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The Blantyre Magistrates Court on Monday heard that Blantyre City Mayor John Chikakwiya is still keeping K350,000 ($3,240) of the K400,000 which he was arrested for last month.
Chikakwiya is on bail after being arrested last month on allegations that he stole K400,000 which he collected from Bakhressa Grain and Milling Company as a donation for maintenance of a road in Nanjiriri, Machinjiri. He appeared before Magistrate David Kadwa on Monday for the case.
The mayor’s lawyer Kalekeni Kaphale produced the money in court and said K47,000 was used to buy cement for the road in question while K3,000 was used to buy fuel.
Kaphale asked Controller of Audit Services at Blantyre City Assembly, Leodidus Kavalo who turned up as a state witness to count the remaining money but Kavalo said there was K1,500 missing.
Chikakwiya’s lawyer Kaphale tendered the money as evidence to the court but presiding magistrate David Kadwa refused to keep the money, saying the lawyer should continue keeping it.
Apart from Kavalo, other top officials from the Blantyre City Assembly including Director of Engineering Services Kenneth Kantwela plus Committee and Member Services Officer Ernest Chatsika also turned up as state witnesses.
The court heard that Chikakwiya obtained a donation from Bakhressa but that when the cheque came, the mayor gave instructions that the money should be paid to his deputy, Isaac Nyakamera who was put in charge of overseeing the road maintenance.
When he was cross-examined by state lawyer Primrose Chimwaza, Kantwela told the court that the road in question was not budgeted for and that the right procedure after the donation was received could have been to forward it to the Director of Finance who could have written a memorandum to the Department of Engineering.
But Kaphale watered down Kantwela’s evidence saying if he had noted something wrong with the procedure, he would have written the Ministry of Local Government to complain against the mayor as is required by the Local Government Act.
The court moved to the road in question following Kaphale’s request to confirm that the road is in bad shape.
“The reason that Mr. Nyakamera was told to supervise the work was because the mayor was scheduled to leave for a conference in Ethiopia. Of course, the mayor’s trip failed but he had already assigned the work to his deputy,” said Kaphale.
Chatsika said he mentioned to his management that the transaction was “a bit irregular but since it was an instruction, I didn’t challenge it”.
Chikakwiya was accompanied to the court by several of his fellow councillors who travelled with him to the court.
The case continued on Tuesday morning and other city assembly gurus such as Chief Executive Sophie Kalimba and Nyakamera are expected to testify as they spent the whole day sitting outside the court while the case was in progress.
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