Marion Edmunds
Mineral and Energy Affairs Minister Pik Botha is to summons the Malawi High Commissioner to South Africa, Willie Khoza, for talks to ensure that the former Malawi dictator, Dr Hastings Banda, gets a fair trial.
A spokesman from the ministry, Roland Darroll, said this week that Minister Botha was responding to a direct appeal by the team of London-based lawyers defending Banda on charges of conspiracy to murder four politicians in 1983. Banda had ruled for decades as a ruthless despot in Malawi until agreeing to elections last year. The trial is being conducted under the government of his successor, President Bakili Muluzi.
The defence lawyers, of the London firm Memory Crystal, are concerned that Banda might not get a fair trial. Most recently, Malawi’s director of public prosecutions threatened to arrest and prosecute Banda’s legal team, after its members held a media conference in which they questioned the credibility of one of the prosecution’s key witnesses.
At the media conference, the lawyers disclosed that a payment had been made at the direction of Muluzi to the prosecution witness E Kamwana, to educate her son at a private school in England.
The lawyers have informed the British Overseas Development Minister, Baroness Lynda Chalker, who made a promise in the British House of Lords last month that her government would be monitoring the Banda trial to ensure that justice was done. The lawyers have also alleged that the prosecution team withheld evidence from them and blocked access to witnesses.
The head of the defence, Clive Stanbrook, was quoted in a British daily newspaper this week as saying:
“It started off as a trial of the past order. It may end up as a test of its successor’s commitment to change.” What sort of influence Botha could exert from South Africa is uncertain, especially given the fact that he is no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that South Africa too is battling to address the crimes of its past government.
His representative said that Botha carried no brief for ex-president Banda, but that it was in everybody’s interests to ensure that justice was done. He said that the Malawi ambassador would be contacted before the end of the week, but that the date for the appointment had not yet been finalised.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it knew nothing about the appeal from the Banda’s lawyers and could not comment on Botha’s initiative until more details were known. Presidential representative Parks Mankahlana said that President Nelson Mandela had not been approached either.
A representative from Memory Crystal, Martin Minns, said that Botha was one of a number of influential people in the Southern African region targeted on this
He said that it was hoped that Botha could use his extensive influence and experience to good effect. Minns said that Amnesty International and British donor agencies were also monitoring the trial.