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No separate trial in Chaponda case

 

Zomba Magistrate’s Court yesterday declined to grant Rashid Tayub, director of Transglobe Produce Limited, his wish to separate the case in which he is being accused of corruption in the procurement of maize from Zambia.

The court also rebuffed the State’s application to call  its two witnesses—former Admarc chief executive officer Foster Mulumbe and former director of operations Feckson Kantonga—to testify again in the case where Tayub is being charged alongside former minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development George Chaponda.

Chaponda (C) leaving court after yesterday’s session

Mulumbe and Kantonga, who are first and second State witnesses respectively, already testified but the State wanted to recall them arguing they did not properly record the evidence during their initial appearance before Blantyre chief resident magistrate (CRM) Simeon Mdeza.

Lawyers for Tayub filed an application to separate the case, arguing that they wanted to expedite trial because their client only has one charge as compared to his co-accused, Chaponda, who has three.

Further, the defence argued that Tayub’s business was suffering because of the court proceedings. He said, for instance, banks were refusing to offer his businesses loans because of his alleged involvement in corruption.

However, making his ruling, Zomba CRM Paul Chiotcha dismissed the application for splitting the court case, arguing that would defeat the purpose of expediting trial.

He also said there was no evidence that Tayub’s business was being affected because of the court case.

But reacting to the court’s determination, one of Tayub’s lawyers, Jai Banda, said they were disappointed because they will just be sitting in court as most of the evidence from the witnesses concerns Chaponda only.

“But we just have to abide by the rules of the court. In any event, we are prepared to proceed with trial,” he said.

Chaponda is answering three charges which include giving false information to ACB, influencing a public officer to misuse his position and possession of foreign currency, while Tayub is answering to the charge of persuading a public officer to misuse his position. They both denied the charges.

On his part, State lead counsel McMillan Chakhala also said the court’s ruling not to recall Mulumbe and Kantonga will not affect them because they have trust in the evidence they already provided.

“We have the confidence in the evidence Mulumbe and Kantonga provided so we will proceed with the other witnesses,” he said.

The State then paraded its third witness Robert Mbuzi Mkandawire, senior investigations officer for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), who searched Chaponda’s residence in Lilongwe where they found money in various currencies.

In his statement, Mkandawire said they were told by Chaponda that the money was realised from a Blue Night function which the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held in Blantyre.

However, he stated that when they inquired from DPP treasurer-general Henry Mussa, also Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism and Nicholas Dausi, a senior DPP member and Minister of Information and Communications Technology, about the issue, they both denied that the money was realised from the said event.

Chiotcha then adjourned the matter to February 8 2018 for the State, through ACB, to parade more witnesses.

The ex-minister, who is also vice-president for the DPP responsible for the Southern Region and parliamentarian for Mulanje West, and Tayub were arrested by ACB in July last year on suspicion of corruption relating to procurement of the K26 billion maize from Zambia. n

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