GBM case adjourned
…as HH accuses police of mischief
By CHARLES MUSONDA THE case in which UPND vice president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba is charged for proposing violence yesterday failed to take off.
This was due to trial Magistrate Nthandose Chabala’s illness. Mwamba is charged for threatening to go for President Lungu’s throat prior to the August 11, 2016 elections.
When the case came up for mention before Magistrate Felix Kaoma, public prosecutor Zalila Sakala told the court that the prosecution was ready to proceed with the trial and had brought one witness but that Ms. Chabala was unwell, prompting the court to adjourn the matter.
The case was adjourned to March 28, 2018 for mention, April 27, 2018 for another mention, and May 11, 2018 for continued trial. This was after defence lawyer Jack Mwiimbu told the court that the defence team would not be available in April.
Speaking to journalists after the adjournment, Mr. Mwamba, who was flanked by UPND president Hakainde Hichilema and other party leaders, claimed that his prosecution was the PF government’s attempt to break the opposition.
“They want to break us down but they must concentrate on how much they have damaged this economy,” Mwamba said.
And Mr. Hichilema said the police were being mischievous for cancelling the UPND’s scheduled card renewal exercise in Kasama.
He said the UPND had said time and again that freedom of assembly and freedom of association were guaranteed in the republican Constitution.
He said the Public Order Act was clear in that it only required the UPND to inform the police and not to get a permit from the service.
Mr. Hichilema said the police’s cancellation of the UPND’s Kasama card renewal exercise was total mischief driven by the PF.
He said PF secretary general Davis Mwila was all over Zambia without the police stopping him and wondered why the police were treating the UPND differently.
“They don’t want us to interact with the people and give them alternatives to their (PF’s) total failures,” Mr. Hichilema said.
He said the police would not manage to sustain their support for the PF government because it was (allegedly) a failing regime.
Meanwhile, a Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia (CIRDZ) accountant yesterday had his case of false fraudulent accounting and theft by servant allocated to Magistrate Silvia Munyinya for commencement of trial.
Gershom Musonda Mpilikisha, 35, of Kafue, is facing 66 counts of false fraudulent accounting and theft by servant involving over K250, 000, property of CIDRZ.