Maputo — A witness in a major corruption trial on Wednesday told the Maputo City Court that he did indeed receive a cheque for 25,000 US dollars from the then chairperson of the Mozambique Airports Company (ADM), Diodino Cambaza, as part of a deal involving a three hectare property in Marracuene district about 30 kilometres north of Maputo.

Cambaza and four others, including former Transport Minister Antonio Munguambe, are charged with illicitly draining 54 million meticais (about two million US dollars) from ADM.

When he addressed the court last week Cambaza denied all knowledge of the Marracuene deal. He said the first time he had set eyes on the witness, Joseldo Massango, was during the investigations into the alleged thefts.

But on the witness stand Massango explained his relation with Cambaza in detail. He said he had been introduced to Cambaza by a mutual friend in a restaurant in Marracuene, as someone interested in buying property.

The three hectares to which Massango had the title included a bore hole with a hand pump, some construction material and fruit trees. It was valued at 800,000 meticais (about 32,000 dollars at the exchange rate of the time).

Cambaza said he could only pay 20,000 dollars. Massango accepted this, on the basis that the rest could be negotiated later. The money was handed over at another restaurant, but the cheque was for 25,000 dollars.

Cambaza told Massango to cash the cheque and give him the extra 5,000 dollars. "He told me to deliver the money to his house in Malhangalene (an inner Maputo neighbourhood)", said Massango. "I went and delivered the money to a woman there".

Massango also noted that the cheque was drawn n the account of SMS (Mozambique Services Company). This is a subsidiary of ADM, and the prosecution argues that SMS was used as a conduit to drain money from ADM.

Massango's testimony is highly damaging to Cambaza, because he had told his subordinates that the 25,000 dollars was urgently required to pay for "confidential expenses" of the ruling Frelimo Party.

The then financial director of ADM, Hermenegildo Mavale, when he testified on Monday, told the court that it was the reference to Frelimo that sapped his courage, and led him to transfer the 25,000 dollars from ADM to SMS.

Cambaza's denial of any relationship with Massango became difficult to uphold when the court could show him the documents he had signed confirming the delivery of the cheque. He admitted "it looks like my signature".

At the end of his testimony, Massango told the court he had been visited at home three times by strangers, acting on behalf of Cambaza, who wanted him to sign declarations that he had sold the Marracuene property to somebody else, and to meet with Cambaza in prison. "Neither I nor my wife accepted these proposals", he said.

A second witness, Ernesto Chauma, former financial manager of ADM, confirmed that he and Mavale had signed the order to transfer 8,000 dollars to Munguambe's account to pay South African school fees for the Minister's children. On Monday Mavale had told the court that this transfer was made on the explicit instructions of Cambaza.

During Wednesday's session, the presiding judge, Dimas Marroa, rejected a demand by Cambaza's lawyer, Vasconcelos Porto, that documents presented by estate agent Zeca Alfazema should be ruled inadmissible, because they are allegedly forged.

The documents concern an attempt by Cambaza to transfer two houses from ADM's name to his own, and to greatly undervalue them.

Marroa told Vasconcelos that the court must hear from all those involved, and then the court would decide for itself what was true and what was not.

He noted that the main tactic used by the defence was to deny the admissibility of documents or witnesses that incriminated Cambaza. Vasconcelos had, for example, also tried to bar the court from using the documents with Cambaza's signature presented by Massango.

However, he did grant Vasconcelos leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on the question of admissibility of evidence - but only at the end of the trial. That appeal could be appended to any other appeal against the verdict or sentence.