Makhwawa quizzes Mphwiyo on JB relationship, Toyota Fortuner : Shooting victim’s in Malawi cashgate

Lilongwe High Court Judge Justice Michael Mtambo on Wednesday adjourned a case which lawyer Ralph Kasambara, Pika Manondo, Robert Kadzuwa and Macdonald Kumwembe are charged with attempted murder case and conspiracy to commit murder on former Ministry of Finance Budget Director Paul Mphwiyo to February 17 and the case will run for three days up to February 19.

The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges.

During cross examination in the afternoon, Mwakhwawa asked Mphwiyo how he knew former president Dr Joyce Banda, to which he answered he knew her long time ago when she was running NABW an organisation which  provide financial services to the poorest women  in Malawi and to improve the living conditions of micro entrepreneurs.

Quizzed why he sold the Toyota Fortuner vehicle which he was driving at the time of his shooting, Mphwiyo said it was because the vehicle was bringing bad memories into the family.

In previous court hearing, Mphwiyo said two bullets hit him in the mandible and another went through his shoulder to his chest. One bullet was removed in a South African hospital but two others – lodged in his spinal column – will remain inside the 38-year-old for the rest of his life.

Mphwiyo’s shooting unravelled ‘cashgate’ and the resultant discovery that up to US $30 million was minted from the government payment system, where politicians and businessmen colluded with civil servants for payments for goods and services not rendered to government.

Soon after Mphwiyo’s shooting millions of cash in Malawi kwacha, US dollars and South African rands started pitching up in unlikely places like in car trunks, baby dolls, under beds or in pillow cases.