State to challenge K8bn Mulli claim

The office of the Attorney General has said it will challenge a K8 billion claim from a civil cause number 474 of 2012, where Chombe Foods Limited and Sunrise Pharmaceuticals Limited both belonging to business magnet Leston Mulli.

The firms are seeking about K8 billion as interests in business lost in 2013.

On Friday the court, through senior deputy registrar Justus Kishindo, adjourned the case after the State registered its intention to challenge the claim.

According to State advocate Neverson Chisiza, the State was challenging the claim as it had already settled about K3.1 billion in claims over the same case and that the case was old—having last been heard in court in 2013—and was finding it difficult to accept why it was being resuscitated.

“We are very much going to challenge this claim for the reasons that we have highlighted. As State, we are ready for the case soon as the court sets a date. We are very much determined to defend because we feel government has no further obligation to pay.

“In fact, there is a document in which the State and claimant lawyers signed that there will be no further claims. So, the judge adjourned the case but we hope the date will be set anytime soon,” he said.

But lawyer for the claimants Tamanda Chokotho refused to take questions from the media, saying his client had not given him permission to speak to the media.

Meanwhile, the Malawi Law Society (MLS) has joined the case as friends of the court.

Earlier on Friday, Youth and Society (YAS), in a press statement signed by its executive director Charles Kajoloweka, called for transparency into how the case is being handled.

Mulli Holdings Limited claimed K3.1 billion after its food processing and pharmaceutical firms were damaged in the July 20 2011 public demonstrations. n