EXCLUSIVE

BLANTYRE—A high-profile Malawi cabinet minister is battling to keep a tight lead over his alleged shocking sex scandal, MaraPost has learnt.

Sources said the cabinet minister attempted to have sex with the girl against her will in Mzuzu on July 20 this year.

The victim is the daughter of a former vice president during Pres Bakili Muluzi’s first term in office. At this stage, MaraPost chooses to withhold the name of the former vice president as it could lead to the victim’s identity. MaraPost also has decided not to reveal the names of our sources for fear of reprisals.

A source at a hotel in Mzuzu said hotel staff rushed to the room the cabinet minister had booked as a secretariat for his private law firm after they heard a voice of a female screaming for help.

Narrating the episode, a member of staff at the legal firm said there were five girls working for the firm as interns and had gone to Mzuzu on a business trip.

“At a certain point they were offered drinks which might have been mixed with [an] ecstasy drug and they went into a room and started calling girls one by one. When it was this girl’s turn - she seemed not to have taken the drink - [the cabinet minister] started fondling her. She resisted; he pushed her down [trying] to rape her and she screamed,” our source at the legal firm said.

Hotel staff forced their way into the room and they were shocked to see the cabinet minister. The girl dashed out of the room crying and called her mother who drove 410 kilometers from Lilongwe to get her daughter home.

“The girl is in shock,” a friend of the family told MaraPost. “Her brother is [a cabinet minister]. We are yet to be told what will happen.”

The victim, according to the family friend, is currently undergoing counseling to deal with the emotional trauma.

According to sources, the cabinet minister’s boss has been informed about the alleged incident.

On Tuesday last week, a person familiar with the development posted the allegation on social networking site Facebook but it was quickly taken down.

MaraPost is aware that readers would like to know the identity of the minister. Suffice to say this is the minister’s second sex scandal in seven years. In the first case, a woman sued him for paternity.
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You saw this story first in MaraPost ©2012 The Maravi Post. Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment.