Chizuma sued For defamation
Zunneth Sattar’s business associate Ashok Kumar Sreedharan has sued Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) director general Martha Chizuma for defamation.
The lawsuit is based on a leaked audio in which the ACB head alleges that money changed hands to have the applicant released after an arrest; among other things that Chizuma discusses in the recording that earned her a misconduct rebuke from President Lazarus Chakwera after she admitted to him that the said conversation was authentic.
The court summons, registered as civil cause number 62 of 2020, indicates that Chizuma has been sued in her personal capacity and that the claimant is demanding damages after his name was put into disrepute in the audio in question.
The ACB recently arrested Sreedharan alongside former minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa on allegations of corruption relating to land deals.
The arrests were part of an on going joint investigation between ACB and Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) into Sattar’s financial dealings.
Both Sreedharan and Msukwa were unconditionally released from arrest after they sought the intervention of the High Court.
Last month, an audio clip leaked in which Chizuma, among other things, is heard claiming that a specific judge accepted a bribe ahead of Sreedharam’s court hearing on his arrest.
Reads the case statement: “In the audio recording of a conversation between the defendant and a person unknown to the claimant, the defendant falsely and maliciously spoke and published of and concerning the claimant to the said person the words following, that is to say: Ah! Pajatu ndi zomwezi…kuti akayimitsa ukuku…ayi …inalitu isanafike ndikufika komwe. Yes, sinafike ndikufika komwe ndikumene apanga zinyakanyakala zawozi, kumutulutsa Ashok. Ayi a judge aja adyetsedwa kale. Timachita kudziwa. Ife tinadziwa by Wednesday kuti tikukapanga hearing Friday kuti apapa yalakwa.
“So let me [tell] you this thing…by Friday ndiye ndinali depressed, especially kutuluka kwa Ashok, eti? Ineyo ndinanena kuti through the hands of that man, ma trillions of Malawi Kwacha adutsamo and it hurt me. Zinandiwawa, eh? Zimandiwawa kuwona kuti the justice system…”
According to the case statement, these words meant and were understood to mean that the claimant was an extremely corrupt person; that the claimant corrupted a judge to have him released from custody and that the claimant is so corrupt that the whole justice system will help.
“By reason of the premises, the claimant has been greatly injured in his credit, character and reputation and has been brought into public scandal, ridicule, odium and contempt,” further reads the court application filed by Ashok’s lawyer Michael Goba Chipeta of Gobz and Rechtswissenschaft.
The case is assigned to Justice Kenyetta Nyirenda who has since ordered that if Chizuma does not want to contest the proceedings, she must, within 14 days after service of the summons, state that she does not want to contest the proceedings, but desire a stay of enforcement of the judgement, if any.
The court further orders Chizuma, within 28 days after the service of the summons, to either satisfy the claim or file with the court a defence and a list of documents.
In his public address last month, Chakwera said while he was displeased with the audio clip, he still believed in Chizuma’s capacity to head the ACB at a time his administration is committed to rooting out corruption in the public sector.
The leaked audio, purportedly a conversation between Chizuma and some unknown person, mentions by name social media activist Stanley Onjezani Kenani as one of the people the ACB director turns to for help to strategise on winning the support of various stakeholders such as churches in winning public support.
Chizuma, in the recording, also discusses when the bureau would take specific action on its findings and entertains views that the majority of lawyers are corrupt.
