PP to summon Kasambara, Lutepo for hearing

The ruling People’s Party (PP) is planning to summon to a disciplinary hearing its director of legal services, Ralph Kasambara, and deputy director of recruitment, Oswald Lutepo, over allegations of attempted murder and money laundering charges the two are respectively answering in court.

PP’s deputy publicity secretary Ken Msonda made the revelation in an interview this week, saying the disciplinary hearing is meant to seek the officials’ side of the story on the court cases before the party can take any action.

“These are serious allegations our senior officials are facing, and while the party has decided to call them for a disciplinary hearing, we will be mindful that these are matters that are still in court.

“The party is obviously consulting our legal minds how best this issue can be approached, we are assuring our members that the party will follow all the rules of natural justice and that is why we want to hear from them before any action is taken,” said Msonda.

The deputy publicity secretary said the matter will be communicated to Kasambara and Lutepo, who are currently in police custody. He, however, said the two remain in their positions and that the party expects them to continue discharging their duties.

“Let me emphasise that the party, as the President said [when she returned from her recent New York trip], will not protect, defend or shield anyone involved in the cash-gate, be it small or big fish. Those involved will have to defend themselves,” he said.

Msonda said PP believes in democratic values and principles, and would, therefore, not fall into the trap of condemning people before the due legal process.

Lawyer Justin Dzonzi, a human rights activist and executive director of Justice Link, said in an interview this week the party is entitled to summon the two to the disciplinary hearing if it believes they have brought the party into disrepute.

“As a party, PP cannot be stopped from taking action if they feel there is a breach of party protocol,” he said.

The activist said although he does not think PP would summon the two to specifically tackle the charges they are facing in court, the party would be entitled to weigh if the mere arrests have brought the party into disrepute and take action in the interest of saving the party’s image.

Lawyer representing Lutepo, Jai Banda, said he has no problems with PP summoning his client for a disciplinary hearing.

Banda said he is only dealing with a criminal matter and PP is at liberty to proceed if it has issues with his client at party level. He said he believes PP has a constitution to follow on such matters.

Kasambara’s lawyer, Manuel Theu, said he only represented the attempted murder suspect on bail application and medical issues, but Kasambara would choose how he intends to deal with the matter once released on bail.

He, therefore, said he could not comment on any matter including PP’s decision to summon Kasambara, adding he only came into the matter because he is related to Kasambara.

Kasambara, a former minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, is accused of attempting to murder budget director Paul Mphwiyo while Lutepo, a businessperson, is accused of siphoning as much as K2.6 billion from government coffers.

The High Court in Lilongwe is set to make a ruling on Kasambara’s bail application on November 22 while the High Court in Zomba granted Lutepo bail, but said he would remain in custody up to December 6 to allow the State to finalise investigations.

The shooting of the budget director on September 13 this year opened a can of worms and led to revelations that billions of kwacha were systematically siphoned from Capital Hill through questionable payments by civil servants to private companies.

Kasambara and his bodyguard, a police officer Keston Gani, and Pika Manondo, have since been charged with attempted murder of Mphwiyo who is still in South Africa where he went to receive medical treatment.

Meanwhile, donors under the Common Approach to Budgetary Support (Cabs) have suspended their aid for the first quarter of the 2013/14 financial year following disappointment over the looting of public funds.

Cabs comprises the United Kingdom (UK), Norway, Germany, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Union (EU) and the World Bank with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) participating as private observers.