SUSPENDED Zifa president Felton Kamambo has taken a decision to appeal against regional magistrate Bianca Makwande’s ruling dismissing his discharge application.
Kamambo is accused of paying voters in the 2018 Zifa election which saw him being elected into office, allegedly sending mobile money to the voters to vote for him. The deposed Zifa boss has denied the allegations, saying the payments were reimbursements for transport and food expenses they incurred coming to his campaign meetings.
His lawyer is applying for condonation to file his review out of the stipulated time as he managed to obtain a comprehensive record late last month way after the discharge ruling. Kamambo has also engaged a new lawyer.
He had been placed on stand to give his defence which he believes was irregular and wants it reviewed. In his review application, Kamambo believes he has prospects of success arguing that the magistrate erred in constructing a new charge which was not alleged by the State in the State’s case.
Citing the magistrate as the first respondent and the State as the second respondent, Kamambo said the court misdirected itself by creating a new charge of bribery.
“The first respondent grossly misdirected itself by wrongfully creating new particulars of the offence which it placed me on my defence. It seems as if I have been placed on my defence to explain a court case not a state case for what I should be answering to relates to what the court a quo finds as the offending conduct not what the state alleged to be the offending conduct.
“The first respondent has effectively accused me of bribery with fresh particulars of bribery that materially differ from those the State initially brought against me,” his lawyer argued.
It is his argument that the court tried to introduce Fifa rules allegedly violated which he says have no bearing locally.
“First respondent then tried to support my placement on my defence by citing purported Fifa rules. Given that the Fifa rules are not incorporated into our criminal legislation, relying on them led to a grossly irregular decision. For allegedly not adhering to the Fifa statutes’ rules, one cannot be charged with a criminal offence. On the same grounds, no accused individual should be placed on his defence in relation to charges of bribery based on alleged violation of Fifa regulations,” his lawyer averred.
Kamambo argues that putting him on defence is an attempt to bolster the State’s case which was doomed to collapse and the court has shifted the onus on him to prove his innocence.
“The first respondent’s decision of placing me on my defence is seeking to irregularly facilitate the second respondent to bolster its otherwise very weak case through my evidence in the defence case. This decision is grossly irregular and defies any logic such that no court applying its mind to the applicable law and the patently exculpatory evidence at hand would have arrived at it,” he argued.
