Malawi’s public finances and its chance of a new International Monetary Fund programme are at risk after the government directed prosecutors to discontinue two long-running financial crime cases against 10 people, including sitting cabinet ministers and senior fiscal managers.
The office of the director of public prosecutions discontinued proceedings against former Reserve Bank of Malawi governor Dalitso Kabambe, his deputy Henry Mathanga, former finance minister Joseph Mwanamvekha, secretary to the treasury Cliff Chiunda and cabinet minister Jean Mathanga, among others. The cases, pursued for nearly five years, alleged abuse of office and breaches of procurement procedures at the heart of Malawi’s fiscal architecture.
The discontinuance letters, dated 11 February, lift bail conditions and reserve the state’s right to revive prosecutions within six months if new and substantial evidence emerges. Court documents show the DPP sought constitutional guidance and was told by the attorney general to discontinue the cases. Under Malawi’s Constitution the DPP is meant to exercise prosecutorial discretion independently, a standard critics say has been compromised by the attorney general’s instruction.
Those named in the cases have returned to or retained senior state positions. Henry Mathanga was reinstated as deputy governor of the RBM and Cliff Chiunda confirmed as secretary to the treasury. Prosecutors had accused Kabambe, Mathanga and Mwanamvekha of misrepresenting economic figures linked to a $108 million extended credit facility, an action prosecutors said led the IMF to cancel the facility and deprived Malawi of budget support. Other counts included alleged unauthorised expenditure and concealment of public funds totalling $350 million tied to an Afreximbank loan facility, and a disputed transfer of 4.3 billion Malawian kwacha to FDH Bank before the 2020 election result.
Ministry of Justice spokesperson Frank Namangale said the DPP would furnish reasons to parliament’s legal affairs committee, but no substantive public justification has been offered. The discontinuances complicate efforts by President Peter Mutharika’s administration to negotiate a new IMF arrangement. The IMF’s July 2025 Article IV consultation stressed the need to advance the fight against corruption and publish a 2024 governance diagnostic assessment. With the officials allegedly implicated now occupying the offices that will negotiate with the IMF, the government faces a clear credibility problem as it seeks to restore budget support and stabilise Malawi’s fragile finances.
