ACB wants Immigration pushed on evidence
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has asked the Blantyre Magistrate’s Court to order the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services to provide documents pertaining to the alleged irregular recruitment of 127 immigration assistants.
ACB legal and prosecutions officer Michael Kalonga told the court on Monday that since the start of the case against former minister of Homeland Security Cecilia Chazama and five others, the bureau has struggled to access some documents from Immigration to help consolidate its evidence.
He said: “We contacted Immigration and [Homeland Security] Principal Secretary [PS] Mr. [Oliver] Kumbambe regarding documents they [defence] are looking for. They said they don’t have the said documents and what they have is what they already shared with the ACB.
“We tried our best, but it wasn’t easy to get those documents. We request the court to issue a court order addressed to the Immigration. Maybe that can carry more weight so that we can get the documents in question.”
Defence lawyer Bright Theu, representing former Immigration chief Masauko Medi and Immigration officer Chandiwira Chidothe, had earlier told the court that the State was yet to serve them with all the relevant documents such as minutes and memorandum in relation to Immigration assistants’ recruitment process.
He argued that in the absence of the said documents, a fair trial may not be possible because they are the official records which the defence wants to use.
Theu wondered how the documents in question are missing as the State’s first witness Daston Manda, a former Immigration Department principal human resources officer, earlier told the court that those documents exist because he was the one who processed them.
He said: “So, the minutes and the memorandum are very critical for us to participate in a fair trial; hence, the insistence up to this day.
“What we are saying, Your Worship is that we don’t have these documents yet, because the stories from Homeland Security say they are still looking for a memo and the story from Immigration is that the minutes, five of them, are not on file.”
Another defence lawyer, Emmanuel Mwandira, representing Chazama, asked the court to consider as hearsay Manda’s testimony that the former minister sent him a list of people to be considered for the post of Immigration assistants.
In his determination, Blantyre chief resident magistrate Chisomo Msokera agreed with Mwandira that the document with a list of names to be considered for the post alleged to be from Chazama should be taken as hearsay.
But in his response, Kalonga told the court that the State just wanted to show the court the existence of such documents.
The magistrate has since adjourned the matter to this morning where he is expected to give direction on the proceedings.
Besides Chazama, Medi and Chidothe, other accused persons in the case are former Department of Human Resource Management and Development PS Hilario Chimota and Immigration officials Pudensiana Makalamba and Limbani Chawinga.
Last year, Manda testified in court that during the recruitment exercise, he received a list of names from some Democratic Progressive Party officials through Medi for consideration for the Immigration assistant job.
In May 2022, Chazama and five others pleaded not guilty to the charge of abuse of office in the recruitment of 127 immigration assistants.
