Former Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi has called for faster court processes so that accused persons do not spend long periods in remand prison before standing trial.
Mzembi was arrested in June 2025 after returning from South Africa, ending several years in self-imposed exile.
He faced charges of criminal abuse of office and fraud over the alleged unlawful donation of television sets bought for the 2010 FIFA World Cup fan parks. Prosecutors alleged the donations cost the State about US$2 million.
On Wednesday, 13 May, High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero acquitted Mzembi, ruling that the State had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had committed the offence.
Mzembi had spent 11 months in remand prison. He said that was enough time to “actually conceive and give birth — nine months plus two months of breastfeeding” — before he was granted bail just over a week before the High Court handed down its ruling.
“I believe that maybe up to 50% of the people who are currently incarcerated are people like me, who have to be given the opportunity to defend themselves or to be defended, and then the rule of law will naturally pass its own verdict on them,” said Mzembi.
“And the sooner we speed up court processes and make sure that people do not stay in remand for inordinate times, I think the better. That’s where the justice and injustice lie. It lies in the state’s ability to efficiently and diligently discharge a justice within prescribed timeframes.
“So as you would imagine, I spent 11 months, which is enough time to actually conceive and give birth—nine months plus two months of breastfeeding—that I spent in incarceration.
“But notwithstanding, I am glad that the state has, in fact, the jury, the judge and the jury, they made the verdict that they’ve announced. I think it’s the fairest thing, it was the fairest thing to do under the circumstances.”
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