Msungama out on bail

Hearing of the appeal of the case involving businessperson Mike Msungama, the first person to be convicted in relation to Cashgate, failed to take place yesterday after the Regional Prosecution Office of the police failed to bring a witness to court due to shortage of police officers.

The officers have been deployed to various centres for the May 20 Tripartite Elections.

Lawyers for Msungama had appealed to the court to allow admission of technical evidence on appeal which would show that the Toyota Fortuner on which he was convicted of possession of stolen property found did not belong to him.

Msungama claimed he was holding on to the vehicle as collateral for a loan which a Mozambican national, Samuel Pofera Salambula, acquired from him,  but police yesterday failed to bring the Mozambican to court due to shortage of officers to accompany him.

Msungama’s lawyer Wapona Kita told the court that the police had informed him that they had no capacity to bring Salambula to court due to elections.

“We all tried to provide alternatives, but the police insisted there was no police officer on the ground to carry out the production order, so we cannot proceed with the case,” Kita said.

High Court Judge Ivy Kamanga allowed for an adjournment, but said she failed to understand how police could fail to produce one officer to escort Salambula to court.

However, Kita managed to lodge a successful bail application pending appeal on the grounds that Msungama had been due for a medical check-up in South Africa on April 18 2014 following his tumour operation, but he was imprisoned and that he had demonstrated that he was not a flight risk by travelling throughout his trial.

Kamanga granted Msungama bail on two sureties of K20 000 each non-cash and that he should surrender his travel document which would only be given to him when he had to travel for his medical checkup.