.MASUMBA

By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE –

FORMER deputy Youth and Sports minister Steven Masumba has asked the Supreme Court to acquit him of a charge of obtaining pecuniary advantages when he used an accounting technician diploma certificate to acquire a job for himself.
Masumba, who is Mufumbwe Member of Parliament (MP), said that the decision of the high court to uphold his 12 months jail sentence should be set aside because the lower court erred in law and in fact by holding that there was no miscarriage of justice by the magistrate court.
Masumba, currently detained at Lusaka Central Prison pending the outcome of his bail application, said the Supreme Court should set him free because Judge Chalwe Mchenga erred in holding that he should have known that he erroneously listed for graduation because there was no such evidence proving that he was aware about that error.
He said in his grounds of appeal filed by his lawyer Mutakela Lisimba in the Supreme Court yesterday that Mr Mchenga also erred in law and fact when he held that all the ingredients of the charges had been proved by the prosecution against him.
He said that the high court erred in law and fact by coming to a conclusion that the prosecution evidence was not contradictory against the weight of evidence record and that it also erred by not holding in his favour when there were different examination results for 2003 and 2008.
On Monday, Mr Justice Mchenga upheld the Lusaka magistrate court’s conviction and 12 months sentence against Masumba after it found him guilty of using a diploma certificate he fraudulently obtained to find employment.
This followed Masumba’s appeal against the Lusaka magistrate court’s findings, conviction and sentencing him to one year with hard labour in November last year.
On Tuesday, Mr Justice Mchenga declined to give Masumba bail pending his appeal because he had not filed the grounds of appeal which would enable the court to determine whether or not his appeal at the Supreme Court will succeed.
Having filed the five grounds of appeal yesterday, Masumba will have to go back to Mr Justice Mchenga to again request him to grant him the bail pending the determination of his appeal in the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Lusaka high court has set November 13, 2014 as a date it will hear former ministry of health human resources officer Kapoko’s petition in which he is challenging the seizure of his properties by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Kapoko’s properties in Woodlands Township and other places in Lusaka were recently seized by ACC after a court order allowing the commission to do so.