Businessman asks for more time
Written by Millennium on August 12, 2019
ENOCK KADEMAUNGA writes
A ZAMBIAN businessman accused of stealing over 36,000 litres of gas oil (diesel) valued at more than K204,000 has asked a court for more time to engage a lawyer.
In this case a Tanzanian driver and two Zambian business executives are accused of stealing the oil from a motor vehicle.
The three are alleged to have stolen the oil from a Scania truck, registration number T629DDC and Trailer number T718DDC, which was in transit from Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, to Lusaka, Zambia.
Muselo Banda, 33, Frank Anastas, 54, and Daniel Singoyi, 35, are charged with nine counts of forgery, uttering false documents and theft of goods in transit between March 14 and March 30, 2016 in Lusaka.
In one count, it is alleged that Banda, Anastas and Singoyi, in Lusaka, jointly stole 36,000 litres of diesel valued at K204,135.56, the property of Petroleum Product Aromail.
Hamuza Daudi, 33, of Iringa town in Tanzania, testified that on March 19, 2016, the truck was loaded with fuel and driven off to Lusaka by Anastas and Kazimu Mbwana Kachali.
When the matter came up for trial before magistrate Lameck Mwale for continuation of trial, Banda applied for a short adjournment to enable him to engage a lawyer.
The court granted his application and adjourned the matter to august 23, 2019 for continuation of trial.
In the last session, a transport officer at ASAS Transporters of Tanzania testified that two fuel transporters had irregularities in the documentation for the delivery of fuel to Zambia.
Mr Daudi said one of the documents from TAZAMA Pipelines Limited appeared bigger than usual and the product registration number for both trucks was the same, which should not be the case.
He said the two drivers returned to Tanzania on March 25, 2019 and before he gave them allowances, the documents confirming delivery of goods needed verification.
“After verifying the documents I was not satisfied. One of the documents from TAZAMA Pipeline appeared bigger than usual and the product registration number for both trucks was the same, which should not have been the case,” Mr Daudi said.
He said when he contacted Delta Energy Zambia Limited to confirm if the two trucks had offloaded the fuel, he discovered that the fuel had not been delivered.
“At this point I asked Kachali, the driver of the first truck in line to drive it inside, but he immediately ran away. I asked Anastas, the driver who remained about what had happened and he agreed that they had sold it elsewhere and not where they were told,” he said.
At this point, magistrate Lameck Mwale asked Anastas if he was admitting offloading the fuel elsewhere.
Anastas said they drove to where they were instructed by Mr Daudi, but thyat when they got there, the workers told them to take it elsewhere.
