ACC asks High Court to quash immunity granted to Chitotela
By Mwaka Ndawa
IN the quest to have former minister of tourism Ronald Chitotela indicted for ‘illegally’ amassing wealth, the Anti-Corruption Commission has asked the Lusaka High Court to quash the immunity it granted him from facing prosecution.
The Commission has sued the Pambashe PF member of parliament, seeking an order that the out of court settlement entered into between itself and him be set aside for misrepresentation and concealment of facts by Chitotela and for not make a full and frank disclosure of facts relating to his past corrupt conduct or disclosing any illegal activity by himself and others.
The ACC says Chitotela misrepresented facts and did not satisfy the requirements of the law which warranted it to assure him that it would not prosecute him because he did not fully disclose that the property was acquired illegitimately or he was involved in any corrupt activities, as required by the law.
In an affidavit in support of summons to set aside out of court settlement pursuant to section 86 of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act no.3 of 2012, Martin Mayembe, an acting chief legal and prosecutions officer at ACC said on May 4, 2022 Chitotela was charged with two counts of possessing property suspected to be proceeds of crime.
He said before plea could be taken on May 5, this year, Chitotela through his advocates Andrew Kampamba Kombe and Benjamin Mwelwa, raised a preliminary issue that there was a subsisting immunity agreement which ACC undertook to exempt him from prosecution relating to the charges which were a subject of the settlement.
“The magistrate (Jennifer Bwalya) in her ruling of May 18, 2022 discharged Chitotela on the basis that there was no evidence to show that the said out of court settlement had been set aside before commencing the criminal proceedings against Chitotela in the Magistrates’ Court,” Mayembe said.
“The settlement was purportedly entered into pursuant to the Anti-Corruption Commission Act No.3 of 2012 and was signed on June 24, 2019 between ACC and Chitotela.”
He stated that in the purported satisfaction of the settlement, Chitotela surrendered his house in Lusaka’s Ibex Hill, property no. subdivision A2 of Lot no.3270/M which is registered in the name of his wife Lillian Lufupa.
Mayembe said Chitotela promised to pay US$10,000 as reimbursement for expenses the Commission incurred in investigating the matter.
He stated that in a letter dated September 20, 2019 Lufupa demanded that the Commission gave her back the house surrendered by Chitotela, claiming she legally acquired the property.
“Lufupa stated that she made substantial developments on the property, all out of savings arising from her employment and that the said property was of sentimental value to her,” Mayembe said. “The purported disclosure by Chitotela concealed any corrupt or illegal activity by him and the said surrendered property appears to have been acquired through legitimate sources, entailing that Chitotela withheld information regarding the property acquired through illegitimate means.”
He argued that Chitotela violated the conditions precedent to an undertaking not to institute criminal proceedings as dictated by Section 80(3) of the ACC Act no.3 of 2012.
Mayembe added that in order for the settlement to be binding, Chitotela ought to have given a full and true disclosure of all the facts relating to his past corrupt conduct and any illegal activity he was engaged in.
According to information obtained by The Mast, efforts by ACC to have the immunity agreement set aside before taking Chitotela to court had proved futile as prosecutors did not have access to the document at the time.
It is alleged that former ACC acting director general Rosemary Khuzwayo and Chitotela’s lawyers declined to release the document.
Khuzwayo claimed that she had surrendered the document to late chief justice Irene Mambilima.
The Commission’s officers wrote to the office of the chief justice in an attempt to have the document retrieved but they were informed that the document was not filed there.
The prosecution team only had access to the document after Chitotela filed it before court as proof that he was exonerated from prosecution by the ACC in relation to the acquisition of his house in Ibex Hill.