By Tiyese Monjeza:
The Zomba Principal Resident Magistrate Court has found activist Bon Kalindo with a case to answer in a matter where he is being accused of proposing violence during demonstrations he led in Zomba on November 23 last year.
Principal Resident Magistrate Martin Chipofya has set March 8 as the date Kalindo is expected to enter defence.
The State paraded four witnesses in the case, who narrated how the violence escalated during the demonstrations, forcing police to engage in running battles with the protesters.
One of the witnesses, a Zomba-based trader named Christopher Ndanga, told the court that beverages and property worth K8.2 million at a facility that he manages, were looted by the protesters.
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Ndanga said the protesters forced their way into the shop located at Chinamwali Trading Centre where they broke into a warehouse and went away with crates of beer.
Another witness, Isaac Mdala, who said he was assigned to investigate the case, told the court he was told by fellow police officers that Kalindo ordered the demonstrators to flock to Zomba Police Station to force the officers to release one of the demonstrators who had been arrested.
The other witnesses in the case were Harry Dongolosi and Stella Likukuta who are both police officers and were involved in managing the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, Eastern Region prosecutor Josephine Chigawa said she was happy with the court’s ruling.
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Kalindo’s lawyer Timothy Chirwa was not available for comment.
After being granted bail by Chipofya in December last year, Kalindo was swiftly arrested again in relation to the demonstrations he had also led in Mangochi on November 30, which turned violent too.
He is also on bail in the Mangochi case.
The demonstrations were against the 44 percent of the devaluation of the Kwacha, increase in fuel and fertiliser prices and general cost of living, among others.
