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Blantyre Magistrate’s Court on Monday acquitted former Shire Buslines chief executive Humphrey Mvula’s cousin Kita Chimzimu Mvula and his business partner Nellie Tonia Banda who were accused of palm-oiling the former bus company boss for awarding their company McHendry Trading a contract to supply goods.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) dragged the two to court on allegations that the co-owners of McHendry Trading last year paid K300,000 (over $2000) to Malawi Housing Corporation as part payment for the purchase of a house NE 119 in Nyambadwe on behalf of Humphrey Mvula and another K300,000 to a contractor to construct a fence around the house as a reward to the former Shire Buslines boss fora contract to supply goods to the bus company.
Delivering the ruling on Monday, Chief Resident Magistrate David Kadwa said the ACB failed to prove that Shire Buslines Limited is a public company and therefore had no sufficient grounds to prosecute the two on counts of corrupting a public officer.
“In charging a person with corruption the state must produce written evidence that the defendant is a public servant. The onus is on the state to prove that the corruptee was a public officer. In this case the Anti-Corruption Bureau failed to prove to the court that Shire Buslines Limited is a public company.
“I hold that Shire Bus Company is a private company and therefore Mr Humphrey Mvula was not a public officer. I thus acquit the accused because the state has not proved that the corruptee was a public officer,” said Kadwa while citing previous cases to back up his ruling.
He defined a public officer as any person who is a member of, or an employee of a public body, a public body being a government department, statutory corporation or any other body set up by government.
In an interview after the ruling, ACB chief prosecutor Gaston Mwenelupembe said he was not satisfied with the determination that Shire Buslines is not a public company but was quick to state that “it would be very premature to say whether the bureau will appeal or not because the decision requires wider consultation” and that he works under instructions from the bureau’s director.
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