LUSAKA – The Supreme Court has confirmed the 5 year conviction and sentencing of former Finance Minister Katele Kalumba and Stella Chibanda of the offence of corrupt practices.
Similarly,Fasutine kabwe and Aaron Chuungu has lost their appeal for lack of merit and ordered that the four should start serving the five year sentence forthwith.
In 2010,then Lusaka Magistrate Edward Musona convicted and sentenced the four to a 5 year jail sentence,the sentencing which they appealed in the Lusaka High Court.
Their conviction arose from the payment of US$20 million made to US security companies Systems Innovation and Wilbain Incorporation involving US$20 during the time Kalumba served as finance minister in the MMD under the leadership of second republican president late Fredrick Chiluba.
In June 2013 Judges Jane Kabuka, Nigel Mutuna, and Evans Hamaundu endorsed the magistrate’s decree on reasons that the lower court cannot be faulted for convicting the quartet over their shady dealings.
Judge Hamaundu said cases relating to corruption were rampant and giving a non custodial sentence to the four would be a drop in the ocean in the fight against graft which is a menace to the country’s economic system.
The four who merely delayed their time in jail are expected to spend the next 5 years in a government correctional facility and serve as a warning to any corrupt public officers that justice always catches up with the wicked.
