| Name | Hetherwick Ntaba |  |
| Surname | Ntaba | |
| First Names | Hetherwick | |
| Alternate Name | ||
| Title | Dr | |
| Country of Birth | Malawi |
| Positions | |||
| From | To | Organisation | Position |
| 2006 | Office of the President & the Cabinet | Chief Political Advisor to the President | |
| 2006 | Democratic Progressive Party | Director of Publicity | |
| 2006 | 2006 | Ministry of Health | Minister of Health |
| Date of Birth | 28 Oct 1943 |
| Political Affiliation | DPP |
| Telephone | |
| Address | |
| Notes | MCP faces sheriffs, could lose funding The cash-strapped main opposition party MCP could be brought to its knees by losing its fixed source of funding or some of its assets if the courts again decide to go along with the party’s former Treasurer General Stanley Masauli. Masauli has instructed his lawyers to cause the seizure of the party’s property or block its quarterly Parliamentary funding, whichever is feasible in the short term, to recover a sum of K5,265,574.47 the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered the party to pay him on May 25, 2006. He lent the money to the party in 1998. After several failed attempts to recover the money, Masauli took his former party to court. The High Court dismissed his suit, saying the party did not borrow the money, but Masauli just incurred expenses whose reimbursement needed to comply with the MCP constitution. A panel of three Appeal justices James Kalaile, Atanazio Tembo and Duncan Tambala however differed with the High Court, saying the fact that then Treasurer General Hetherwick Ntaba wrote a letter acknowledging the loan, and promising to square it through instalments, was proof the party owed Masauli. But since the ruling some 36 days ago, the party has not paid and Masauli is fed up. “My lawyer is trying to see how the money can be recovered. Sheriffs might be used, or funding from Parliament would be blocked. That is my money, and I want it. I have waited for too long, and the MCP has not been fair on me. One good turn deserves another, so they say, but this is what the MCP did to me. “My lawyer requires his money too, so he will obviously expedite the process so that one way or another, whether it means setting sheriffs on the party or blocking its Parliamentary funding, the money is paid. I want to start doing a few things that require finances,” he said. We could not establish as of Thursday afternoon if Masauli’s lawyers had filed an application in court. Masauli said he is opting for measures “people might interpret as extreme because my former party has never wanted to talk”. “They should have said Mr Masauli we are not able to pay back the whole amount, and then we would have agreed on a solution. However, they are just quiet. It is very unfortunate. I thought they claim to be fathers of contact and dialogue,” he said. “Why haven’t they exercised it in this case?” MCP spokesperson Nicholas Dausi confirmed that the party has indeed not paid Masauli. “My friend, K5 million is a lot of money. The party must not be punished as if we stole; we did not commit any theft. This money has just attracted interest over a period. We are not happy at all. I think we got cheated somewhere. It is very sad,” he said. Dausi indicated that his party has not yet held a meeting to discuss how to pay the money which would deprive MCP of two quarterly fundings from Parliament. MCP gets about K2.5 million every three months, according to a parliamentary source. “This is not to say that we are playing down the Supreme Court ruling. We just have not had the time to do so because some members of the national executive committee have been busy at the National Assembly,” he said. He could not explain how the party failed to find time between May 25 when the ruling was made and June 4 when the National Assembly started the ongoing budget sitting. When told that Masauli would set sheriffs on his party or block its parliamentary funding, Dausi protested. [ Malawi Nation (Lilongwe) - 1 Jul 2006 ] |
| Record last updated on 21 MAY 2008 |