admin
Temba Dube Senior Reporter
A lawyer representing the Zimbabwean trucker who was arrested in Zambia for an armed robbery he denies committing, has dumped him after his family failed to raise a $2,000 bribe, allegedly being demanded by prosecutors.Qhubekani Dube, 44, of Bulawayo’s Pumula East suburb, was arrested on January 12 charged with robbing Inter Africa Bureau De Change in Kazungula of $17,000 on December 31 last year.
He has been languishing without trial at Livingstone State Prison since then. Dube’s case has been set for trial at least four times but has failed to take off after either the prosecutor, robbery victim or both, failed to show up in court.
According to letters that Dube wrote from prison and images of pages from his passport, he was in DRC when the alleged armed robbery occurred.
Dube told Chronicle on Saturday that his lawyer, a Major Kasonga of KBF and Partners in the neighbouring country, stopped representing him on July 24.
“He sent my wife a message on her phone urging her to pay $2,000 or K10,000 which he said the prosecutor, Jonathan Chenda, was demanding to set me free.
“We simply do not have that kind of money. Although he did not give a clear explanation, I think he stopped representing me because my family could not pay,” said Dube.
Kasonga yesterday declined to comment saying: “I can’t speak on a matter that is before the courts. You have to come to Livingstone and investigate for yourself.”
In a letter dated July 21 that Dube wrote to the Zambian Police Service and copied to 15 arms of government in both Zambia and Zimbabwe, which include the Zambian embassy in Zimbabwe, home affairs ministries in both countries, principal resident magistrate in Livingstone and the anti-corruption commission in Zambia, Dube pleaded for assistance to go to trial so that his case could be concluded.
“Besides the difficulties, unfair treatment, oppression and being a foreigner in this country, I feel my basic human rights which entitle me to a free and fair trial are being totally violated,” read the letter.
He stated in the letter that he had proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) when the robbery occurred in Zambia, but authorities were still holding him and not giving him his day in court.
“Now Mr Chenda wants me to buy my freedom, my wife has been receiving calls and sms through my lawyer from KBF and Partners, one of which reads, ‘PP (Public Prosecutor) is saying organise K10,000 or $2,000 so that the case is disposed of otherwise your husband will stay in prison big time,’” reads another section of the letter.
Dube goes on to ask if justice is for sale in Zambia and accuses Chenda of delaying the trial to force him to pay.
He said the issue of soliciting for bribes was reported by his wife and friends to the anti-corruption commission in Livingstone and officials were shown the message on his wife’s phone in March.
Dube wrote that the case was referred to the Central Police Station in Livingstone, but the police seemed to take the prosecutor’s side.
“I have written to your office in need of help to see justice being served so that I move on with my life and continue working for my children, who have been subjected to poverty and mental torture. Others have dropped out of school while I am being held for something that I did not do,” he wrote.
Zimbabwe’s deputy ambassador to Zambia, Marshall Mututu on Friday said they had met Zambian authorities after reading the story in the Chronicle and were awaiting their response.
Last week, his mother, Gogo Lucy Dube, 73, shed tears as she narrated her son’s ordeal to Chronicle. Fellow truckers, who said they were with Dube in DRC when the crime was committed, said their friend was literally “rotting” in prison.
They said he relied on them to bring him food and sometimes went for days without eating, if there was no truck traffic from Zimbabwe into Zambia.
Online Reporter