Thu, Oct 9, 2014

Lilongwe — After long hours of anxious waiting Judge Ivy Kamanga finally appeared in the Lilongwe Magistrate Court at 10:40 a.m on Tuesday morning to deliver the first sentence in a chain of cases connected to the plunder of public money at Capital Hill in what has come to be called the Cash-gate scandal.

Delivering her judgment which lasted close to an hour and half, Judge Kamanga sentenced former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Theresa Namathanga Senzani to a custodial sentence of first nine months on money theft charges and three years on a separate charge of money laundering to run concurrently.

Namathanga Senzani was convicted in August after pleading guilty to charges of theft and money laundering which was amounting to K63 million and she subsequently made a commitment to pay bag the money which she did by surrendering her house valued at K61 million and paid the remainder in cash.

Judge Ivy Kamanga in her sentence which was initially supposed to be made on Monday, also ordered the state to forfeit all the money which the former PS in the Ministry of Tourism has in her account 711004 at the National Bank as it is thought to be part of the laundered money.

In her ruling, she said she has taken into account all the effects that cash-gate has had on the country's economy which has affected the availability of medicine in hospitals and also contributing to withdrawal of budgetary support by Malawi's donor partners.

'I will take notice of the recent statement by the Minister of Finance on how damaging the effect of the misappropriation of public money has had on the country's economy.

'Our development partners have withdrawn their support and this has left country with no choice but to have a zero aid budget,' said Judge Ivy Kamanga.

She said considering the gravity of the effects of the money stolen at Capital Hill and by virtue of breaking the trust as a controlling officer, the option of a suspended sentence cannot be exercised and the therefore the accused deserved to be handed a custodial sentence.

Namathanga Senzani was arrested in 2003 after the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) ordered investigations into the financial operations in her office and it revealed fraudulent payments of large sums of money into the account of Senzani through her company called Visual Impact.

The Ministry of Tourism paid Visual Impact when the company did not supply anything to the government.

Namathanga Senzani becomes the first person to been convicted and sentenced in connection with the plundering of public money at the Capital Hill.