By PERPETUAL SICHIKWENKWE  –
THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has appealed to the High Court against the acquittal of former minister of Tourism Sylvia Masebo’s acquittal of an offence of abuse of authority relating to the cancellation of wildlife hunting concessions..
Ms Masebo, the former Chongwe member of Parliament (MP), was on July 14, 2017 acquitted of the charge of cancelling Zambia Wild Life Authority (ZAWA) hunting concessions without following laid-down procedures.
Lusaka magistrate Ireen Wishimanga held that Ms Masebo did not abuse her authority because there was no tender she cancelled other than announcing the decision on behalf of the Government.
But the DPP‘s chambers has appealed to the High Court against Ms Wishimanga’s decision to set Ms Masebo free.
The DPP has argued that Ms Wishimanga erred in law when she held that the actions by Ms Masebo of directing ZAWA to cancel the tender process did not amount to abuse of authority.
The chambers further said that the lower court misdirected itself at law when it gave an unbalanced evaluation of the evidence where only the flaws and not strengths of the case of the State were considered.
The DPP further said that the trial court erred in law when it accepted the hearsay evidence of the second defence witness.
Ms Masebo was facing two charges of abuse of authority but she was acquitted of one at a case-to-answer stage and was later set free in the other at judgment stage.