State Prosecutor Mary Kachale, Magistrate Nebi in contempt of court

The Director of Public Prosecutions Mary Kachale and Blantyre Principal Resident Magistrate Innocent Nebi risk arrest for failing to expedite an inquest into the death of business magnet James Makhumula.

Lawyer representing Makhumula’s son Ganizani, Ambokire Salimu has told the press that he is pursuing the case in the High Court for Kachale and Nebi, who is the coroner in the Makhumula inquest, to be arrested for contempt of court.

Salimu said his client gave Kachale an ample time since her office was busy with cases involving the plunder of public funds dubbed Cashgate.

He said his client has waited enough for the case to be concluded but the State seems not interested on the matter.

“The judge had to be convinced with our explanation for the application for leave for Order of Committal, and it was granted. The two respondents (DPP and Coroner) have hold offices of high repute and social responsibility and ought to be exemplary in edifying the importance of our courts by obeying court orders,” explained Salimu.

Last year Justice Sylvester Kalembera granted leave for Judicial Review in late Makhumula’s death inquest case, and subsequently issued an Interlocutory Mandatory Injunction against the DPP and the appointed Coroner Nebi.

The leave for Judicial Review for an order was in respect of the irrational and illegal actions of the Coroner Nebi for abdicating his statutory powers and that the DPP has been bias in omitting, for up to six years, to allocate resources towards the conclusion of the inquest proceedings.

Makhumula, a former cabinet minister in the 1994 multi-party cabinet of former President Bakili Muluzi, allegedly committed suicide at his home in Mapanga, Blantyre on Saturday 3rd September, 2005 by shooting himself three times in the head with his own pistol.

But family members led by Makhmula’s son Ganizani believe that Mankhuma was killed.