By Esther Chisola
Lusaka Magistrate Silvia Munyinya is today expected to rule on whether or not a State witness from First National Bank (FNB) should be cited for contempt of court after he confessed to having lied to the court.
This is after Lusaka businessman Clever Mpoha through his defence lawyer, asked the Court to cite Chawezi Nyirenda, 31, a banker for contempt of court.
In this matter, former defence permanent secretary Stardy Mwale, Mpoha and Eagle Trading International Limited are accused of corrupt practices involving K8.5 million, charges they denied.
During cross examination, defence lawyer Sakwiba Sikota State Counsel asked the witness whether the documents he brought before court were in his custody, and the witness said the documents in question were submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) by the compliance department.
And asked if he lied when he said the documents in question were the documents he had in custody, he responded in the affirmative.
At this point, Sikota applied for the witness to be cited for contempt.
“Your honour, we seek leave of court to cite the witness for contempt by his own confession,” he said.
The court guided the defence to file an application for contempt but Sikota sought for the court to act immediately.
“Your honour, we seek for the court to act now as the witness is before the honourable court just as this court is mandated to immediately after an accused person’s own confession on the plea of guilty. It is our prayer that we stand down this matter to seek leave for application for contempt based on this witness’ own confession in this honourable court,” said Sikota.
It is alleged in the first count that Mwale, between March 1, 2017 and October 31, 2018 in Lusaka, jointly and whilst acting together with other person’s unknown, being a public officer namely permanent secretary for the ministry of defence, did corruptly receive cash gratification of USD200,000 from Eagle Trading International Limited as a reward for facilitating the payment of management fees to African Security Academy emanating from a contract for the supply of uniforms to the ministry of defence, a matter or transaction concerning the Ministry of Defence, a public body .
In count two, it is alleged that Mpoha and Eagle Trading Limited between March 1, 2017 and October 31 2018 in Lusaka, jointly and whilst acting together with other person’s unknown, being a public officer namely permanent secretary for the Ministry of Defence, did corruptly receive cash gratification of USD200,000 from Eagle Trading International Limited as a reward for facilitating the payment of management fees to African Security Academy emanating from a contract for the supply of uniforms to the Ministry of Defence, a matter or transaction concerning the Ministry of Defence, a public body.
In the last count, it is alleged that Mwale between January 1 2017 and December 31 2021 at Chikankata in the Chikakanta district of the Southern Province of the Republic of Zambia, jointly and whilst acting together with other persons unknown, did possess a farm 132A, property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime.
