Nocma fuel deals case Oct 3
The Lilongwe Chief Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday adjourned to October 3-5 2023 continued hearing of a fuel import deals case where former Cabinet minister Newton Kambala and two others are accused of attempting to influence contracts.
This was the second adjournment of the case within 24 hours and on both occasions the situation was linked to funerals.
On Monday, the case could not proceed because one of the accused, Enock Chihana, who is president of Alliance for Democracy (Aford), went to attend the funeral of former minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe in Mzimba District.
Yesterday, the court also failed to hear the matter because Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) principal witness Helen Buluma had to travel to Nsanje to attend the funeral of her relation, Senior Chief Malemia who died yesterday morning
The defence was scheduled to start cross-examining Buluma, who is former National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) Limited deputy chief executive officer, on her WhatsApp messages and phone conversation recordings evidence tendered in court in May last year.
When the court reconvened yesterday, ACB director-general Martha Chizuma said their witness was set to proceed with cross-examination, but received a message about Malemia’s death around 7am as she was preparing for court.
She said: “We received sad news that T/A Malemia passed on earlier today. We were informed the T/A and our witness are related. She had to leave for the funeral.”
In an interview outside the courtroom, one of the defence lawyers, Bright Theu, said: “We were very ready to roll and proceed the whole day. In fact, we have been set since June last year, that’s when our preparations were complete.
“Certainly this case has dragged. We are talking about one year of no progress. This case should have been completed last year.”
In the case, Kambala, Chihana and former presidential aide Chris Chaima-Banda were arrested on August 9 2021 for allegedly trying to influence a public officer in the procurement of fuel contrary to provisions of the Corrupt Practices Act.
In Buluma’s testimony, a recorded conversation with Chaima-Banda was played in court and the former presidential aide is heard as having stated that President Lazarus Chakwera had settled for a company called Finergy to be one of the suppliers of fuel to State-owned Nocma.
The ACB formally interviewed and recorded a statement from Chakwera in relation to the fuel import deals in September 2021.
Earlier, the defence asked the court to discharge the matter arguing that there was lack of interest from the prosecuting agency to proceed with the case. The court however dismissed the application.
Theu and Khumbo Soko are representing Kambala, Gilbert Khonyongwa is counsel for Chihana and Wapona Kita and George Mtchuka Mwale are representing Chaima.
On January 20 2022, the three pleaded not guilty to all charges laid before them prompting the State to parade witnesses.
