TRUTH BEHIND THE ATTACKS ON THE FIRST VICE PRESIDENT: EXPOSING MALAWI’S HIDDEN FOREX SYNDICATE

BY LYSON SIBANDE

For the past couple of days, there have been sustained media attacks against the First Vice President, Right Honorable Dr. Jane Ansah. The attacks were triggered by a presumably leaked document with figures showing that the First Vice President was going to spend around MK2billion of government money on her private trip to the United Kingdom against austerity measures imposed by the Mutharika administration.

Upon revelations that the document was fake and the figures were cooked and inflated to arouse public anger against the First Vice President, Malawians have concluded that she is a casualty of intra-party power struggles, succession battles and emerging factional wars within the DPP. But that is far from the real truth. DPP is not victimizing the First Vice President. At least, not now.

So who is ruthlessly fighting against the First Vice President?

There is a different battle against her orchestrated by powerful business people of Asian origin who have vowed to fight her and make her political life miserable to protect an economically deadly syndicate that previously captured the MCP regime.

It all started when, upon assuming office, the First Vice President consulted some stakeholders to understand the forex problem in the country, why the cost of living was too high and how this problem could be solved. She probed why prices on the market were being set using black-market forex rates rather than the official rate? She probed how business people were accessing forex on the black market in millions of dollars? Who was supply the millions of forex and where did the black market supplier getting the forex from?

In the process, The First Vice President was shocked to unearth a powerful syndicate of forex trading led by powerful rich business people of Asian origin with the help of some elements at the Reserve Bank who had been sharing spoils with top politicians of the MCP. While this scheme is old, it got worse and institutionalized during the MCP regime. The problem is the syndicate is attempting to capture some top DPP officials and the First Vice President so the syndicate can continue.

The scheme was simple. There is an available list of names and companies of powerful and very rich business people of Asian origin in Malawi who control forex in the country. They would approach the RMB requesting TTs to pay for imports. The invoices presented were fake, goods were never imported, and the transactions could not be reconciled. Nevertheless, the RBM fully aware of the scheme, would release the forex to pay the bills in foreign accounts at the official exchange rate. TTs worth millions of forex this group of these Asians were transacted to offshore accounts on a daily basis at the RBM.

Once the funds landed offshore, the same forex was getting sold mostly to Chinese buyers at black market rates. The Chinese and other desperate traders, unable to access forex from the banks within Malawi, have no choice but to buy at inflated prices from these Asians. Profits were enormous and were shared among the Asians, elements at Reserve Bank who facilitated the TTs, and top MCP politicians. One transfer alone, created billions of profits.

And here is an example of what a single transaction could do;

A syndicate member would request a TT of USD 2 million. At an official rate of MK1750, they would deposit MK3.5 billion. Once the USD 2 million was transferred abroad, it was sold to the Chinese and other traders at a black-market rate of more than MK4,200 or higher during that time. As a result, the Asian would make MK8.4 billion with an instant profit of around MK5billion. After the sale, the Asian would keep about MK3billion for himself and the politicians would pocket the MK2billion. Just overnight, the politicians made billions.

So, how did the syndicate kill the economy and raise cost of living for Malawians?

When the Chinese and other traders bought the forex from these Asians at more than double the official rate, they transferred that cost on poor Malawians. They increased the prices of goods on the market. As a result, inflations was induced fueled by fraud, corruption and greed not market forces of demand and supply.

So where does the current First Vice President come in?

When the current Vice President uncovered this syndicate, she discovered that the syndicate was attempting to recruit some DPP officials to be enablers of the scheme at the Reserve Bank. She reported the matter to President Peter Mutharika who immediately authorized her to dismantle the syndicate completely because it would sabotage the new administration’s economic recovery plan and push cost of living higher. Upon discussions, the Chinese and other traders promised and committed that if the Asians stopped controlling the forex and trading them at black market rate, and banks supplied them at official rate, they would reduce prices of goods by around 50% or more. All prices of goods, vehicles, spares parts, cooking oil, etc. would decrease instantly.

When the First Vice President confronted the Asians and some elements at the Reserve Bank, they attempted to coax her to be part of the syndicate and promised to share the spoils with her to raise money for her political career. When she refused and insisted on putting an end to the fraud, the syndicate threatened to deal with her political career and frustrate her efforts. Just like that, the battle line was drawn. Soon, fake documents about her UK trip began to circulate on social media and Facebook influencers began to attack her. Local and international mainstream media began to publish negative stories about her foreign travel.

But those that know the First Vice President have confirmed that she is not the type who gets intimidated. She will not benefit from the syndicate and she is committed to performing duties of her office with a clean conscience. She is determined to help President Mutharika recover the economy and reduce of cost of living.

Will the First Vice President win the battle, or the syndicate will once again win? If the syndicate wins, the DPP government will just be another failed MCP administration and the 2025 elections would have been for nothing.