Taipo trial: Holes in the memory of the accused – AIM report

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Taipo trial: Holes in the memory of the accused – AIM report

7:00 CAT | 21 Mar 2022

Photo: Domingo

Zheng Sheng, a 58 year old Chinese citizen who owns the Kuyaka Construcoes building company in the northern Mozambican city of Nampula, told the Maputo City Court on Thursday that he had indeed received five million meticais (about 78,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) to build a two bedroom house in Nampula.

Zheng is one of 11 people, of whom the most prominent is former Labour Minister Helena Taipo, accused of stealing 113 million meticais from the Directorate of Migrant Labour in the Labour Ministry in the 2014-2015 period.

The prosecution argues that part of the stolen money went to Zheng’s company, and that the Nampula house was intended for Taipo’s daughter.

But Zheng’s memory suddenly failed him. He told the court he could not remember who asked him to build the house.

He said he had received the money in his personal bank account, rather than the Kuyaka company account. “The person for whom I did the job asked for an account number, and so I gave him the number of my personal account”, Zheng said.

Who was this person? “He’s a friend”, replied Zheng. “I don’t know his name. But it was a man. He took me to the site of the building job”.

Zheng’s accountant, Issufo Manosso, told the court he knew nothing about the Nampula house at the time, and only found out a year ago.

The house, supposedly for Taipo, was built at the same time as the company had won a tender to build two workshop blocks for the National Institute of Employment and Professional Training (INEFP) in the Nampula district of Malema. The agreements for this work were signed by Zheng, but only one of the blocks was built, supposedly because the INEFP did not pay for the full value of the job.

Dalila Lalgy, wife of Zheng and co-owner of the company, told the court she did not understand much about contracts, and left that side of the business up to her husband (even though he claims that he is unable to read or write in the country’s official language, Portuguese).

Judge Ivandra Uamusse interrupted the trial for a few minutes to allow Lalgy to refresh her memory. But when the trial resumed, all she could add was that the signature on a Kuyaka receipt was not hers.

The trial will resume on Monday.

Source: AIM