Disagreement forces Magistrate to adjourn Godfrey Itaye’s case to May 13

Blantyre Magistrate Court has adjourned to May 12, 2021 a case involving former Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) Godfrey Itaye and two others.

The two others are MACRA Director of Finance Ben Chitsonga and procurement specialist, Joseph Ngalawa.

The three are accused of abuse of office by authorising payment of over K8 million for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) cloth.

When the case resumed for hearing today, the state paraded its third witness Martin Mpata, who is General Manager for Mapeto David WhiteHead and Sons Limited.

Mpata was initially the first witness in the previous hearing but his testimony was cut short due to some irregularities.

In his testimony Mpata was initially the first witness in the previous hearing but his testimony was cut short due to some irregularities.

But the defence team and the state disagreed over a document that was set to be tendered in court by the State, the development forced the presiding Magistrate to adjourn the case for 20 minutes to iron out the differences.

But when the case resumed from the break, Chief state legal advocate Dzikondianthu Malunda asked the court to adjourn to a later date so that they resolve the issue regarding the document.

Chief resident magistrate Godfrey Balaka has since adjourned the matter, for continued hearing, to May 13 at 9 am.