Doctor disowns Kereke affidavit
Court battles ... Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono
27/05/2012 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
A MEDICAL doctor cited in court documents in a bitter battle between Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono and his former adviser Munyaradzi Kereke has dismissed an affidavit bearing his name as fraudulent.
Two Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe security details Phillip Dendere, 47, and George Nyahuye, 36, are charged with assaulting Kereke’s driver Privilege Maturure on March 12 this year.
If the two men are convicted, that could have serious implications for Gono – whom Kereke accuses of a cocktail of plots including intimidation and murder in a bid to stop him from whistle-blowing about alleged corruption at the central bank.
A key piece of evidence in the case is a medical report signed by one Doctor J. Marisa at Parirenyatwa after examining injuries suffered by Maturure.
The report states that Maturure suffered injuries so severe he might never work again.
Lawyers for Dendere and Nyahuye – who deny the assault charges – last Thursday demanded that the doctor who made the assessment be brought to court.
But prosecutor Liberty Gono – no relation to the governor – said they were “unable to locate the witness”, prompting magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini to warn that he will acquit the two men if the doctor is not brought to court at the next hearing on June 1.
In an astonishing twist, a medical doctor named Johannes Marisa – who left Parirenyatwa in January 2008 – came forward on Sunday to claim that he was the supposed author of the medical report.
Marisa, who now runs a private surgery in Kuwadzana suburb, said he was outraged after reading in the newspapers on Saturday that he was the author of a fictitious medical assessment.
In a statement, he said: “I read an article in the newspaper on Saturday and I was very surprised when I saw my name appearing there. As far as I know, I am the only J Marisa on the medical register, but I left Parirenyatwa in 2008 and went into private practice.
“Affidavits and medical reports are done at government hospitals. When somebody is injured, for instance, a doctor at a government hospital must fill an affidavit if required by a court. It follows therefore that my name should not be on any affidavit because I ceased to work for Parirenyatwa almost four years ago.”
Marisa said he would challenge prosecutors on Monday to force them to reveal where they obtained his signature.
“I can only surmise that somebody created this fictitious document under my name because they thought I was no longer in Zimbabwe. It means this person who did this mischievous thing never thought for one moment the doctor may be required to give evidence in court. It makes one think how many people I have put in jail based on false affidavits bearing my name,” Marisa added.
“It is a serious crime to use a doctor’s name in this way. It’s extremely bad. On Monday, I will go to court to see the public prosecutor. I will get a copy of this fraudulent affidavit and use it for further action.”
The case has become the new theatre of a bitter war between Gono and Kereke whose very public fall-out has put the two men in mutual destruction mode.
Kereke has led the attacks on Gono, writing lengthy documents and buying newspaper space to accuse his former boss of theft, fraud and cheating on his wife.
Kereke is suing Gono in an unrelated case for allegedly taking US$100,000 from his bank account - although the money has been paid back with $43,000 interest.
Labels: COURTS, FALSE ALLEGATIONS, GIDEON GONO
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Dig a well before you are thirsty
By Editor
Thu 10 June 2010, 09:20 CAT
It is clear that the police has been turned into a tool for Rupiah Banda to use against his political enemies and competitors, real or perceived. But as we have stated before, a leader who relies on the police to silence and reduce the influence of his political competitors is bound to come to grief.
There is no doubt that our police today is at the political service of Rupiah. This can be seen in the case of George Mpombo. The sole intention of that case is to politically cripple or incapacitate Mpombo or blackmail him into silence.
And the summoning of Ng’andu Magande by the police yesterday in a matter that has no basis for them to do so is simply an extension of this same practice. All those Rupiah thinks will challenge him for the MMD presidency and candidature in next year’s election are being subjected to legal harassment.
There is an attempt to secure criminal convictions against them. With a police that is led by a man like Francis Kabonde who is so unprofessional, Rupiah’s political opponents are increasingly finding themselves being prosecuted for all sorts of dubious offences. The judicial process is totally being abused to fix political opponents. And this reminds us what Simon Bolivar once said: “In absolute systems, the central power is unlimited. The will of the despot is the supreme law, arbitrarily enforced by subordinates who take part in the organised oppression in proportion to the authority that they wield.”
This will be difficult to accept by many people in our country because at the bottom of the heart of every human being, from the earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting – in the teeth of all the crimes committed, suffered and witnessed – that good and not evil will be done to him. It is that above all that is sacred in every human being. But where are we headed? Where are we going to end with this type of political behaviour? Probably in hell! But what is hell? As Howard Fast had observed, hell begins when the simple and necessary acts of life become monstrous, and this knowledge has been shared through all the ages by those who taste the hell men make on earth. Now it is frightful to walk, to breathe, to see, to think.
When one looks at what is happening, one wonders what type if people are governing our country. What is their calibre? In answering this question, we turn to Count Oxenstierna, a seventeenth-century Swedish diplomat, who said: “Go forth, my son, and learn with how little wisdom the world is governed.” It is really low thinking for one to think that they can govern this country like a police state. What is going on is shameful. But as Albert Einstein correctly put it, “if most of us are ashamed of shoddy clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shoddy ideas and shoddy philosophies”.
It’s unwise to keep quiet in the face of all these injustices. Yesterday it was Mpombo, today it is Magande, tomorrow it may be you. Know that, as a Chinese proverb says, it is better to “dig a well before you are thirsty”. And those who are incapable of fighting for others will not be able to fight for themselves when their tribulations set in. It will not pay to keep quiet when things are going wrong just because it is not you who is directly affected. It is said that fools live to regret their words, wise men live to regret their silence. And as Herodotus wisely observed, it is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what may happen.
But it seems Rupiah and his friends don’t learn from history. All tyrants know that it is safer to kill political opponents than to imprison them. Times change, and new situations open the strongest prison gates.
Whenever we hear a man express hatred for another, we wonder just what it is in themselves they hate so much. You can always be sure of this: you cannot express hatred for anything or anybody unless you make use of the supply of hatred within yourself. The only hatred you can express is your own personal possession. To hate is to be enslaved by evil.
The repression, harassment and mistreatment that we are seeing coming from Rupiah and hi s friends is teaching us something very valuable: that in life you encounter terrible events , but if you can hold on to your values, you can survive to be the better for it. It is said that he who has a why to live for can bear almost anyhow. And it is also said that men can live without justice, and generally must, but they cannot live without hope. We were taught that God made all things good; man meddles with them and they become evil.
And we do not error because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We error because this is more comfortable. It is not that Rupiah and his friends don’t know that what they are doing is wrong, is not right. They know very well that their practices are wrong. But they do what they are doing because it’s beneficial to them; they do it out of vanity, greed and selfishness. This is the attitude we have to contend with. And as Paul Gallico observed in The Lonely, “For you were a man only when you could be the things you were and face up to the truth without flinching or denying it. The truth was that in life on earth, there was no such thing as happiness without pain, victory without defeat. There were joy and enchantment and beauty to be garnered on the path, but at all times too, there were burdens to be borne.” And this can be well concluded with a declaration from Thomas Jefferson: “There is no truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.”
It is in this light that we would like to look at the issue of Magande’s harassment by Rupiah using the police. Looking at all the facts, there is no good reason whatsoever for the police to justify their interrogation of Magande over a rice debt he was not part of in any contractual way. That is a pure case of a business deal by people known to Magande without him being involved in any way in their business contract. But Rupiah will stop at nothing in his attempts to humiliate Magande and others he considers to be political opponents using the police. And this is why many Zambians today are fed up with the conduct of Kabonde and want him out of the police. The person who should be prosecuted is actually Kabonde himself for his part in that deal involving presidential escort cars. And we can’t understand why Kabonde is still serving as the Police chief with that very serious corruption case hanging over his head. The man the police should be interrogating is Dr Solomon Musonda for that Serenje shooting incidence and not Magande.
Labels: FALSE ALLEGATIONS, GEORGE MPOMBO, MAGANDE
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Rupiah will dance pelete one of these days - Mpombo
By Patson Chilemba
Thu 10 June 2010, 04:02 CAT
IT has become a big shame on the image of the country that Rupiah Banda has got the audacity to implement selective justice in the nation, Kafulafuta MMD member of parliament George Mpombo has charged.
And Post editor Fred M’membe said President Banda’s government had now usurped the justice system in the country and was using it for vengeance.
Speaking when he visited M’membe to offer solidarity following his release from jail on bail at The Post offices in Lusaka on Tuesday, Mpombo asked M’membe not to be scared because those against him were just a bunch of desperate people.
“You see, it has become a big shame on the image of the country that Mr Banda has got the audacity to implement selective justice in the nation. You have cases where people still walk the streets free, killing people in Mufumbwe, others shooting people, but this government has not moved in,” he said.
M’membe chipped in saying this was not a justice system for meting out justice.
“They have usurped the justice system and they are using it for vengeance. But this is not new, that is how tyrannical regimes throughout history have operated,” M’membe said.
“They have used the justice system to mete out vengeance, to mete out tyranny. Dictatorships do not survive without the connivance of the justice system. They take the justice system and use it for their evil actions, and that is what Mr Rupiah Banda is doing. The office of the DPP has been turned into an office that defends crime; that defends injustice, promotes the worst iniquities you can ever think of. When the Law Association of Zambia (LAZ) called for DPP Chalwe Mchenga to resign, they saw what was happening.”
M’membe said Zambia no longer had a criminal justice system that people could rely on to create a more humane society. He said what they were using now was to create and perpetuate injustice. M’membe said the justice system could not run away from the tyranny and vengeance that was being meted on individuals.
“The courts are being used, the office of the DPP are part of this whole criminal connivance,” M’membe said.
Mpombo told M’membe that he had passed through The Post to give him moral support. He said it was a blemish to see what was happening when people in other nations were advancing in terms of democracy.
Mpombo said the press had a critical role to play in the economic and political development of the country. He said the amount of desperation from President Banda was unheard of.
“But it is like everybody is hiding their head in the sand because tomorrow they will be dancing to the same music. You know Mr Rupiah Banda will be dancing pelete one of these days. So I think it is unfortunate and I just wanted to say that please soldier on,” Mpombo said.
“You have the whole international community behind you. Of course you are a journalist of strong image and background. So what they did is just upgrade your already vibrant image. But please don’t relent. Like one guy said, ‘be bold’. You can see the international community’s reaction.”
And M’membe said he was grateful for Mpombo’s visit, saying he had also been inspired by his works and how he had conducted himself, especially after his resignation as defence minister.
“When you resigned from government, we were all just waiting to hear what they will spill about what Mpombo did, what Mpombo stole. Days passed, weeks passed, months passed, there was nothing. But the venom was still being poured on you. At that point, personally I realised that, ‘no this man has done nothing’,” M’membe said.
“And this was confirmed by the case that you are now facing in court which shows clearly that you know they had nothing that they could use to tarnish your reputation, to dent you, to vilify you in all sorts of ways. It told me one thing that if you live an honest life, you will be very free.”
M’membe said many good, very intelligent people were shackled by the evils, crimes and monies they stole from the people.
“Look today we have a very good brain like Dr Katele Kalumba. That is a brilliant individual, well-mannered, highly cultured. But look at what dishonesty has done to him,” M’membe said.
“Today Katele doesn’t know whether he is going backwards or he is going in front simply because he is shackled by the wrong things he did. We are faced with a regime that governs by blackmail, that governs by intimidation, that governs by calumny. If your hands are dirty you are totally incapacitated, you cannot take them on. You cannot stand for anything. You can only say what they want you to say.”
M’membe said he hoped many politicians were learning from Mpombo’s example. He said the government had failed to find a little thing that Mpombo did wrong when he served in government.
“If they take you to court over K10 million borrowed from a friend, the state moves in to prosecute you, a debt that you have even paid, settled, they still take you to court to jail you… The intention is to jail or humiliate you over K10 million that you took from a friend. How many people owe friends money?” M’membe asked.
“And also the very fact that you went to borrow K10 million just a few months after leaving government shows what type of an honest man you are. It is something that you should be proud of. People should be proud to have nothing when they were in positions they could have used to amass wealth for themselves.”
M’membe said Mpombo was a Minister of Defence and could have been involved in all sorts of arms contracts, getting 10 per cent commission here and there. He said eventually when the truth would be revealed, some people would be found to have gotten some percentage from the military contracts.
“We have no doubt. If not themselves, then their own children,” M’membe said.
“We will find them being involved in military contracts and getting cuts which you didn’t get. If you had gotten one ngwee from any supplier to the military, today you would be in jail ba George.”
M’membe said each one was supposed to perform their duties with sufficient integrity and honour. He said people should take only that which was due to them and also give only that which was due to them.
M’membe said if he had stolen as President Banda alleged that The Post pocketed US $30 million, he would not be a free man today.
“So continue to speak on the affairs of your country. You have a duty to do so. You have sufficient education and political experience to do so. You have to make a contribution to the end of your days. There is no retirement from life. As long as you are breathing you have a duty to contribute to the environment under which you exist,” M’membe said.
“We still see old people running around. We have the great example of Simon Zukas, an exemplary citizen of this country fighting for this country throughout his life. Simon is 85 this year but he is still engaging himself in the affairs of our country. Simon is not seeking public office. Simon is not looking for government contracts. Simon is not looking for any gain other than the fact that he is a citizen of this country which is his homeland. This is a piece of the world that he has chosen to make his homeland.”
M’membe said it was a Christian duty to look after the environment where God located individuals. He said he was grateful that Mpombo was executing his contribution with sufficient honour and integrity.
M’membe said Mpombo was contributing probably more than he contributed when he served in government.
“You have drastically altered the balance of forces. You have made virtue become a factor in our politics. People are listening to what you are saying. They have tried to make you look like a fool but people know that Mpombo is speaking sense. They are listening everyday,” M’membe said.
“So please we are grateful for what you are doing for your country and what you are doing for all of us. It is a great risk to your life, a great risk to the well-being of your family and yourself. We have no doubt you must be facing serious financial problems, serious economic constraints but there you are with your head up, no baggage of theft, no baggage of crime. What you are in court for is not a crime. Whether tomorrow they convict you they are just wasting their time. It won’t take them anywhere.”
M’membe said what those in government were trying to do to Mpombo was the same thing they tried to do to him - imprisonment.
“What have they gained? They have only gained shame and humiliation which they thought they would mete on me. I am walking with my head up, with all the dignity that I can marshal on. They have only helped me to reflect deeply on what it means to be a good citizen, what it means to be a better human being,” said M’membe.
“Probably I am a better human being than I was that Friday when they sent me to jail. It helped me to meditate deeply, to reflect deeply on what type of citizen I should be, or what type of a human being I should be. I am placed on this land with other human beings and I owe them a duty of care.”
In response, Mpombo said he was emboldened by the encouragement and wise words of counsel from M’membe.
“And I just want to repeat to say ‘don’t be scared. This is just a bunch of desperate people’,” said Mpombo.
M’membe was on Monday released from Lusaka Central Prison (Chimbokaila) on a K20 million bail.
Last Friday, he was sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour as accused number one and four months simple imprisonment as accused number two (for The Post).
This is in a matter in which M’membe and The Post were last Wednesday convicted on a charge of contempt of court arising from the publication of an article in The Post of August 27, 2009 titled: ‘The Chansa Kabwela case: A comedy of Errors’, authored by United States-based Zambian Professor of law Muna Ndulo.
Labels: FALSE ALLEGATIONS, FRED M'MEMBE, GEORGE MPOMBO, RUPIAH BANDA, THE POST
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Magande denies ever owing a Tanzanian businessman K200m
By Agness Changala
Thu 10 June 2010, 04:01 CAT
NG’ANDU Magande yesterday denied ever owing a named Tanzanian businessman K200 million as recently reported in the state-owned Times of Zambia. According to the story published on June 4, 2010, Magande is alleged to have failed to pay Soud Hilal Rashid of Sumbuwanga, Tanzania for the rice he supplied to him.
Rashid is said to have supplied 400 bags of rice each weighing 100 kilogrammes on April 1 this year but that Magande did not pay, leaving the supplier stranded for over two months.
But in an interview after the police questioned him for over three hours at Force Headquarters, Magande explained that he knew Rashid through Dickson Silondwa, a businessman of Lusaka’s Matero compound.
He said Rashid had rice for sale and planned to procure sugar from Zambia after selling the rice.
Magande said the rice was supplied to Chris Gona and Silondwa’s company.
He said he then offered to assist Rashid through Silondwa to source sugar as a leader and professional in his area of competence.
However, Magande said the sugar had not yet been bought because Rashid had not yet been paid by the people he supplied rice to.
He also said Rashid’s lawyers on Tuesday sent him a letter, giving him an ultimatum of 48 hours in which to pay back the money failure to which they would take legal action.
However, Magande said he was ready to meet them in court.
Magande’s lawyer George Chisanga confirmed that Rashid’s lawyers had sent the letter asking the Chilanga MMD parliamentarian to pay the said amount.
Magande said the police recorded a statement from him to assist with investigations.
“They have not recorded any warn and caution statement,” he said.
Magande said the police would study the statement and get back to him.
He said he could not owe Rashid that kind of money because he was scared of debts and unclear agreements.
Magande charged that the issue was politically motivated.
“They have realised that they have gone through all files but they can’t find anything against me,” he said. “My records are clean.”
Magande said it was wrong to persecute him for having assisted a local businessman.
Magande said he was a free person and was willing to help people in his area of competence.
Labels: FALSE ALLEGATIONS, MAGANDE, MMD
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