1999 — President Bakili Muluzi is re-elected for his second and final five-year term.
January 1999 — Abdul Pilane, former minister for work and supplies in Malawi, appears in court on charges of corruption. Police claim he accepted money and goods from a South African construction company while he was in office. He does not enter a plea and is released on bail. Since the establishment of the anti-corruption bureau by the government in 1994, Mr. Pilane is the first cabinet minister to be investigated by it.
June 1999 — Police arrest Horace Somanje, editor of the independent weekly Malawi News, and Mabvuto Banda, a reporter for the same paper in connection with their June 19 article about resentful opposition supporters. The report quotes opposition members who accuse President Muluzi and his United Democratic Front (UDF) party for falsifying the results of election votes of this year. The Blantyre magistrate court charges Somanje and Banda with conspiracy to endanger national security. The two journalists are granted bail yet their travel documents are confiscated, and they are instructed to report twice a week to the police in Blantyre. In early July, the Malawi High Court suspends criminal investigation into the case, pending a judicial review for which no date is set. Meanwhile Somanje and Banda are no longer required to report to the police.
February 2000 — Government authorities begin an investigation into corruption allegations against Finance Minister, Casim Chilumpha, Secretary of the Treasury, Respicious Dzanjalimodzi and Chilimpha's chief of staff Wallace Chawawa. They were the subjects of growing suspicion ever since the government intended a contract to be awarded to a Swiss company SGS, but the three officials awarded it to a British shipping inspection firm instead.
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) official Alex Namota says the three are being investigated because they defied 'lawful demands of openness, transparency and accountability', and that the contract is 'tainted with illegality'.
By September, the ACB obtains 20 arrest warrants for officials said to have been involved in the scandal. By February 2001, Casim Chilumpha is charged in court for receiving money in return for awarding contracts for the building of schools and is arrested.
September 2000 — President Bakili Muluzi is accused of being involved in a corruption scandal. According to the independent weekly Chronicle, a local newspaper, the government conducted a report, which claimed the president engineered a US$2 million corruption scheme. Muluzi allegedly organized a plan to award building contracts to supporters who in return contributed money for his party's election campaign. Former Secretary of Education Sam Safuli, the author of the report, was himself arrested in relation to the corruption investigation. The report asserts corruption in the Ministry of Education totaled more than US$2.5 million. Muluzi's spokesman Alaudin Osman denies the allegations.
President Muluzi intends to sue the newspaper for abusing press freedom and for malicious reporting of false information.
February 2001 — An opposition MP from the Malawi Congress Party, Daniel Mphunga, is charged with receiving more than US$7,000 from a contractor—the same one Chilumpha dealt with—in return for giving him contracts to build schools. He is also charged with issuing fake certificates for non-existent projects.
November 2001 — The European Union and United States suspend aid to Malawi, citing widespread corruption and economic mismanagement. The EU suspends the release of US$13 million and also demands a refund of 7 million Euros (US$9.9 million) already disbursed. The United States also diverts US$6 million of the US$7 million of aid money meant for Malawi, to another country. Britain puts a hold on its funds because of the prevalence of corruption and mismanagement of funds in Malawi.
In January 2002, Denmark announces its plan to withdraw its funds for Malawi. The Danish embassy in the Malawi capital of Lilongwe says Copenhagen's decision to withdraw all its development aid to Malawi with immediate effect has been prompted by Malawi's corruption and political intolerance.
December 2001 — Nelson Wilfred Shaba, a Malawian businessman and opposition activist, is arrested. He is detained and charged with treason for writing critical letters to the president, where he attacked Muluzi's leadership and Malawi's deteriorating democratic standards. Shaba's lawyer says sedition is inconsistent with the spirit of the new Malawi constitution, which guarantees freedom of opinion, expression and press.
July 5, 2002 — The National Assembly rejects President Muluzi's proposals to amend the constitution and allow him to run for an unconstitutional third term in office. Muluzi claims the ruling is 'irresponsible and insensitive'. The president's proposal to run for a third term provokes heated protests drawing thousands of Malawians. Civil rights and church groups also plan demonstrations in the country's cities. At Mulazi's instructions, the army and the police ban demonstrations.
August 2002 — After an investigation conducted by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which focused on the sale of 160,000 tons of Malawi's grain stocks last year, Malawian government investigators recommend that officials who allegedly mismanaged the country's grain reserves be prosecuted. According to a report by the ACB, several Malawian politicians bought some of the grain and sold it on the open market at a higher price. This transaction has forced the government to borrow US$28 million to make up for the resulting food shortage. The ACB blames officials in Malawi's Agricultural Department and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) and the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA).
February 2003 — Members of the United Democratic Front's (UDF) youth wing, known as the Young Democrats, attack newspaper vendors for selling allegedly pro-opposition papers. Local journalists say the attacks are provoked by a Daily Times article written about Muluzi's attempt to run for an unconstitutional third term in office as president of Malawi.
June 2003 — The Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) threatens private radio stations that air critical news coverage. MACRA warns MIJ FM, a radio station at the Malawi Institute of Journalism, that it risks losing its broadcasting license because of alleged political bias in its reporting. MACRA's director announces that under Malawi's 1998 Communications law, community radio stations are not allowed to broadcast news.
July 2003 — Young Democrats attack again, physically assaulting a photojournalist for the independent daily The Nation, Daniel Nyirenda. He was taking pictures of a fight that broke out among delegates near the entrance gates of the convention hall. According to Nyirenda's colleagues, the assailants broke his digital camera and stole another one. Nyirenda spends more than a week in the hospital after the attack. After party officials publicly admit that Nyirenda's assailants were UDF members, a regional governor says the reporter's beating was deserved and accuses the journalist of being a spy for the opposition leader Aleke Banda.
May 23, 2004 — Three days after contested presidential elections in Malawi, armed police move into the community radio station MIJ 90.3 after host Arthur Chokotho conducts a live telephone interview with opposition spokeswoman Kholiwe Mkandawire. Mkandawire says the ruling UDF has stolen the elections and threatens opposition action if the UDF candidate is declared president. Station manager Evans Masamba cuts off the interview but shortly afterwards the police raid the stations offices, arresting Chokotha and Masamba. The police close the stations office as well as those of the Malawi Institute of Journalist (MIJ), housed in the same building. MIJ is charged with broadcasting news 'likely to cause a breach of the peace'.
July 2004 — Muluzi steps down as president after serving two terms in office and hand- picks Bingu wa Mutharika to run for president heading the UDF party. Mutharika wins the contested elections and becomes president of Malawi.
February 2005 — President Mutharika resigns from the United Democratic Front (UDF) because of its hostility towards his anti-corruption campaign. He forms the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
July 2006 — Former President Muluzi is arrested on 42 counts of corruption, fraud and abuse of office. But just hours after the arrest, President Mutharika orders the dismissal of the case's chief investigator, Gustav Kaliwo.
August 1, 2006 — As a result of the dismissal, public prosecutor Ishmael Wadi orders the the corruption charges against the former president be dropped.
April 2007 — State regulators bar all private radio stations in Malawi from airing live broadcasts of opposition rallies in the lead-up to presidential elections in 2009 without permission. All private radio and television broadcasting stations must seek advance permission from MACRA before conducting live broadcasts. The government alleges that hate messages are being aired although the MACRA spokeswoman, Clara Mulonya, does not identify any offensive messages.
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