THE LUSAKA Magistrate’s Court yesterday heard that Kaizar Zulu, the former political adviser to ex President Edgar Lungu, is still missing but the person suspected to be hiding him has been reported to the police.
This came to light yesterday when the matter came up before Lusaka magistrate Sylvia Munyinya for return of bench warrant.
In this case, Kaizar is facing immigration related offenses after he allegedly failed to report before the nearest immigration officer and failing to surrender a diplomatic passport.
The accused was found with a case to answer and placed on his defence but since June, he is nowhere to be found and his sureties, Lumezi lawmaker and Chilubi MP Mulenga Fube have to bear the burden of tracing him.
When the case came up, the prosecution informed the court that the case was coming for return of bench warrant.
Mr Fube was asked to explain what he had done to secure the attendance of Kaizar in court as his surety.
He explained that the search has continued but the sureties were facing bottlenecks and had also resorted to report to person suspected to be facilitating the accused’s movements.
“With help of the resources, we will finally find him,” he said.
When asked the way forward, Mr Fube asked for more time to find the accused.
Mr Zulu also explained that the person suspected to be abetting Kaizer has been reported at Woodlands police but asked the court for issuance of an open bench warrant to ensure police act on the report.
He also informed the court that the accused is active on some WhatsApp group.
But the court guided that the arrant it issued is already open to all enforcement officers in the country.
The court then called the arresting officer Friday Mulimakau to explain measures being put in place to trace the accused.
Mr Mulimakau said efforts to locate the accused proved futile.
“But some mechanics employed to bring the accused may not be shared before this court,” he explained.
All the three had asked to be given more time to locate the accused, which the court granted and adjourned the case to August 30, 2023.
(Mwebantu, Saturday, 5th August, 2023)