Judgement day: Mphwiyo’s attempted murder case ends today

High Court Judge Michael Mtambo will today pass the judgement in the case in which Macdonald Kumwembe, Pika Manondo, and Ralph Kasambara are accused to have conspired to murder former Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo three years ago.

Mphwiyo was shot outside his home in Area 43 in Lilongwe on 13 September, 2013. Kumwembe who is suspected to have been the man who shot Mphwiyo was, together with Manondo, answering two counts of attempted murder and conspiracy to murder.

Kasambara was only answering the count of conspiracy to murder.

The three always denied the charges but Director of Public Prosecutions Mary Kachale said in May that she was confident that the prosecution had proven beyond doubt that the three are guilty of charges laid out against them.

It was widely believed that Mphwiyo’s shooting was linked to a fallout among corrupt officials who were exploiting loopholes in former President Joyce Banda’s government accounting system to siphon off vast sums of public money in a syndicate popularly known cashgate.

The scandal started when an accounts assistant in the Ministry of Environment, Victor Sithole, was found with huge amounts of money not in consistence with his monthly income. This was later compounded with the shooting of the former budget director on September 13, 2013.

Subsequent days led to a lot of civil servants being found with huge sums of money lacking proper documentation on how they got the money.

A number of people in high-ranking positions in the ruling party were also linked to the looting.

These people were suspected to have influenced some civil servants to pay them government money while having no contract with the government.

Meanwhile, the high court in Lilongwe has granted permission to Times Group to beam the judgement proceedings through Times TV and Times Radio, a development that will give the general public a chance to follow the case.