/ 29 December 2000

FIRED MINISTER ARRESTED FOR CORRUPTION

FORMER senior Malawian cabinet minister Brown Mpinganjira, sacked last month by President Bakili Muluzi, has been arrested on corruption charges after allegedly authorising payments to “ghost contractors” when he was education minister several years ago. Mpinganjira, 50, was widely tipped to succeed Muluzi as leader of the governing United Democratic Front (UDF), but was abruptly sacked as transport and public works minister, along with education minister Cassim Chilumpha and labour minister Peter Chupa, after the Anti-Corruption Bureau named the three as having been involved in corruption and fraud in the awarding of contracts. AFP