The 18 May 1983 Cabinet Ministers Murder in Malawi.The Last Missing Piece of the Mwanza Accident Case Jigsaw Puzzle.

The 18 May 1983 Cabinet Ministers Murder in Malawi.

The Last Missing Piece of the Mwanza Accident Case Jigsaw Puzzle.

In the early 1980s, John Ngwiri had gone so powerful that most decisions which Dr Banda made passed through John Ngwiri.  Ngwiri was not just a mere top Civil Servant, he was Dr Banda’s trusted policy implementer respected by all cabinet ministers.

The Trustees of Press Trust included: Dr Banda, the settlor, the then Minister of Finance, Chakakala Chaziya,  Aaron Gadama, and yours truly  John Ngwiri.

It came as a shock when Dr Banda forced John Ngwiri to ‘retire’ in December 1985. Age was cited as the reason for Ngwiri’s so called retirement from Civil Service as he was aged 55 years old. Sam Kakhobwe succeeded Ngwiri and a few years later, Justin Malewezi took over from Kakhobwe.

Mac  Kamwana was forced to retire two years later in 1987 aged 51 and was replaced by his deputy L. G Ngwata.

Ngwiri went to live at his farm in Ntcheu peacefully and his name was to pop up in 1995, 10 years down the line….. in the Nyasaland’s most famous case “The Mwanza Case.”

The five respondents jointly charged  with conspiracy to murder were:  Dr Banda, John  Tembo, MacDonald Moses Kalemba and Augustino Leston Likaomba.

 

They were accused to have conspired  with Mac J Kamwana, John Ngwiri, Miss Cecilia Kadzamira   to murder Merss Dick Tennyson Matenje, Aaron Elliot Gadama, John Twaibu Sangala and David Donasiano Chiwanga.

As per Mtegha’s Report, the whole operation was led by the head of the Special Branch, Macpherson Itimu. The head of the killing squad was the commander of the Police Mobile Force, Aaron Mlaviwa.

On evidence pointed at Mac J Kamwana in his capacity as Inspector General of Police, as the one who made the order for the killings. 

The orders were given to Macpherson  Itimu to organise his officers such as Ngwata, Kalemba and Maunde and erect road blocks at Likangala, Mulunguzi and Namadzi. 

Itimu was to arrest  Matenje, Gadama, Sangala and Chiwanga when they came to the road blocks. Kamwana did not inform Itimu why the four people were to be arrested. 

Itimu followed the orders and organised his men, mounted the roadblocks, managed to arrest the four people and kept them at the Police Eastern Division. Kamwana issued another transfer them to Mikuyu.

On the following day, another order was issued that the victims should be taken to John Abegg Building in Limbe. MCP Head Office at Chichiri was where the killings are said to have occurred.

Leston Likaomba one of the accused admitted to have conducted the killings.

Another evidence pointed at John Ngwiri as the one who gave the initial orders to Mac Kamwana. 

Kamwana was dead while Ngwiri  was terminally ill during the case and died soon after. The state had the intention to use Ngwiri as a state witness. 

During the March 1983 Parliamentary session, the Murdered Mps had questioned Govt Depts of over expenditure.

Mcpherson Itimu told the court that when he visited Mac Kamwana on 15th May 1983 at his home at Bvumbwe  in Blantyre, Kamwana told him that Dr Banda was angry with Matenje, Gadama,Sangala and Chiwanga. Kamwana then told Itimu that the 4 were to be arrested.

Another witness, Stack Banda told the court that around 1985, John Ngwiri came to his house. 

Stack Banda was a friend of John Ngwiri and while having a drink together, Ngwiri revealed to him that early in 1983 there was  a meeting at Mtunthama concerning the  4 ministers which were murdered.

Ngwiri went on to say that he was invited to that meeting where he found Miss Kadzamira and John Tembo. 

At the meeting John Tembo told Ngwiri and others the 4 ministers were against Dr Banda’s decision in parliament in March 1983…. That John Tembo should be the Secretary General and a proposition to have Miss Kadzamira as Prime minister. 

Stack Banda went further to say … Ngwiri revealed that a second meeting was conducted in Blantyre where Ngwiri, John Tembo and Miss Kadzamira met…. And it was at that meeting that a decision was passed that the 4 were to be killed.

Aaron Gadama in parliament in March 1983 stood up and opposed vehemently and stated that a public servant should not actively participate in politics like John Tembo who was then Governor of Reserve Bank and the other 3 supported him. 

Joseph Mlelemba read the parliamentary report which criticised corruption and over expenditure  by govt depts. Mlelemba went with the report to Dr Banda citing the controlling officers as not adhering to parliamentary limits. 

Dr Banda told Mlelemba that he was not responsible for that and pointed at John Ngwiri who was the head of the Civil Service.

Banda told Mlelemba, ‘’Go back to Ngwiri and his boys and ask him why it was like that…’’ Dr Banda was somehow fed up with corruption and the bad attitude in the Civil Service which was growing since the  late 1970s.

Mlelemba stated to the court that John Ngwiri was arrogant as he never attended Public Accounts Committee meetings.

With all the hullabaloos that was happening in parliament in 1983 it is very interesting that none that appears in the Hansard. 

All traces of Matenje and Chiwanga warning the controlling officers were not reported in the Hansard. 

James Chikwenga’s evidence in 1995 states that,,,Chikwenga met Ngwiri who was with Mlaviwa, a day before the killings in 1983. And Mlaviwa was one of the police who admitted to have done the killings.

Chikwenga appeared on the article the Daily Times dated  13 October 1995 titled ‘Ngwiri's friends', where the so called Ngwiri’s former friends were parading evidence against him.

Chikwenga said his former friend,,, Ngwiri talked  to him about the issues in parliament in 1983 stating,  ‘’It as a conflict between civil servants and politicians and declared that 'these politicians shall be dealt with accordingly.'’

During the trial, claims of the existence of an inner circle which was supposed to have Dr Banda, Miss Kadzamira, John Tembo etc were made.

Meanwhile on the ground in 1983, the power structure at State House at that time had John Ngwiri as the central figure in  any attempt to communicate with Dr Banda.

Ngwiri was chairman of the Intelligence Committee which included the commanders of the army and the police, and the head of the Special Branch. 

Dr Banda had literally manoeuvred himself into a situation where he was extremely dependent upon Ngwiri, and in which Ngwiri could act quite independently.

When the Dick Matenje was absent at Kwacha where he was supposed to chair the meeting…that day the 4 were killed. When those who attended made a call to the higher authorities that the chair of the meeting was absent. 

John Ngwiri answered the call and gave the directives of who was to chair the meeting. According to Stewart Winga who was the MCP Blantyre administer in 1983, Ngwiri directed that Nelson Khonje chair the meeting at Kwacha that day.

Ngwiri was the person who organised the burials of murdered ministers in 1983. 

The trial in 1995 was being manipulated automatically to point at Ngwiri as  masterminding  the murders using Kamwana as his weapon of choice.

During that time John Ngwiri was bedridden, terminally ill at his home in Limbe. The trial was failing to nail the other culprits as him the last jigsaw piece of evidence was missing.

Ngwiri’s last effort to clear his name and pinpoint the real culprits was in form of a small written paper dictation which Ngwiri made on his death bed in June 1995 shortly before he died.

Dick Matenje in the picture.