\n

A Malawian law professor at the University of Cape Town, Danwood Chirwa, said the A-G\u2019s job is to serve as the principal legal adviser to the government, a constitutional mandate that must be discharged \u201cprofessionally and independently\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that if an A-G is compromised in the performance of this function, it is grounds for dismissal.<\/p>\n

Chirwa noted that past Malawian A-Gs had often entangled themselves in similar cases due to \u201ctheir misplaced enthusiasm, lack of appreciation of their job description and lack of professionalism, and the docility of the leadership of the prosecutorial agencies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Raiply Malawi, a subsidiary of the Kenyan group Rai, became a client of the A-G\u2019s office when the company was embroiled in a court battle with a group of independent saw millers n the Viphya softwood plantation in Mzimba.<\/p>\n

The case dates back to April 2016, when Raiply officials apprehended three women saw millers, accusing them of encroaching on the company\u2019s 20,000 hectare concession in the forest.<\/p>\n

The Mzimba magistrate\u2019s court acquitted the women on a charge of illegal logging after ruling that the contested area did not lie within the concession area, but fell under the Malawi government through the department of forestry.<\/p>\n

In 2016, after the women resumed logging and processing timber in the same area, an angry Raiply Malawi sought an injunction restraining them.<\/p>\n

Court papers accessed by the CIJM show that the the two plaintiffs in the case against Sophilet Chirwa and others are the A-G, acting for the forestry department, and Raiply Malawi.<\/p>\n

A document signed by the A-G on May 3 2016 gives notice that \u201cthe second plaintiff (Raiply) has appointed the Attorney-General as their legal practitioner\u201d.<\/p>\n

High Court judge Dingiswayo Madise granted the order.<\/p>\n

When the matter went to a full hearing, the forestry department and Raiply were again represented by the A-G, in the person of state advocate in the ministry of justice and constitutional affairs Apoche Itimu.<\/p>\n

In a June 23 2017 ruling on civil cause number 95 of 2016, Justice Madise ordered the millers to stop logging in the area. However, he also ordered the department and Raiply to release already harvested logs to the millers on payment of the relevant forestry fees.<\/p>\n

The department and Raiply \u2013 once again represented by the the A-G \u2013 launched an appeal.<\/p>\n

On June 27 2017 the two sides settled through a consent order requiring the respondents to pay forestry fees upfront, as ordered by the court, while the appellants undertook to release the logs within an agreed period.<\/p>\n

The CIJM has seen the consent order, which was signed for the appellants by the A-G, represented by Itimu.<\/p>\n

Contacted for comment, Raiply Malawi\u2019s chief executive officer, Krishna Das, denied that the A-G acted for the company.<\/p>\n

Das refused to name the company\u2019s lawyers, saying that this was not acceptable in terms of Raiply\u2019s values.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were duly represented by our lawyers in the case. I can\u2019t comment any further,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, the CIJM has seen a copy of a Malawi Supreme Court document signed on November 28 last year \u2013 after the CIJM started asking questions about the Viphya case \u2013 giving notice of a change of legal practitioners.<\/p>\n

This states that Raiply \u201chas appointed Messrs William Faulkner (of Lilongwe) to act for the second appellant (Raiply) in place of the Honourable Attorney General \u2026 who has acted hitherto.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorney General Mhango did not respond to the CIJM\u2019s queries about the issue over a five-week period.<\/p>\n

Malawi Law Society president Khumbo Soko said the A-G should have filed a notice of appointment before the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless the A-G did this, it would be not proper to conclude that his office was representing the company,\u201d said Soko.<\/p>\n

CIJM could find no such notice filed by the A-G.<\/p>\n

*This story has been edited to delete a reference to an earlier story that has been removed. Please see\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evidence that the state’s legal adviser improperly acted for multinational Raiply Malawi highlights concerns over the company’s influence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22123,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30502,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4774\/revisions\/30502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}