By Falles Kamanga
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-On March 19, 2024, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) withdrew criminal charges, which the office placed on three directors of Paramount Holdings Limited (PHL) and the company itself.
In a court notice addressing PHL directors and company, said the state had no case for them, hence withdrawing.
DPP Masauko Edwin Chamkakala hinted at that time that the state lacked sufficient evidence against PHL directors hence his office discontinued the case.
The development did not go well with Luthando Holdings and its partners who went to town mobilizing social media friends and some civil rights groupings rebuking DPP for the case withdrawal.
In the case, the claimant Hendrix Laher of Luthando Holdings accused Paramount Holdings of using forged documents to supply motorcycles to both public and private institutions which was a misleading claim considering that PHL is legally and sole distributor, and seller of Yamaha products to Malawi.
Luthando Holding has been using South Africa’s Tuning Fork (PTY) Limited illegally to win tenders by supplying Yamaha products in Malawi.
For starters, Japan Yamaha Corporation Limited has a specified list of legal dealers, distributors, importers, and sellers for a particular country. In Malawi, PHL was certified as a legal importer of Yamaha products.
Yamaha Japan in 2022 certified Paramount Holding as its sole official distributor and seller of Yamaha motorcycles and associated products.
According to Japan Yamaha dealership statutes, an agent of a different country cannot be used to supply its product to another country to avoid a monopoly of the business.
This is what Laher of Luthando Holdings has been operating by using South Africa’s Yamaha agent Tuning Fork (PTY) Limited to supply products in Malawi illegally.
Luthando’s business misconduct is against Japan Yamaha Corporation’s order to list legit dealers for its products globally: https://global.yamaha-motor.com/business/omdo/distributor/africa/
Considering all factors in this case: Luthando’s business misconduct by using the wrong agent to win tenders and PHL being legit Yamaha’s products sole distributor, seller, and importer to Malawi, compelled DPP Chamkakala to discontinue the matter in court that the state might be embarrassed at the end.
Knowing that he had lost the legal dealership on Yamaha products to Malawi, Laher continued to push for relevance and connived with Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs Chairperson Peter Dimba to resuscitate the case hence summoning DPP Chamkakala.
Luthando even took a court order stopping Yamaha Japan from recognizing PHL as the sole distributor, seller, and importer of its product to Malawi.
How on earth one could stop the owner of the products from recognizing their own trusted business partner or dealer.
Shamelessly, Luthando Holdings used Stansfield Motors’ limited name with a bogus address to obtain an injunction stopping Yamaha Motor Corporation from awarding sole dealership of Yamaha to Paramount Holdings.
This was revealed when different lawyers with default judgments against disbanded Stansfield Motors frocked the High Court to learn about the physical address of Stansfield Motors as presented to the High Court recently.
It was learned that it was the lawyers of Luthando Holdings who filed for the injunction using the bogus address for Stansfield Motors Limited that ceased to exist in 2019.
Despite Laher seeking public sympathy for Yamaha products dealership in Malawi, has failed to produce a legit or legal bidding certificate to back his claims while continues winning tenders by using the wrong South African agent.
In fact, it was PHL that was legal to drag Laher and Luthando to court for using the wrong agent to win public and private tenders on Yamaha products to Malawi.
Therefore, the constitution is very clear of the legal mandate of the DPP office on how criminal cases of the state must be handled.
If the office of the DPP feels any criminal case has no evidence to prove in court, there is no person who can push for resuscitating the matter for legal complications.
Laher, Dimba, and his committee have no legal grounds to push DPP to continue the case when it failed to commerce several times in court.
Do Luthando, and Dimba have evidence, and resources to resuscitate the matter and win the case in court?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are those of the author not necessarily of The Maravi Post or Editor
