Malawi’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party stands accused of shielding one of its own ministers as a fertiliser procurement scandal threatens to engulf the government just months before the crucial planting season.
Agriculture Minister Roza Mbilizi is at the centre of the storm after it emerged she personally lobbied for a lucrative fertiliser supply contract to be handed to a Zambian company — without the deal ever going to competitive tender.
And in an extraordinary twist, it can be revealed that the minister’s own cousin, Hyde Khembo, travelled to Zambia in June to discuss the very same arrangement, months before officials from the company sat down with Mbilizi in Lilongwe.
Khembo sits on the board of the state grain trader SFFRFM and chairs its Operations Committee — sparking accusations of a conflict of interest at the very heart of government.
Executives from United Capital Fertilizer Zambia, including chief executive Huang Yaochi, jetted into the capital for what sources describe as an “informal” meeting with the minister over a weekend, followed by official talks days later, as they thrashed out pricing and how the spoils of the deal would be divided.
The Zambian firm, a fertiliser giant capable of churning out 800,000 tonnes a year, would have been handed the contract to help feed Malawi’s Farm Input Subsidy Programme — without a single rival bidder getting a look in.
But the scheme hit a wall when the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority refused to rubber-stamp a single-source contract, insisting the deal go out to open tender as the law demands.
Undeterred, sources say, the minister then allegedly ordered the state grain body to freeze fertiliser tenders altogether — a move critics fear is designed to run down the clock until Malawi is staring down the barrel of the rainy season with no supplier lined up.
Mbilizi in bullying tactics pushed the contract through anyway — delivering UCF the very monopoly the procurement watchdog already threw out.
The scandal has reignited fury from opposition benches, with UTM Party leader Dr Dalitso Kabambe launching a scathing attack on President Peter Mutharika’s ruling party, accusing it of running cover for ministers accused of corruption.
Kabambe tore into the DPP’s record in office, blasting what he branded a culture of impunity that has allowed alleged wrongdoing to flourish unchecked under the party’s watch.
Government has yet to respond publicly to the mounting allegations swirling around Mbilizi.
A procurement law expert, commenting on the case, pointed out that single-source deals are only permitted in narrow circumstances — including genuine emergencies or when only one supplier is capable of delivering the goods — raising further questions over how Malawi handed UCF the contract without competition.
Credit: Nyasa Times
