Trader exports sand to UK instead of sugar

A trader based in Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre is at pains to come  to terms with the reality after he exported 42 metric tonnes of sand to the United Kingdom (UK) instead of export quality sugar from Illovo valued at K28 million.

Henry Mwenyekonde, who owns Tsupe Logistics, is alleged to have employed a temporary driver in May this year to drive his Iveco truck to and from Illovo Sugar Factory in Nchalo, 75 km from Blantyre, to transport Dry Demerara  Raw Brown Sugar meant for export.

On May 2 and 4, 2016 the driver (name withheld) loaded 21 metric tonnes of the said sugar to be transported to Chirimba Container Terminals in Blantyre to be exported to UK through Beira in
Mozambique.

But instead of taking the goods to their destination, on both days he diverted to Mapanga in Blantyre where he removed all the sugar from the bags and replaced with sand.

Blantyre Police Station spokesperson Elizabeth Divala confirmed yesterday saying the driver, who is currently at large, managed to remove the sugar without tampering with the seals on the containers.

Divala said the driver then took the vehicle to Chirimba where, officers without even daring to check whether indeed there was sugar in the containers, exported the sand to the UK.

“On July 22 2016, Mr Mwenyekonde was informed by the company that was supposed to receive the sugar in UK that there was no sugar in the bags but sand.

“On receipt of the news, investigations were instituted and luckily the vehicle had a GPS facility from car trucking which traced the vehicle’s movements,” explained Divala.

The police publicist said their investigations led to the arrest of prominent Blantyre businessperson Ali Paseli and Wonderful Kumbukani in connection to the incident.

The two were arrested on November 10 and are currently on full remand at Chichiri Prison awaiting court appearance this Friday.

Kumbukani is the owner of the premises at Mapanga where the sugar was offloaded while Paseli admitted during caution statement to have  bought the 200 bags of the said sugar. They were both charged with the offence of receiving stolen property.

When contacted on the matter Illovo Sugar Malawi managing director Ray de Allende declined to comment saying the matter was dealing with the actions of an independent transport contractor and not Illovo as such the sugar company had nothing to say.

Early last year, Paseli was also arrested alongside two G4S guards for on allegations of breaking into a building and stealing 481 boxes of tiling materials worth K4 million from the new Crossroads Hotel in
Blantyre when it was under construction.