The Economic and Financial Crimes Court has forfeited to the State Simoonga Farm inChikankata District illicitly acquired by former Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary STURDY MWALE.
The forfeiture comes in the wake of an application for a non-conviction-based forfeiture made by the Anti-Corruption Commission –ACC- following an extensive investigation which the Commission conducted against Mr. MWALE.
It was alleged that Mr. MWALE corruptly acquired Simoonga Farms in 2019 at a purchaseprice of US$2.5 million using funds reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime. 
The funds for purchasing the said farm are alleged to have been acquired as payment for the awarding of the financing contract to a named company for the supply of goods at the cost of US$47 million to the Ministry of Defence.
The farm which has a labour force of 26 workers is stocked with 400 herds of cattle, 168 goats and has a field of horticulture. The farm also has 10,000 tomato plants at 11 weeks, two tractors, one front-end loader and two trucks.
The Commission earlier seized the farm in July 2022 pending investigations and subsequently engaged the Zambia National Service to jointly manage the said farm.
The size of the farm that has been forfeited to the state is 1227 hectares.
