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Masumba: Set Me Free
MUFUMBWE Member of Parliament Steven Masumba has asked the Lusaka High Court to set aside a 12-month jail term imposed on him by the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court for possessing fraudulent accounting qualifications.
Masumba will know his fate on September 29 when High Court judge Chalwe Mchenga makes his judgement.
Masumba, who is former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport, said there is a lot of inconsistency in the prosecution’s evidence to permit his acquittal.
The former deputy minister is charged with one count of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences.
“It was not safe for the lower court to convict and sentence the appellant [Masumba] based on inconsistent evidence by the so-called reliable source from the State.
“We, therefore, pray that the appellant be set free and the conviction and sentence be quashed,” Masumba’s lawyer, Mutakela Lisimba, said.
Mr Lisimba said according to the evidence on record, in 2003 National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) using a “so-called” reliable source decided that Masumba qualified to graduate and in 2008 the same source gave a different story.
He said the inconsistency in the evidence by the witness should favour Masumba.
Mr Lisimba said the prosecution did not produce the 2003 answer script which would have indicated the actual marks he obtained.
“They did not bring the actual 2003 marks but they decided to produce the document which was indicating 2008 but resembled the 2003 documents,” he said.
Mr Lisimba said the answer script for 2003, which had Masumba’s actual results, was not produced in court as evidence but the prosecution hurriedly prepared a document in 2008 resembling the authentic document.
He said there are several inferences that can be drawn from the evidence by the prosecution and it cannot be safe to convict and sentence Masumba.
Mr Lisimba said the evidence in court shows that NIPA was at fault and not Masumba.
The Magistrate’s Court found that Masumba had obtained employment for himself as an accounting clerk at Lusaka Business and Technical College by falsely pretending that he held a qualification of accounting technician when in fact he did not.
The offence is alleged to have been committed between December 1, 2005 and August 25, 2008 in Lusaka.
Posted by
Justine
August 9, 2014 at 8:16 am
The argument by the lawyer sounds good. Why punishing Masumba who just received the paper leaving the one who produced it?
wisdom
August 9, 2014 at 8:28 am
prison is not the only punishment. The embarasment he has gone thru is punishment enough to teach who wud be offenders. set masumba free he has learnt a lesson
kayula
August 9, 2014 at 8:30 am
prison who issued the paper not masumba.
chile1
August 9, 2014 at 9:25 am
Do u 2 gentlemen understand what it means by gainin pecuniary advantage?
Manhimself
August 9, 2014 at 10:14 am
Then both parties must face the law because they were both involved the in the corruption act,the giver gave through pecuniary means and enjoyed the cash and also the Masumba had a paper which gave a good job and enjoyed his life through pecuniary means.Arrest both guyz
clency
August 9, 2014 at 11:12 am
i conquer with with you manhimself,you jail both
Jangjawed
August 9, 2014 at 11:15 am
Masumba must be punished so that would be offenders can reject if results are twisted.
CHIZ~MAN
August 9, 2014 at 8:52 pm
Ufunika d’ploma yafeki pa nipa(viasinging)
True Zambia
August 10, 2014 at 12:22 am
Just serve the jail term. You are not dull that you could not tell the difference between failing and passing an exam. You knew that you did not pass all the modules for you to be awarded a certificate. When the certificate was issued in error you should have gone back to the school authorities and told them that the certificate was issued in error but you chose to use the certificate to get employment fraudulently. Just serve your sentence and pay for misdeed bwana!