By Cathy Maulidi:
Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) former director general Reyneck Matemba has insisted that he never received any bribe from United Kingdom-based businessperson Zuneth Sattar.
His sentiments came Tuesday when ACB paraded two witnesses from UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) after the court ruled in favour of the graft-busting body to have the witnesses testify in the Malawi court.
On Monday, Matemba challenged ACB’s move to have the witnesses— namely NCA international liaison officer Jonathan Meredith and NCA senior officer and investigator Mark Reeves— testify in a Malawi court, arguing that the bureau did not follow proper procedures for the two men from the UK to testify in Malawi.
But High Court Judge Violet Chipao ruled in ACB’s favour, effectively allowing the witnesses to testify.
- Advertisement -
She said ACB can use informal means to have witnesses testify.
And during cross-examination of first witness Meredith, he [Meredith] told the court that NCA provided “intelligence” to the ACB and that he came to Malawi to turn that information into “evidence”.
Second witness Reeves could not come clear on the bribery issue as he told the court that none of the audios extracted from Sattar’s phone— at least the audios he listened to— had a discussion between Sattar and Matemba.
He, however, said there were some audios made in foreign language which are yet to be interpreted.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
He also told the court that despite that there were no messages shared between Matemba and Sattar, there were some messages that were shared between Sattar and his colleague, Ashok Nair, ordering him [Nair] to pay Matemba 10K, which he presumed is $10,000.
In some cases the witness mentioned the figure as 5K.
He said the messages read: “Matemba 5K”.
He said they concluded that such messages were orders to pay the individuals money.
When Matemba, who is his own lawyer, requested that he be shown the message that showed the order and the money he received, the witness could not show him the text.
Speaking to journalists later, Matemba said it is unfortunate that he has been “demonised, ridiculed, discriminated and insulted” for receiving bribes when he did not.
“The two witnesses said, right there in court, that none of the audios and WhatsApp messages that they shared with ACB contained any communication between me and Zuneth relating to payment of bribery.
“If ACB had evidence that I received whether $5,000 or $10,000 from Zuneth Sattar, they would not have withdrawn their charges. As you know, I was initially arrested for receiving bribes. I have been insulted and discriminated based on that information and, after one year, they decide to withdraw those charges,” Matemba said.
He has, therefore, described the issues raised by the witnesses as irrelevant, saying he is in court for failure to declare interest and not receiving a bribe as ACB withdrew that charge.
ACB Principal Legal and Prosecution Officer Golda Rapozo insisted that there were some acts of bribery happening as stated by their witnesses.
She, however, said, looking at the case, ACB decided to withdraw the bribery charges.
“They confiscated a phone through which they extracted messages and contracts between Mr Sattar and Malawi Government [officials].
“Mr Matemba stated that the ACB did not have any evidence when they arrested him on bribery charges. However, from what transpired in court today, it is clear that ACB had evidence but we decided that it is not the best evidence when you look at the threshold that we have to meet when it comes to criminal cases,” Rapozo said.
The case proceeds today before Financial Crimes Court Judge Chipawo.
Initially, Matemba was alleged to have received $10,000 from Sattar to influence the award of contracts to his companies.
However, the graft-busting body amended the charges and now accuses Matemba of failing to declare his interest in a board meeting which reviewed and granted a no-objection for the Malawi Police Service’s food rations contract, worth $7,875,000.00, to be given to Xaviar Limited.
