Malawian musician Patience Namadingo faces arrest following revelations that the K15 million which he raised for children’s cancer ward at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (Qech) was not handed over to the hospital or Ministry of Health.
The musician, in 2017, conducted a 40-day campaign in which he stormed offices of small and big companies performing live with each person paying K3000.
At the end of the campaign, Namadingo announced that he had raised K15 million and a cheque presentation ceremony with hospital officials was held at Qech.
However, the hospital and the Ministry of Health have told local newspaper, Sunday Times, that the money was never handed over to them.
Qech Director Samson Ndolo said he followed up on the issue after becoming hospital director and he found that the money was never given to the hospital.
Ministry of Health spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe also said that the money was not handed over to the ministry.
“I can confirm that we did not get a single penny out of that campaign,” said Chikumbe.
In an interview with Sunday Times, Namadingo said he raised K15 million but K12 million was never released by the well-wishers who included banks and individuals.
He added that this was the case because he did not want to handle cash and wanted the money to be used for procuring items for the cancer ward.
“So, my plan was to be instructing well-wishers to directly pay suppliers for the Qech paediatric cancer project for the supply of goods and services.
“So, as we speak about K12 million of the total pledges still lies with the well-wishers,” Namadingo said.
However, one of the banks involved, CDH Investment Bank, said it released the funds to Namadingo’s campaign on 31st March, 2017.
“We are surprised to hear from you that the funds were not handed over but the payment was done from our end as I have advised,” the bank’s spokesperson Nancy Bisika told the newspaper.
Following publication of the story, Namadingo has posted on his Facebook page that he will speak about issue this evening when he goes live at 18.00hrs.
Source: Malawi24
