The High court will on August 21, hear a case in which a concerned Ugandan wants court to direct Bank of Uganda and A Plus funeral Management Company to exhume the body of the late city socialite Ivan Sswemwanga and the money in the grave removed.
The deputy head-civil division Justice Margret Oguli Oumo will hear the case. Hearing notices were served to the respondents and the Mgugu’s lawyer to prepare for the case
Abey Mgugu last month sued BOU and the said company, seeking court to grant him the right to remove the money that was thrown in the grave by Ssewanga’s Rich Gang crew, on behalf of Ugandans. A Plus was contracted to manage the funeral services of the socialite.
Mgugu filed his suit through Sanywa, Walubiri& Company Advocate at the civil division on June 2.
Ssemwanga who died on May 25 at Steve Biko hospital, Pretoria in South Africa, was laid to rest at his ancestral home in Nakililo village in Kayunga town council on May 30, this year.
Mgugu, who attended the burial claims that he witnessed notes of sh10,000, 20,000 and sh50,000 including South African Rand and United State dollars, being thrown inside the grave by the socialite’s Rich Gang crew as a sendoff.
“I also saw other people placing/putting South African rand and US dollars in the grave of the late Ssemwanga before the deceased’s burial and I saw the same being buried along with the dead body,” he stated.
He said that the purposes of the said currency were misused and there was wastage of public property during burial of Ssemwanga which allegedly violates social and economic rights.
He stated that BOU which is mandated with a duty of issuing national currency in sufficient quantities, failed to do so when it let the deceased to be buried with the money, noting that this act stabilizes the economy.
“That act created a fall in the supply of money in circulation in the economy hence creating deflation,” he said.
Mgugu also wants court declare that BOU negligently failed to ensure the respect of the country’s currency and that of other countries.
He wants the border exhumed for purposes of respecting the currencies and the costs of the suit be paid by BOU and A Plus