Friday, March 29, 2024

Funjika jailed

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FORMER Zambia National Service (ZNS) commandant, Wilford Funjika, has been sent to jail for nine months with hard labour after the Lusaka High Court revoked the suspended sentence the lower court gave him.

Funjika, 60, who was given a two-year suspended sentence by the Lusaka Magistrates’ Court due to his poor health, would now serve a custodial sentence for the two counts of corruption.

Judge Phillip Musonda, however, ordered that Funjika undergoes a medical examination at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) before he starts serving the sentence.

But Funjika was immediately handed to the prisons authorities as the sentence was with effect from yesterday.

Judge Musonda noted that although Funjika had at one time served Zambia loyally, diligently and honestly, grand corruption was a serious offence that needed stiff punishment.

“I set aside the suspended sentence and impose what criminologists call a ‘short, sharp sentence’ which is reformative and a deterrent to other controlling officers and public officers, especially those who procure goods and services for Government,” Judge Musonda said.

Judge Musonda urged the Zambian government to ban fraudulent companies from supplying goods and services to the country and seek their blacklisting in their home countries.

“The convict shall serve nine months imprisonment with hard labour with effect from today, 10th March, 2008. It is ordered that a medical examination by UTH medical experts be conducted before he can formally start serving the sentence. I mean experts and not any general doctor,” he said.

In November last year, Funjika was sent to jail for two years but the sentence was suspended due to his poor health and on condition that he did not commit a similar offence.

Ndola High Court registrar, Jones Chinyama, sitting as principal resident magistrate, ordered Funjika to pay back to the State £15,000 that was given to his children as gratification by a British private company, Semyon, which supplied uniforms to ZNS.

He was ordered to pay back the money to the State within 90 day, failure to which a warrant of distress was to be issued. He has since paid back the money.

Judge Musonda said grand corruption for which Funjika was convicted was fifth in the order of seriousness and such offences invited a custodial sentence.

“Type one can be where an old woman or man is travelling and offers a bus conductor some money in order to secure a seat on the bus.

Obviously, it may be that she has been told she can only get a seat on the bus by offering a bribe,” he said. “Technically, this is corruption but less injurious to society.”

“Type two could be soliciting of money from a person whose title is being typed by a typist at Lands, or a constable asking for lunch money at a
road-block. I characterised this as corruption propelled by hunger. This may not attract a custodial sentence,” Judge Musonda said.

The judge stated that type five was very serious and was referred to as grand corruption in which society does not get value for its money.

“Type five involves abuse of office and soliciting for bribes, which lead to the inflation of prices at which goods and services are purchased; payment for goods not delivered, for projects not properly executed and Government loses billions of Kwacha,” he said.

“This is done by public officials (who are) well-paid and is propelled by greed. This is grand corruption and society does not get value for its money. This should invite a custodial sentence.”

Judge Musonda observed that although the medical condition was referred to in the lower court, there was no medical report tendered in evidence in the High Court.

Judge Musonda said the health of an individual might be mitigatory, but to what extent, was a troubling question to the court.

The judge noted that the majority of those who commit heinous sexual offences are afflicted with HIV/AIDS and sleep with young girls in the belief that they are cleansing themselves of the disease as ill-advised by some witchdoctors.

He said the imposed minimum sentence of 15 years on sexual offenders would not be reduced because the convict pleaded to be infected with the terminal disease.

Judge Musonda stated: “The point that is being made is that sickness as a mitigating factor has been diminished by legislative incursion in sexual offences.”

“Why and when should it diminish the seriousness of an otherwise serious offence? My view is that little weight should be attached.”

He said while magistrates and judges had the discretion in sentencing convicted persons where there were no minimum sentences set by the legislature, the overriding object was that the sentence must befit the crime.

He said it was accepted in Zambia and globally that corruption was morally repulsive and had devastating effects on the development of societies and economies as it rendered hard work an exercise in futility.

Judge Musonda stated that grand corruption incapacitates Government from providing society’s basic social needs, like health care, which might result in the poor dying.

Judge Musonda noted that in the case of Funjika where goods imported for men in uniform had the price inflated and the convict was paid £15,000 which he returned to Government, the payback was only a fraction of the variance between the market price of goods and the inflated price, which money Zambians have lost for good.

“The Auditor-General’s report has indicated that abuse of public funds and corruption is on the increase. The report indicates a culture of impunity, meaning some controlling officers feel they are beyond justice,” he said.

[Zambia Dailly Mail]

46 COMMENTS

  1. Yes jail plunderers of our resources for the poor. Funjika you reap what you sow and its warning to would thieves

  2. have i died and gone to heaven ???? now this is a judicial decision i can be proud of…..INSIDE bwana Funjika!!! HIV is not a pivotal mitigating circumstance…you can be given ARV’s for free until your release…hard labour…Judge Musonda mukali!!! can we all take time to applaud this and pray it is the beginning of tangible results of the fight against corruption!!! Whose NEXT ???

  3. Ndipo imwe a Funjika mwatilengesya! Yayi lutani namwe mubone how the less priviledged suffer in there for minor offenses just because they lack representation! Since the numbers and money lost thru this vice is so much, we actually need a special tribunal to be trying all corruption cases! Otherwise chalo chose chichitenge corapusi! Imwe a Funjika, have a nice time there, you r a tough man, show what you are made of, do a lot of hard work and maybe through that we can recover a token of what we lost thru you greediness and stupidity! Kulila yayi lutani waka a mukhwele imwe, shaaa!

  4. Zambian lawyers have made a fortune out of these cases. Plunderers just keep your money instead of hiring lawyers when you already know the verdict? Is it that that corruption is so deep in your heads that you cannot humble yourselves and get a plea bargain? Keep your plunder you may need after your time in

  5. Another victim of the selective fight on corruption. He should have kissed ass like Katele and he would be laughing. Not to trivialize the stealing of public resources but I think this crusade is a joke. Real thieves are running around as they please while the small fish keep getting locked up.

  6. ba Logic(8),you are obviously a hard comrade to please!!Funjika was not small fish neither was Samuel Musonda or Kashiwa Bulaya.At least the judiciary is moving forward after its self imposed break.the judge has made points that will serve as precedent in the prosecution of others.Its been slow and if your point is we want faster turnaround times, many will agree with you.the judge has started the ball rolling..can the prosecutors pick up the pace please….Zambians are thirsty for results!!

  7. Is Samuel Musonda in jail serving time? How about Bulaya? Please clarify these *****s to me.

  8. Not trying to be a hard ball player but simply saying at the top of all this money stealing game was Katele..I do not see him getting locked up becasue he chose to lick mwanwawasa..If he had not, trust me he would be running like Xavier Chungu

  9. Its a pity some people who are behind these thefts are still enjoying cool air and there seems to be no signs of them being locked up. Please let Judge Musonda sort them out. Though am sorry for Funjika to go in while sick, just be strong big man you will come out after 9 months.

  10. The Original Pundit (5),
    Of all pundits here allow me to pick you up based on your advocacy. You are the most unprincipled chap with multiple positions in debates unfit to take serious.To borrow some MMD pundit’s analysis,”you are too atheistic in character, opportunistic in motivation, and insidious in method you use in judgment”.Your stand here, be it from a point of ignorance or impulsive reactions has been that these cases are not going any where and the wastage so you call the justice are better stopped by prematurely cutting and running from judicial conclusion.Principles are the bedrock of leadership. Leadership stands for the common good regardless of how long it takes.

  11. nice example to culprits! This sholud be enough to help us reconsider our positions before doing something that is criminal in nature.

  12. To paraphrase the words of my favorite mentor, paralleling them to your behavior i put them as: ” The battle against the vices of corruption is of indefinite duration. Thus to meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, leadership that does not thrive on non will power, but rather that which enable the nation to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a stretched and complex struggle — with liberty the higher Stake”. There is no time for trials but leadership that can project the future and clean the dirty challenges this country faces from a culture of thieves that misruled Zambia 1991-2001.

  13. The Original Pundit (5),
    Opportunism in the face of difficulty decisions, excessive love for praise, popularity, indecision and flip flopping are not synonymous with leadership. Democracy and leadership are only realized on a tedious long super highway. They are not for the faint hearted or cut runners but them that stay pressed on the common good.

    Hope you are learning every day.Thousands of your likes will come and 10,000 will fall on the right hand side of the men pressing on for justice.

  14. Am always to look forward to get great news about the thieves but now still surveving while the majority Zambians are still suffering. Lawywers make sure you get more and more money from these thieves.
    What about others such as chiluba and his friends??????????

  15. I saw Mr Funjika on ZNBC, he was looking sick and using a walking stick to help himself move, It was a sad sight. With his level of apparent sickness, it is a waste of time and money sending him to jail.

  16. MMD Chairman Michael Mabenga needs to do time because unlike other criminals, he has already been convicted so I don’t know what he is still doing as an MP and also as MMD chairman. It is like the MMD is saying if you serve a senior position in MMD then you are above the law. This is the reason why certain people think that this “fight against corruption is selective and it is a joke”. I agree with this view.

  17. All thieves deserve extreme form of punishment considering that they willfully and arrogantly commit crimes of financial misappropriation against all the Zambian people. While Funjika’s conviction is well deserved I also think it’s a conviction that is merely symbolic and one that amounts to “selective fight against corruption” as Blogger #8 rightly stated. Katele, Diangamo, and Chiluba, just to mention a few, and in all fairness, should be serving their own jail terms. To sentence those big and ugly thieves to just 9 months is a “slap on the wrist”. I think the “fight against corruption”, if ever there is one in Zambia, is merely a travesty of justice.

  18. This is good progress in the fight against corruption. The fact that an abuser of public office is no longer above the law is another leap forward. All these culprits need to go down one by one.
    Let this be an example to others who may have engaged themselves in such practices. This is how the law works, a short, sharp, reformative sentence that will teach him a lesson and give others an opportunity to learn from his mistake.

  19. Judicial system which was pregnant for many years has now delivered the child called justice.Justice is now working!!!! viva Ba Mwisho Ba Levy its new deal at work…….next to go is chiluba

  20. Pragmatist, as always your comments make interesting reading,albeit a difficult read,but we seem to always understand your point eventually.Your rather emotive outburst is noted and you are encouraged to continue putting across your opinions.the Musonda judgement whilst considered harsh to some, has merely served as a reminder to all those still running around loose and those contemplating “kickbacks” whilst in the employ of govt.the symbolism of the judgement will stand the test of time and will be added to judicial precedent!!

  21. Its a sign that there was rampant corruption in the Chiluba Government. LPM will also face similar charges for condoning corruption in his ministries. He has rendered a deaf hear to the report by the Auditor General and concentrated on corruption of the Chiluba regime.
    Is that the way to fight corruption? God help Zambia.

  22. gr8 work Nchito brothers & an independent judiciary. White collar crime is complex & difficult to prosecute but you’ve delivered. It’s just a pity that the guys get off with such light sentences? We patiently await the verdict of Kafupi’s lengthy criminal trial, i hope he won’t be given a lousy 6 months in the cage! and the rest of the big fish? (katele, musengule, singogo, etc)

  23. Moscow – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday came up with a novel – and old – solution to corrupt officials, news agencies reported: chop off their hands.

    “It would be good to cut off the hand, as they used to in the Middle Ages,” Putin was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS and other national news agencies during a meeting with parliamentary leaders.

    The radical idea followed a complaint at the meeting by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov that “just to build 100 apartments you have to run around for 24 hours looking for permits and greasing hands.”

    Putin, who says corruption is Russia’s most serious problem, answered, “all you’d have to do is start and that hand would i

  24. Putin, who says corruption is Russia’s most serious problem, answered, “all you’d have to do is start and that hand would immediately stop reaching for bribes.”

    According to the Russian prosecutor’s office, bribes amount to $240bn in Russia a year

  25. Where is Chungu imwe guys kanshi? My feeling is, the guy is roaming the streets freely somewhere bankrolled by LPM and Government to keep him away from testifying against ‘certain individuals’ I mean, no place is secret enough for Interpol when engaged!

  26. ba Old Mushumfwa#34,Xavier is a well trained intelligence officer in the arts of deception.unless he is betrayed,careless or WANTS to be found…..YOU WON’T FIND HIM !!get the Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum movies and it will give you a better idea of how these chaps operate!! the movies are exaggerated for entertainment purposes of course, but i’m sure you’ll be able to “see the fire through the smoke” !!

  27. What is nine months? It all a joke by the Mwanawasa Government to cool those crying for corruption justice. This a piece meal to clam everyone down. The real question is how long will it take to convict the next criminal. When the odds are at stake, another plunderer will be convicted a year or two from now for the sake of window dressing.
    The real thieves are still walking and are part of the Zambian Government.

  28. Funjika had it easy…? he was supposed to get the maximum sentence. he looks pretty healthy to me! better than nothing.

  29. #36, every dog has its day…today its Funjika,tomorrow it may be FTJ or Katele or you and me!!!the difference when it is our turn is that looking poorly will not be a mitigating factor so even with our heart condition we may be given a custodial sentence!!!

  30. What`s the difference between the crimes Funjika committed and those who are being shielded by Levy like Mabenge,Katele,Katumbi,Maureen and the rest of the bandits of our national treasury?

  31. that man is an animal he is exactly were he should be i wish my dad was still alive to see this, anyway always remember people on ur way up, you will meet them on your way down. i hope he dies in there from his HIV and all u big boys please make him work

  32. Nachibipa ba mudala I think he did not deserve it but we can talk about that for years. Anyway we shall be praying for you.

  33. That man did not steal anything. He was just being used by some people. Why arrest him alone? That is non sense.

  34. that man will be out by next week..”funjika out of jail due to ILNESS” WAIT AND SEE….

  35. It is not surprising that a monstrous theief like Katele Kalumba is a MMD Chairman. How can a Party allow criminals like him to contest Party elections and hold such an office? The answer lies in tha fact that MMD is a Party whose leadership is a bunch of devilish criminals. Secndly, MMD does not have Code of Ethics that would ensure only near-upright people stood and hold offices. Thirdly, the Zambians who vote for these thieves have a share of the blame because they know people like Katele are thieves and still give them support. Therefore, Zambians shouldn’t even complain. This indicates that Zambia is simply a nation full of shameless and immoral criminals. Corruption is deep-rooted.

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