Maravi

Yoram Mumba links Chiluba to coup plot

Yoram Mumba links Chiluba to coup plot
By Amos Malupenga
Tuesday January 15, 2008 [23:00]

Lusaka businessman Yoram Mumba yesterday revealed that he conspired with Chiluba to overthrow Dr Kenneth Kaunda. But when contacted for comment, Chiluba laughed at Mumba’s statement. Commenting on former president Frederick Chiluba’s differences with Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata, Mumba said Chiluba was a very ungrateful person who always schemed to hurt his once upon a time friends. He said even when he served as Republican president, Chiluba was never magnanimous in his dealings with people.

Mumba said Chiluba, at any slight misunderstanding with any friend of his, would inflict such unbearable pain on that friend forgetting any big favours that friend did for him.

“I for one shielded Chiluba from being charged with treason in 1980,” Mumba revealed. “He and Chitalu Sampa from Zambia Congress of Trade Unions conspired together with me in my house at Mepepe, South of Chilanga to overthrow the UNIP government. I was given the assignment to contact and recruit personnel from the army and Air Force. The two gentlemen were to organise a countrywide strike in the event that the coup was foiled and we got arrested.

“I went through traumatic interrogations but I never squealed. I spent ten years in prison and when I came out, Chiluba and his colleague never came near me. I was expecting an invitation to one of their homes. It never came.”

Mumba said the people that visited him home to welcome him back into society were friends with whom he played sport before he was imprisoned. He said when Chiluba became Republican president, he was annoyed with him because he thanked Dr Kaunda for releasing him from prison.

“For this, he was to show me his wrath in earnest by ordering government ministries and parastatals including the intelligence service and all armed forces to divert their business dealings from my company, Eagle Travel, to some newly formed company owned by his friend,” Mumba said.

“When queried, his answer was ‘Yoram is a Kaundaist, don’t do business with him’. Chiluba is a man who can never be trusted, too slippery for any noble person with normal brain. Incidentally, it is a funny world; even the chief of mafia gangsters in the United States of America was very generous to some people who benefited from his loot. These are the people that protested bitterly when the law caught up with this benefactor. Such was the end of AI Capone.”

Mumba said he was saddened by the schism in the Patriotic Front going by the reports in The Post. He wondered why all retired presidents in Southern Africa were living quietly and honourably writing memoirs without anybody pointing fingers at them that they have stolen while Chiluba was busy quarrelling with all and sundry or trying to skim a come back because he verily believes Zambians across the country were feeling nostalgic for his rule.

“This is according to his personal assistant Emmanuel Mwamba,” Mumba said. “My foot, but these are the very people that ill-advised him to go for a third term that never was. My advice is that the man should grow up and begin to differentiate between genuine praise and appeasement. In most cases, Zambians in their shyness will always tell you that which they know will make you feel good. They do not care if they are right or wrong; what they are concerned about is your feeling after you meet them.”

Mumba said it should be realised that Sata would beat Chiluba at the polls because at the moment he was more popular than Chiluba.

“People now know who Chiluba is – a devilish enigma. I say this because all his skims are meant to hurt his once upon a time friends. When you cross his path, he will hunt you down until you drop dead.”

Mumba said people might be wondering the cause of the rift between Chiluba and Sata in PF. He said the cause was not the rebellion of PF members of parliament who Chiluba is using to get at Sata for having made a statement at a rally in Chilanga which statement vilified him.
This was soon after the London High Court judgment which found Chiluba and others guilty of having stolen millions of United States dollars from the Zambian government.

Mumba said at that rally, Sata told his audience that he was not there when Chiluba allegedly stole money from government. He said that statement did not go well with Chiluba who vowed to unleash a vicious campaign of slander to unseat Sata, “using the maverick MPs who seem not to know him yet”.

“A day will come when he will dump them,” Mumba said. “Knowing him, Chiluba will not end at this; his hatred of Sata will definitely rise to a crescendo of curses and filth. Chiluba should be told to leave Sata alone. I do hope that no money changed hands between the two of them for I shudder to remember what happened to his once closest allies such as Ronald Penza, Paul Tembo and more recently Rajan Mahtani.
All these were jewels in the life of our Second Republican President Chiluba. The question remains, what went wrong? Was Chiluba the cleanest out of these encounters? It is quite a labyrinth of a situation. Sata must be very careful.”

And when reached for comment earlier, Chiluba’s spokesperson Emmanuel Mwamba said his boss together Chitalu Sampa and others were detained in connection with that coup attempt because of Mumba’s falsehood. He said that is why Chiluba and his colleagues were released after being detained for 18 months because of lack of evidence against them.
He said Chiluba was accused of organising countrywide strikes on the basis of Mumba’s lies but there was never any evidence to back up those allegations.

But Mumba said Chiluba was detained for 52 days and not 18 months.

“Yes, it is true he was released because there was no evidence,” Mumba said. “And there was no evidence because we shielded him. That is why I said we refused to squeal. We were grilled but I refused to implicate Chiluba. That is how he was released. We thought he would be more useful outside because our original plan was for ZCTU to organise countrywide strikes if the coup was foiled.”
Mumba said he has explained this episode in detail in his book entitled: “1980 Coup; Tribulations of One Party” which will be published in the next few months.

“The book is now with my publishers so just wait for it,” Mumba said.
And Mwamba said it was unfair for Mumba to speak on Chiluba’s behalf concerning current problems in PF. He said these problems or misunderstandings were almost resolved because there was a group of elders mediating between Sata and Chiluba and soon their differences would be over.

Mwamba said it appeared Mumba was sent by someone to scandalise Chiluba. He said it was clear that Mumba had an axe to grind with Chiluba going by the many scandalous letters he written through The Post.

“If he has some personal problems with Dr Chiluba, it’s better he just makes an appointment with him and resolve those problems,” Mwamba said.

But Mumba said no one could send him to do anything against Chiluba because what he was talking about is what he experienced or went through.

“Natumwikata fye tapali efyo alelanda (Chiluba is caught pants down there is nothing he is saying). Just wait for the book, you will read more details on that,” said Mumba.

However, Mwamba said whilst Mumba’s book will be welcome, like many others before him and yet to come, it would be exposed and fought viciously if it will contain falsehood.

And when contacted later, Chiluba laughed and asked: “Where was Yoram Mumba’s house? Was it in Kitwe? Was it in Ndola? The heart of a bitter man is an evil one because it is even willing to bear false testimony, imboni eyabufi fye!”

Chiluba said he would soon comprehensively respond to Mumba’s charges.

Labels: ASSASSINATION, CHILUBA, KENNETH KAUNDA, YORAM MUMBA

posted by MrK @ 3:56 AM