State prosecutor, Dzikondianthu Malunda, told the Senior Resident Magistrate’s Court in Blantyre today that he will parade 12 witnesses to testify against the two.

First witness, ESCOM Head Driver, Piso Katundulu, told the court that he had been instructed to refill government institutions and individual vehicles using ESCOM fuel card at Puma Filling Station since 2018.

He said some of the ESCOM fuel beneficiaries were the Malawi Police Service, Malawi Defense Force (MDF), government and individual vehicles including those of James Chuma and Mutchanankwaye Mpuluka among others.

“Sometimes, we were engaging police and MDF to discharge some activities for ESCOM. I was ordered to give them fuel. On the individuals, I was just instructed to do so,” said Katundulu.

Defense lawyer, Wapona Kita, asked the witness to confirm to the court if Dr. Chiwaya and Mr. Namandwa were directly involved in the activity, and the witness answered “no”, since he was getting instructions from his direct transport boss, he said.

Earlier, the defense asked the court to stop the witnesses from giving evidence on grounds that ESCOM was not a public company, but later Magistrate Elijah Daniels allowed the state to parade the witnesses.

The case has been adjourned to Thursday 2 pm.