Kopano Olesitse
2 November 2009
Francistown — A Motswana man whose 'horse and trailer' were confiscated by a court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2006 will have his case heard by the SADC Tribunal before the end of this month.
The Director of Bach's Transport, Bachenjile Mosarwa, is suing the DRC government of $1,638,012.58.
The facts of the case are that in October 2006, Mosarwa's Volvo truck, registration number B362AIA and (its) trailer were confiscated by DRC government authorities on suspicion that they were was involved in the theft of copper on July 26, 2006.
Mosarwa says the truck was bought through the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) funds. "The truck had been repaying the loan before undertaking the job to go to the DRC," he says. "After the confiscation of the truck by the High Court of Lubumbashi IN OCTOBER 2006, this resulted in inconvenience for me and my business."
Mosarwa says he raised a loan amounting to P1,004,700.00 from CEDA that he used to buy the truck and trailer.
He also says when the truck was confiscated, Bach's Transport had offered to provide one tractor truck and trailers for the services of transporting Madmab Transport Solutions goods and services to and from the customer's premises for a period of five years.
In his lawsuit, Mosarwa has included CEDA repayments in the sum of $56, 270.10, hired trailers at $16,077.17, accommodation expenses as well as the five-year contract he secured before the confiscation of his truck. Defence attorney, Richard Josiah of Josiah and Associates, says what delayed the hearing of the case is that the DRC government delayed to respond to the claim.
"Even though they have not responded," Josiah says, "we have requested that the case be heard at the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia and we hope the case will commence before end of November. The other problem that caused a delay in the case was that of the tribunal's judges, who are not permanent," said Josiah.
The case was first heard before the SADC Tribunal, once on July 17, where the defence attorney said he had not received the filing notice. The tribunal was presided over by Justice Makhambira Mkanda Wire.
Meanwhile, in a letter dated October 16, 2007 to the Botswana High Commission in Lusaka, the Embassy of the DRC in Lusaka said it had forwarded the matter to relevant authorities in the DRC.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
