AN ELECTRICIAN has told a magistrate that former Zambia Air Force (ZAF) commander Eric Chimese is the owner of nine houses and a two-storey flat in Ibex Hill because he used to visit the premises when he was installing electric fittings in the properties. Meanwhile, the State has asked the Lusaka Magistrate’s Court to revoke Chita Lodge director James Chungu’s bond for allegedly interfering with a witness.

Saviour Chapepa told the court that everyone who worked at the properties used to say that Chimese was their boss. Chapepa was testifying in a matter Chimese is facing five counts of abuses of authority and money laundering relating to Ibex Hill properties which include nine flats and a two-storey apartment, and other properties in Lilayi. He is jointly charged with Chungu. When the case came up yesterday, Mr Chapepa narrated that in April 2012, a contractor, Tendai Masaka, asked him to help build a house in Ibex Hill. He said Mr Masaka then gave him four workers whom he would work with at a house in Ibex Hill opposite Chelsea School.

“I asked [ZAF] captain Cephas Mudala to give me the task since he was the supervisor and project manager. We discussed that I should electrify the house,” Mr Chapepa said. He said he later started installing electrical tubes and wirings in the house. “I also installed electrical wirings at the gym while construction of nine houses was going on,” Mr Chapepa said.

He said Captain Mudala later handed over supervision of the works on the properties to ZAF Colonel Dexter Maseka. “I also went to Baobab [area in Lusaka], where I fitted some electrical pipes,” Mr Chapepa said. He, however, said he had a sour working relationship with Col Maseka, a matter that forced him to stop working at the Ibex Hill properties. In re-examination, State Advocate Gamaliel Zimba asked Mr Chipepa if he knew the owner of the Ibex Hill property where he worked. In reply, Mr Chipepa said they belong to Chimese.

“Everyone used to say that ‘This [Chimese] is our boss, the ZAF commander’,” he said. Before the court adjourned, Mr Zimba applied that Chungu’s bond be revoked for allegedly interfering with a witness. In the last session, Mr Masaka told the court that Chungu gave him K700 and asked him to leave because law enforcers wanted to arrest him because he had information on construction works at the Ibex Hill properties. The matter was adjourned to tomorrow.

In another case, a Lusaka youth has been remanded in custody awaiting a sentence after admitting that he stole three chairs from Revelation Light Church of All Nations. The youth said he wanted to sell the chairs and raise money to buy food. This is in a case Luckson Chanda, 21, of John Laing, is charged with breaking into a building and stealing.

It is alleged that on October 22 this year in Lusaka, Chanda, with intent to steal, broke into Revelation Light Church of all Nations and stole three chairs worth K210. Chanda appeared before Lusaka Magistrate Nsunge Chanda and admitted the charge. The court recorded a plea of guilty and remanded Chanda in custody awaiting reading of facts and sentencing today.

Meanwhile, a 35-year-old woman of Kalingalinga Township in Lusaka is appearing in court for allegedly stealing two packets of sausage and body lotion worth over K700 from Shoprite Stores. Verepe Jere, 37, is charged with theft. Meanwhile, ruling on ‘case or no case to answer’ in a matter suspended Lusaka Magistrate Kunda Tantameni is accused of abuse of authority and theft of ephederine drugs has been adjourned to December 12 this year.