By Patson Chilemba
Lusaka businessman Misheck Chatora has revealed that he paid $5000 to suspended High Court Judge Timothy Katanekwa after he demanded for the same as gratification for the court case he was going to hear.
And the Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC) has set January 05, 2024 as commencement of hearing against a complaint raised against judge Katanekwa.
In a letter to one of the complainants seen by Daily Revelation, the JCC indicated that it had set January 05, 2024 as date of hearing in a matter where the complainant wrote the commission against the Judge.
The complainant in the matter, Chatora had earlier appeared in respect of the complaint Number 2023/JCC/048.
In his letter of complaint, Chatora accused Katanekwa of corruption, following a court matter which started in 2011 in the Ndola High Court following the termination of contract between his company Maritime Freight and Forwarding Limited and Zambian Breweries.
He stated that he approached Musa Mwenye advocates on November 26, 2011 so as to apply for an order of injunction before the Commercial Division of the Lusaka High Court, saying documents were duly prepared for the same purpose, and that when his friend Peter Banda called his old friend Mumba Chitundu about what had transpired, Chitundu joined them on November 27, 2011, indicating that he knew Katanekwa personally as he had once worked with him in Kabwe.
Chatora stated that he then called Eddie Mwitwa of Musa Mwenye advocates to change the front page of the court documents which had the Lusaka High Court Commercial Division to Ndola High court, saying Mwitwa did just that, with Chitundu immediately calling Katanekwa on his mobile number 0977647646 about the said development and that he wanted to look at the court documents they intended to file in court.
He stated that they immediately made arrangements to travel to Ndola after changing the front page of the court documents, with Chitundu calling Katanekwa on one of his mobile numbers and they managed to see him late in the night at his house in Itawa, Ndola.
Chatora stated that Katanekwa after going through the documents advised them to file the documents in the Ndola High Court the following day.
“As we left his premises in Itawa, Judge Katanekwa asked for money and I produced USD5000 and I gave it to him. He got that money in the presence of the 2 gentlemen I have mentioned above. I was so desperate because Zambian Breweries employees started refusing to load our trucks in Ndola and an injunction was urgently needed. Judge Katanekwa assured us that I did well to sign the new contract and as a result Maritime was going to win the case,” Chatora stated. “When the registry on Monday 28th November, 2011, Mr Banda filed the court documents which Musa Mwenye prepared and we kept hovering around the Ndola High Court. Around 10:00 hours, Judge Katanekwa phoned Chitundu to inform him that he had granted the ex-parte order of injunction. Between 5th December 2011 and 19th December, 2011, inter-partes hearing took place in Judge Katanekwa’s chambers at the Ndola High Court.”
Chatora stated that he attended the court case with his lawyer Mwitwa and Zambian Breweries had Mwansa Mutimushi and Richard Ngulube on their side, and that after the hearing, the judge remained with Mutimushi in the chamber.
He claimed that after the inter-partes hearing in December 2011, Zambian Breweries breached the terms of the injunction and that he approached the court with documents which Mwitwa prepared, which documents he said were filed in the Ndola High Court and when they reached Katanekwa’s chambers, he refused to attend to them claiming that he was working on something better than the route they had taken and that he took it that he meant well since he was a presiding judge and just obliged.
Chatora indicated that between April 05 and April 16, 2012, he received a call from the Ndola High Court that Ngulube, the lawyer for Zambian Breweries was seen at the Ndola High Court with Katanekwa’s marshal, Emily Mupeta and that he drove to the court to see for himself and found Ngulube’s Range Rover ABX 8400 parked in the court car park.
“Emily’s numbers are 0966/097.209987. Richard was in constant touch with Emily around the 12th April, 2012. Apparently, on Monday of that week, Esau Phiri (Zambian Breweries warehouse manager) had informed me that the District Manager for Zambian Breweries in Ndola, Machil Orlemens informed the management meeting that Directors at Zambian Breweries had contacted Judge Katanekwa to discharge the injunction he granted Maritime on 28th November, 2011,” Chatora stated. “When I received information that Richard Ngulube was hovering around the Ndola High Court in the same week, I concluded that what Esau had told me was very accurate. That’s why I went to the Ndola High Court to physically see Richard Ngulube for myself and on Friday that same week, Judge Katanekwa discharged the injunction granted Maritime on 28th November, 2011.”
He provided the number for Ngulube and claimed that Airtel can confirm that Mupeta and Ngulube were in constant touch around the period the injunction was discharged on the numbers he provided. Daily Revelation spoke to Ngulube last year when Chatora first mentioned him to the newspaper, with Ngulube indicating that the businessman should not be taken for his word as he was a sore loser.
Chatora wondered how Ngulube knew that Katanekwa was writing the ruling for him to have camped in Ndola.
“The Commission should extend its investigations to Mwansa Mutimishi because I strongly feel that there will be some communication between Mwansa and Judge Katanekwa. I have already given Judge Katanekwa’s numbers above and Mwansa’s number is 0966..1525. PLEASE CHECK!” he argued, stating that after the injunction was dissolved, he went to Katanekwa’s house in the company of Chitundu and asked him why he discharged the injunction, having carried with him court documents prepared by Derick Mulenga and Company blocking the execution of the ruling he delivered the previous day. “He granted us the ORDER. What a Judge! Zambians Breweries refused to recognise that order on grounds that it was granted on Saturday, a date courts don’t operate.”
He said he left everything at that stage and proceeded to trial which started on September 05, 2012 but that in August 2013, Katanekwa was suspended by late president Michael Sata and that he sympathized with him and drove to his house where the judge urged him to suspend the court case until the tribunal was through with its investigations.
After Katanekwa’s suspension was lifted in March, 2015, Chatora claimed that he was informed by Katanekwa that the then chief justice late Irene Mambilima had instructed him to conclude all cases which were pending judgment and that this time the Judge had been transferred to Kitwe.
He stated that having waited for Katanekwa, he called him in October 2015 and was instructed to get in touch with “Mr Chifuwe” (Assistant Registrar Ndola High Court) and that a date for continued trial was set with the case resuming in October 2025 and ended on July 17, 2016 in the Kitwe High Court.
Chatora stated that after the final submissions were made he made several attempts to get the judgment released by Katanekwa but nothing materialized despite several assurances both by phone and physically, and that in 2017 he drove to Kitwe to drop a letter written by Mwenye Mwitwa advocates to the judge enquiring about the judgment and that he gave the letter to his marshal, Owen Nswana, who he said assured him that the judgment was almost ready after talking to the judge but that the judgment was not delivered following that assurance.
He stated that he followed that up with another drive to Ndola in June 2018, and this time picked Chifuwe who told them that he was at Ndola Rotary Club and was assured that the judgment would be ready first week of July 2018 but that too never materialized, and that the other follow up and a promise from the Judge’s home where he had gone with his driver Moffat Nyowani never materialized.
Chatora stated that there was one incidence which really pains him up to now where he phoned Katanekwa one Saturday morning and was told to get in touch with his marshal the following Monday for judgment but when he phone Owen, he started laughing and told him that the judge had travelled out of the country and there was no judgment which he left.
He stated that he continued calling the Judge and his marshal until his transfer from Kitwe to Lusaka in 2020, and communicated to him about accommodation but told him that all his houses were occupied, and that he would call and the judge would send him messages until September 2022 when he realized that the judge was playing tricks and that he sent him a message that he intended to write to the Chief Justice and then JCC about his conduct.
But that Judge Kataneka responded by sending him devotional messages on whatsapp and started avoiding his calls and never wanted to hear the matter.
He stated that he wrote to the Chief Justice complaining about Katanekwa and what followed that was a Notice of Judgment dated December 22, 2022 which was to be delivered on January 23, 2023 but that never happened over claims that a judgment was still being written with the date pushed to January 31, 2023 but that too never materialized on account that there was purportedly no electricity at the Judge’s house the previous day and the matter was adjourned to February 09, 2023 and that he demanded to enter into his chambers.
“He threatened to recuse himself from our cases because I had sent him a whatsapp message to the effect that his Judgment must be accepted by both parties. I knew he was just bluffing because I know a lot about him. The matter was adjourned to 24th February, 2023. The reason given was that he was still working on the Judgment. On 24th February, 2023, the matter was adjourned to 16th March, 2023. The reason given was that he was attending a criminal session,” Chatora stated. “On 16th March, 2023 the case was adjourned to 24th March. Reason being that the Judgment was being typed. From 24th March, 2023, the case was adjourned to 31st March, 2023.”
Chatora stressed that on March 30, 2023 he sent Katanekwa all the eight notices of judgment he had issued within three months and that the next move was to report him to JCC, stating that when they arrived for judgment on March 31, 2023, they were informed that he was finalizing the judgment.
“To me, it looked like it was the first day he touched that file from 2017. We were ushered into his chambers at 11:30 hrs and Judge Katanekwa only read pleadings i.e Statement of Claim, Further Amended Defence and the Reply. After reading the pleadings, he went straight to announce the decision of the court in favour of Zambian Breweries. He further advised parties advised parties to pick a copy of the typed Judgment on Wednesday, 5th April, 2023. After the oral judgment, on 1st April, 2023, Judge Katanekwa sent me a devotion message on WhatsAPP and later deleted it,” Chatora stated. “I sent him a barrage of Whatsapp messages demonstrating that he read a fraudulent judgment in his chambers on 31st March, 2023. I told him in no uncertain terms that his corruption was now clear and consequences were on their way.”
Chatora stated that Katanekwa in his judgment indicated that Zambian Breweries were in order to terminate the contract because the relationship between Chatora two Zambian Breweries directors had deteriorated beyond redemption but that he actually exhibited that his company had a cordial relationship with Zambian Breweries.
He stated that the Judge also said that Zambian Breweries had discovered letters which were not authentic and that although the Judge did not mention the letters, Zambian Breweries mentioned them in their defence and that that allegation didn’t come up before the termination of the contract. It was an afterthought.
He wondered where the Judge got the conclusion that some letters were forged, describing the same as a total lie, saying this was why he has not issued a typed judgment and his secretary is not typing either.
