Of the 18 May 1983 Cabinet Ministers Murders in Malawi.

Of the 18 May 1983 Cabinet Ministers Murders in Malawi.

A phone  rang at Kwacha Conference Centre where the MCP delegates were waiting for the Secretary General [Matenje] to chair the meeting. Edward Bwanali, a senior cabinet minister answered it.

A confused and perplexed voice on the line asked, "Is it really Edward Bwanali talking to me. Are you still alive and ok? How did you manage to get  there? Anyway I wanted just to confirm if the delegates were still waiting there.... [at Kwacha Conference].

The confused  voice talking to Edward Bwanali was that of John Tembo. 

He was surprised as Bwanali was on the list to be murdered together with the 4 Others on that day. And he was shocked to hear his voice at Kwacha when he was supposed to be with the 4 others.

Tembo knew after the closing of the parliament that the MCP meeting at Kwacha Conference would not take place as the chair of that meeting Dick Matenje would be in the hands of the Special Branch.

Tembo didn't even bother to go to Kwacha as he knew the plan. 

But the million dollar question would be... How did Edward Bwanali miraculously escape Tembos list of 18th May 1983...????

Edward Bwanali was a close friend of his Blantyre buddy Dick Matenje ...He had attended the Matenjes celebration party at his house....but did not stay long. Bwanali left for Blantyre earlier heading to Kwacha as he had other things to do in Blantyre.  That's how he eluded by chance the roadblocks mounted on the Zomba-Blantyre road that fateful day.

Of the captured 4 ....the last one to be captured was Chiwanga as he had also left and spent some time seeing a family at Ndola Zomba. He was captured alone at Likangala bridge by the Police.

The Police had waited for the 5th curprit, Edward Bwanali ...on the roadblocks for ages but he wasn't turning up.

John Tembos phone... confirmed where Bwanali was amid the Polices confusion of his whereabouts. 

John Tembo had now confirmed to the police that "accused number 5" was out of the net. 

Tembo on the phone had also asked Bwanali. .."I thought you were together with Matenje et al at their celebration party?

Bwanali unknowingly replied that he left the party so early.

Bwanali didn't know what was happening behind the curtains to his 4 friends. He was safe as he mingled in the crowd of delegates at Kwacha. Little did he know that the Police were waiting with his name on the list as the 5th person on the roadblocks mounted along the Zomba road that horrible day. 

10 years later ....One hundred and sixty-two witnesses testified before the Commission of Inquiry, and from their words a remarkably complete picture of the murders eventually emerged. 

The transcript of this Inquiry runs to 1,066 pages, and of these none is no more transfixing and astounding. ... than  the testimony of Inspector Leonard Winesi Mpagaja, one of the nine surviving police witnesses who made the trip to Mwanza with the doomed men that night. 

The dialogue between the Commission and  Inspector  Mpakaja was like this.

QUESTION: They came out [of the car] and they were blindfolded. What followed next?

ANSWER: What followed next was the killing.

Q: Using what?

A: They used hammers that are used when erecting tents.

Q: What other weapons were there? No guns were there, no pistols?

A: There were no guns there, but I remember that there was an axe. I cannot remember whether it was used.

Q: No sharp instruments?

A: No sharp instruments.

Q: How many people were assigned to one person?

A: Each group would pick one and take him aside.

Q: As an example, what did you yourself do to Mr Sangala to make him die?

A: My boys took Mr Sangala, blindfolded him and made him sit down. I was the one who had the hammer and I hit him at the back of the head where I knew, according to my police training, he would die immediately.

Q: You hit him at the back of the head?

A: Yes.

Q: Using what?

A: I used a hammer.

Q: What else? Did he just collapse?

A: He fell down.

Q: I thought he was already sitting down?

A: He was already sitting down, so after hitting him he fell on the ground and died.

Q: Did he not cry?

A: No, he did not cry.

Q: Because his mouth was gagged?

A: He was not gagged. He was only blindfolded.

Q: Would you say the rest of these people were treated in the same way, sat down, hit at the back and died?

A: I believe the same method was used, but we were doing it at different places.

Q: What conversation went on between you and them [the victims]?

A: When we were in this vehicle, we did not talk to each other. There was no conversation.

Q: They did not ask where you were taking them to?

A: These people did not speak to us.

Q: What about at the scene? Now you are taking Mr Sangala away. He did not say anything?

A: As I said, the only thing he said was, "How are you going to blindfold me with my glasses still on?" So we told him to remove the glasses, and he removed them and put them on the ground, and then we told him to sit down.

Q: Were these people awake on this journey?

A: Yes, they were awake.

Q: Did they not talk to each other?

A: No, they did not talk to each other.

Q: Did they look to you to have been drugged with something? I find it strange that they travelled from here to that place without talking at all.

A: I do not know, but the way I saw them, they were depressed.

Q: Did they look to you that they knew they were going to be killed?

A: It looked as if they already knew why they were there.

*It is reported as well that of the 4 victims .... Gadama took long to die at the hands of these demons.

For all the haunting eloquence of the Commission's Report, in legal terms it was inconclusive, as the hard evidence to convict either Banda or Tembo as the instigators of this crime .....was lacking. 

The widow of the former inspector-general of police ...[Mac Kamwana] testified that her husband had told her that he had received his instructions directly from Tembo, and that these instructions were later ratified by  Dr Banda himself.... after her husband sought confirmation.

Under Malawian law, only hearsay evidence "against interest" of its source is admissible in court. From a legal point of view, then, the widow's testimony was ultimately unhelpful.

[Such legal hairsplitting was important, if the trial was not to be a throwback to Banda's practice of throwing his enemies to the mercy of the traditional courts, presided over by local chiefs, in which hearsay evidence was admissible - a convenient recourse in those cases fuelled solely by rumour.] Like the Muwalo's case.

The 162nd person to testify was Hastings Kamuzu Banda himself. One can only imagine what must have passed through the minds of the men and women of the Commission - who had been listening now for nearly 60 days to memories of bloodshed, bereavement and anguish - when, in response to every question he was asked, the aged Dr Banda , in all apparent sincerity, could only reply:

"I'm afraid, because it is such a long time ago, I have no information."

Back to 1983 ... Edward Bwanali had a extra marital relationship with Mary Kadzamira.

Mary Kadzamira, a younger sister of Mama Kadzamira...was a personal Secretary of Dr Banda. It is believed that Mary Kadzamira tipped Bwanali to escape that massacre.

In 1989, Edward Bwanali had also committed another grave sin on the "Chilomoni Market Saga"... though he was fired ....  he survived  detention again ... through his connection with Mary Kadzamira.

In the picture is the soot in Thambani where the bodies of the Cabinet ministers were dumped in a car rolled down hill from a remote dusty road.