President Bingu wa Mutharika

The head of Malawi's anti-corruption agency said on Saturday he had resigned after being suspended last month by the country's President Bingu wa Mutharika on unexplained disciplinary grounds."It is true I have resigned," Gustave Kaliwo, former director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau said.

He said he tendered his resignation to the chief secretary to the president, Bright Msaka, in the administrative capital Lilongwe on Friday. Kaliwo, a private lawyer, was suspended just after after the southern African nation's former president Bakili Muluzi was charged with 42 counts of graft, theft and breach of trust.

Kaliwo is likely to be replaced by Tumaliske Ndovi, head of prosecutions in the police service, although the appointment must be approved by parliament's public appointments committee.

Kaliwo's stepping down comes a day after Mutharika told the country's Director of Public Prosecutions Ishamel Wadi to "honourably resign" by noon on Friday for withdrawing corruption charges against Muluzi.

Mutharika, who launched a sweeping anti-graft campaign soon after taking office in 2004, has also fired attorney general Ralph Kasambara, who was at the centre of treason charges against vice president Cassim Chilumpha.

High court judge Jane Ansah has since been appointed the new attorney general, the first time the position is being held by a woman.

The attorney general, director of public prosecutions and the director of the Anti-Corruption Bureau were hired from private practice to help rid the country of corruption, rampant during the ten-year era of Muluzi, which ended in 2004.

Source:

IOL News