MUFUMBWE Member of Parliament Steven Masumba has asked the Lusaka High Court to set aside a 12-month jail term imposed on him by the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court for possessing fraudulent accounting qualifications.
Masumba will know his fate on September 29 when High Court judge Chalwe Mchenga makes his judgement.
Masumba, who is former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sport, said there is a lot of inconsistency in the prosecution’s evidence to permit his acquittal.
The former deputy minister is charged with one count of obtaining pecuniary advantage by false pretences.
“It was not safe for the lower court to convict and sentence the appellant [Masumba] based on inconsistent evidence by the so-called reliable source from the State.
“We, therefore, pray that the appellant be set free and the conviction and sentence be quashed,” Masumba’s lawyer, Mutakela Lisimba, said.
Mr Lisimba said according to the evidence on record, in 2003 National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA) using a “so-called” reliable source decided that Masumba qualified to graduate and in 2008 the same source gave a different story.
He said the inconsistency in the evidence by the witness should favour Masumba.
Mr Lisimba said the prosecution did not produce the 2003 answer script which would have indicated the actual marks he obtained.
“They did not bring the actual 2003 marks but they decided to produce the document which was indicating 2008 but resembled the 2003 documents,” he said.
Mr Lisimba said the answer script for 2003, which had Masumba’s actual results, was not produced in court as evidence but the prosecution hurriedly prepared a document in 2008 resembling the authentic document.
He said there are several inferences that can be drawn from the evidence by the prosecution and it cannot be safe to convict and sentence Masumba.
Mr Lisimba said the evidence in court shows that NIPA was at fault and not Masumba.
The Magistrate’s Court found that Masumba had obtained employment for himself as an accounting clerk at Lusaka Business and Technical College by falsely pretending that he held a qualification of accounting technician when in fact he did not.
The offence is alleged to have been committed between December 1, 2005 and August 25, 2008 in Lusaka.
Claiming to have a qualification you don’t have ! You even defending your foolishness in court !! Shame. If you don’t have , then you don’t have. Period. Please double the number of years this bugger shud serve
Masumba just go team up with your friend Seven Spirits
Anyone who goes to NIPA chikopo and should only be employed by local government
Are we still “donkeying” around with this fraudster??? Lock him up & throw the key away!!