BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)-The High Court in Blantyre has set APril 28, 2017 for the ruling in an appeal case which the self-acclaimed supreme leader of People’s Land Organization (PLO) leader, Vincent Wandale is challenging his 18-month suspended sentence.
The development comes four months after the supreme leader was convicted on November 3, 2016 and given an 18-month suspended sentence on November 8, for conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, criminal trespass, and aiding and abating illegal use of land.
Wandale’s conviction followed a full trial after he was arrested on September 3, last year in Lilongwe following reports that he led hundreds of locals to invade the privately-owned Conforzi Estate lands in Thyolo district.
However, Wandale’s lawyer Michael Goba Chipeta, who appeared before the court on Tuesday, disclosed that the appeal ruling is slated for April 28, where his client is to challenge the court’s verdict.
Chipeta said that the state failed to specify the misdemeanor his client committed, arguing that the court also failed to prove any use of land and physical presence of Wandale at the scene.
Upon conviction and sentencing, the supreme leader even threatened taking the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague to seek intervention on the matter.
Before his arrest and trial in the court of law, Wandale wrote a strong letter titled, “The African Traditionalist Government of The United States of Thyolo and Mulanje (MUST),” declaring war against the foreign aggression from their ancestors’ land.
The letter, which led to his arrest, in part it red: “Following the powers vested in the Supreme Leader by article 110 of the Constitution of the African Traditionalist Republic of the United States of Thyolo and Mulanje (MUST), on declaration of war and peace and the mobilization of the armed forces. The African Traditionalist Government of the United States of Thyolo and Mulanje (MUST), has declared a state of war against the Republic of Malawi and shall commence hostilities on Friday, the 9th of September, in the year 2016, to ward off the foreign aggression unleashed by the Republic of Malawi. All neutral neighboring States including Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia are asked to take note of this development.
“All citizens of the African Traditionalist Republic of MUST, are being asked to gear up for war and undergo military training as provided for in the Constitution of the African Traditionalist Republic of MUST. Corporate taxation without exemption shall be levied on all colonial estate companies in Thyolo and Mulanje to finance state operations and the war effort and any defaults shall be resolved by nationalizing the concerned estate,” concluded Wandale’s statement.
In April 2016, Wandale declared Thyolo and Mulanje as independent states calling it the “United States of Mulanje and Thyolo” purportedly on behalf of the group.
He gave the government up toSeptember 1, to resolve the land issue by giving them back their forefather’s land or would start disturbances among them.
The PLO has been agitating for the local people’s occupation of all idle tea estates land in the districts since its establishment in 2009.
The organization has demanded that estates owners pay £65 (about K53 000) per acre per year for all used colonial estate land from 1914 to date.
The PLO has also requested from the estates owners a wage rate of £6.13 per hour (about K5 000) per individual for those who were involved in Thangata (bonded labor) between 1914 and 1963.