Lusaka Magistrates Court has denied a request for site visits to Zambian Air Force (Lusaka) facilities in Lusaka, Ndola, and Livingstone in a USD573.9 million corruption case involving a former permanent defence secretary, Stardy Mwale, and the acquisition of a Gulfstream Aerospace presidential jet, G650 AF001 (msn 6335), in 2017.
Local media reported that chief magistrate Davies Chibwili ruled on November 22 that Charles Lungu, a former Ministry of Defence director of procurement, was not qualified to identify the materials associated with the jet at the facilities. Lungu, who testified in the ongoing case, admitted to signing invoices for the jet's procurement despite lacking information about the contract. He confirmed that the process began in 2015, before Mwale's appointment, and also said that the aircraft was procured through a single-source process.
Mwale, arrested by Zambia's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) in December 2022, faces three corruption-related charges. Allegations include failing to follow proper procurement procedures in 2017 when he approved a USD400 million tender for modernising the Zambian Defence Forces in favour of Israeli defence contractor Elbit Systems Limited. He is also accused of unlawfully amending a USD123.9 million contract in 2019, transferring it to Savenda Systems Limited, a Zambian agent for Elbit. Mwale is further charged with fraudulently facilitating a USD50 million payment to Elbit for undelivered goods and services.
Former defence secretary Michael Obister Mbewe and former Ministry of Defence officials Frank Hardy Sinyangwe and Esabel Willima Chinji have also been charged in connection with the corruption case.
In another development, the Economic and Financial Crimes Court in Zambia on October 31, 2024, ordered the forfeiture to the state of a farm allegedly illicitly acquired by Mwale in 2019 for USD2.5 million with funds suspected to be criminal proceeds. The funds are alleged to have been obtained through a corrupt financing contract for the supply of goods worth USD47 million to the Ministry of Defence. The ACC seized the farm in July 2022 pending investigations.
