Kalonga sentence hearing end October

The High Court in Lilongwe has set October 12 2015 as the final day for the State and the defence in the case involving former assistant director Leonard Kalonga to have their oral submissions ready for sentence hearing.

Kalonga was convicted on his own plea of guilty late last month for stealing K3.7 billion ($6.7 million) in the ongoing Cashgate trials.

Kalonga (L) at the court during one of the hearing
Kalonga (L) at the court during one of the hearing

In an interview on Tuesday, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mary Kachale said the court will decide dates for the actual sentence hearing.

She said: “The last meeting ended sine die and today the courts were going to decide on the way forward and by the 12th [of October] both sides must have submitted their submissions to court ready for sentence hearing.”

In his affidavit, Kalonga told the court how he, together with other Cashgate suspects, namely former Ministry of Finance budget director Paul Mphwiyo, defrauded government billions of kwacha.

Kalonga further said on Mphwiyo’s instructions, he recruited about 14 construction companies, including Faith Construction whose owner, Angella Katengeza, is also answering a case in court.

Kalonga also told the court that the six buses from Automotive Products Limited were bought by Mphwiyo and that he only facilitated the purchase by delivering a K520 million ($913 884) cheque to a Limbikani Gumbo at Area 18 Filling Station.

In 2013, the shooting of Mphwiyo led to revelations of the plunder of public resources at Capital Hill.

Former president Joyce Banda ordered an audit which British forensic auditor, Baker Tilly, undertook between April and September 2013 and established that about K24 billion ($42.3 million) was siphoned from public coffers through dubious payments, inflated invoices and goods or services never rendered.

In May this year, a financial analysis report by audit and business advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also established that about K577 billion ($1 billion) in public funds could not be reconciled between 2009 and December 31 2014.

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