Malawi: High Court Gags Contractor Chidyaonga Over Plans to Sell Reserve Bank of Malawi Building

The High Court in Lilongwe has granted the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) an injunction stopping a contractor from taking over the bank’s Mzuzu offices.

A High Court ruling indicates that David Chidyaonga of DDC Designs was chasing the central bank from its Mzuzu branch and threatening to sell it.

But the central bank legal team led by Agness Sentala sought court’s relief.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Justice Ken Manda said Chidyaonga’s action in threatening to sell the Mzuzu branch is “not only misconceived but it is also vexatious.”

The court says Chidyaonga was paid all his money for designing and supervision services for the construction of the RBM Mzuzu branch although he claims he was not paid all his money.

Judge Manda said Chidyaonga cannot claim royalties from RBM “as he would like to believe because the copyright law which he seeks to rely on does not allow him to do that. Definitely not in this context.”

Manda said if the matter was a determination of the main action, he would also have made a “cease and desist order” saying clearly that is also warranted .

The court ruled that Chidyaonga’s antics are “clearly an inconvenience and irritation.”

In the ruling, the judge condemned Chidyaonga with costs of the application.

DDC Designs of Chidyaonga was the supervising architect of Mzuzu RBM Branch.

Chidyaonga was part of NDDC Consortium–a team of project consultants comprising architects and surveyors.

The K18.4 billion RBM Mzuzu Branch was opened in 2016 by former president Peter Mutharika.

by Nyasa Times.