Chiluba refuses to swear to tell truth

Chiluba refuses to swear to tell truth
Written by Laura Hamusute
Wednesday, January 28, 2009 8:26:39 AM

FORMER president Frederick Chiluba yesterday avoided cross-examination by opting not to swear on the Bible to tell the truth in a case he is charged with theft of about US$500,000.

Had he been sworn, Chiluba would have been questioned on everything he was saying. But by not swearing, Chiluba is giving evidence of little weight whose truthfulness cannot be verified through questioning.

An accused person has an option to give a statement under oath or unsworn statement or to remain silent.

The oath that is taken in court is as follows: "I swear by the Almighty God that the evidence I shall give in this court, shall be the truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God".

However, Chiluba - a self-confessed anointed Christian - opted not to swear on the Bible.

At the beginning of his statement, Chiluba's lawyer Robert Simeza informed the court that his client intended to give an unsworn statement and Ndola High Court deputy registrar Jones Chinyama, sitting as magistrate in Lusaka, asked Simeza if his client knew the implications of giving an unsworn statement. Simeza responded in the affirmative.

This is in a case where Chiluba is charged with former Access Financial Services Limited (AFSL) directors Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu for theft of about US $500,000.

Both Kabwe and Chungu gave their defence by giving evidence on oath and were cross-examined. Chungu finished his defence yesterday.

In beginning his defence, Chiluba gave a background of how he founded the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) against the background of mass nationalisation of industries in the country by the then ruling United National Independence Party (UNIP).

Chiluba highlighted how he and his counterparts drew up the MMD manifesto and how they built goodwill, making people give them money. He said opposition parties never got money from government but got the money from private sources under the golden rule of anonymity.

Chiluba recounted that the golden rule was not to disclose the private sources as they saw helping political parties as a risk. He said the private sources feared that if the party they supported lost an election, both their personal and corporate interests would be jeopardised. He said the private sources did not prescribe how the money they donated was to be used by MMD.

Chiluba said in buying assets for the party, an appeal would usually be made and well-wishers and admirers of their policies would bring in money. He cited a building called 'Black Velvet' in Lusaka's Makeni area as one such asset he bought for the MMD from well-wishers' money.

Chiluba said he also sent appeals both inside and outside the country, the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU) to source for funds for building the FTJ Institute for Democracy and Industrial Relations.

He said the various funds that came in from well-wishers were not checked and it was at this point that former director general of intelligence Xavier Chungu advised him to let the money go through the intelligence account for screening purposes, accountability and transparency.

Chiluba said Xavier Chungu feared that unscrupulous people would be contributing to his personal and party appeals for money. He said the money from private sources was meant for his personal projects as well as party activities.

Chiluba said he knew that the account that was managed by the Zambia Security Intelligence Service (ZSIS) was held at the Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB).

He revealed that in order to access the money, he told Xavier Chungu to make payments on his behalf from his money in the intelligence account.

Chiluba said he never had any problems with Xavier Chungu's advice because Xavier Chungu was under instruction and met the needs on his behalf through the Zamtrop account.

He said he did not know how the account in question was run as it was the sole responsibility of Xavier Chungu who administered and managed it.

Chiluba gave an account of the developments he brought to the country that had not existed during the reign of his predecessor. He said there were no shopping malls in Zambia until he came to power and that earlier, only tiny shops existed with women lining up for salt from 02:00 A.M.

Chiluba said there was no bath soap, cooking oil and coca-cola, which he termed as ' Ulusengo lwa mbwa [rare commodity]' in Bemba.

He explained that there was only one bus company in Zambia, the United Bus of Zambia (UBZ) and people suffered.

Chiluba further explained that when he came into power, he introduced new reforms and today it was the buses that waited for people and not the other way round. He also talked about how he brought to Zambia the cellular phone, which in the past was considered a security risk.

Chiluba said it was against this background that it broke his heart to hear people say that he did nothing for Zambia.

He said first Republican president Dr Kenneth Kaunda at a national council in December 1973 made a statement to the effect that apart from what was provided for in the leadership code, no leader in Zambia could own more than two houses.

Chiluba said all Zambians, not only leaders, were not allowed to build houses for rent and every Zambian depended on the council or central government to provide housing for them.

He said many people were condemned to poverty as they had to depend on institutions for houses and not their own. Chiluba said when he came into power, he introduced the empowerment policy where Zambians were given an opportunity to own houses.

He said today many people were proud owners of houses and a new class of people called the middle class had emerged.

At this point, his lawyer Simeza drew him back to the Zamtrop account asking him whether he knew anything about the Financial Charter of 1970.

Chiluba said Dr Kaunda's tenure was punctuated with liberation struggles and money poured into Zambia and during the formative years, the Zamtrop account was subject to scrutiny and audit just like other government accounts.

However, he said UNIP introduced the 1970 charter to separate the Intelligence Account from other government accounts.

Chiluba said Dr Kaunda did not separate the intelligence account from other government accounts to steal money but it was intended to keep the money away from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other donor governments.

He recounted that the Financial Charter of 1970 stopped other people from auditing the account except the Auditor General in person.

Chiluba narrated that all the money that came from private sources to help with the liberation struggle during the Kaunda era went to the Intelligence Account.

He said the Financial Charter of 1970 allowed private money to go into the Intelligence Account and many governments worldwide used the Intelligence Account for many activities.

Chiluba referred to the intelligence account as a lawfully illegal account, which could even be used to kill people.

He said when Dr Kaunda's wife suffered a stroke, almost dying during his reign, he never asked for money from the Ministry of Finance for her treatment but used money from the intelligence account. Chiluba told the court that he made sure that he never used the component of the money that came from government in the Zamtrop account for his personal use. He said he used the money in the Zamtrop account to broker a number of peace processes in Angola and other countries.

Chiluba said UNIP did not introduce the Financial Charter to conceal thefts but to facilitate the flow of private funds in the intelligence account for the political emancipation of Africa. He said the intelligence account was used for several other delicate issues he could not mention.

Chiluba said just like every president, he knew an intelligence account existed but did not know that it was the Zamtrop account. He said he was only interested in ensuring that the job was done.

Chiluba revealed that unlike what most people thought, the late president Levy Mwanawasa wrote him a letter that he left with Gilbert Mululu expressing his interest in the presidency.

He said between late former finance minister Emmanuel Kasonde - who he thought would be a good successor because of his economics background - and president Mwanawasa, he adopted Mwanawasa.

Chiluba said president Mwanawasa did not have money of his own and he fundraised for his campaigns using money from private sources.

He told the court that president Mwanawasa and his wife Maureen owned a company known as Mapachima that owed the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) about K300 million in those days.

Chiluba said they cleared that debt since the MMD was going to field Mwanawasa as presidential candidate.

Asked where he got the money to clear president Mwanawasa's debt, he said the system had many fingers, they campaigned and he gave Mwanawasa K600 million plus three vehicles.

Chiluba said since president Mwanawasa was not a forceful speaker, the MMD had to campaign for him. He insisted that the money used for all these activities was not stolen government money but came from private sources.

Chiluba said no political party or party president ever disclosed the source of party funds.

He said even United States President Barack Obama raised money from millions of people but did not disclose the source. Chiluba said president Mwanawasa operated accounts at Finance Bank and ZNCB with money from private sources where he was the sole signatory.

He told the court that at one time during a convention in Kabwe, president Mwanawasa said he had made too much money from private sources and he was going to decide who he was going to give it to.

Chiluba lamented that despite what he did to ensure that his late young brother Mwanawasa became the President of Zambia, barely six months after taking over the reins of power, he summoned a special session of Parliament where he [Mwanawasa] made grave and false pronouncements against him.

Earlier, Aaron Chungu was re-examined by his lawyer John Sangwa in his defence.

Aaron Chungu denied stealing all the money he was accused of stealing, saying he only took K25 million and K43 million that belonged to him.

Aaron Chungu also defended himself on a number of issues that were brought up during cross-examination.

The matter comes up today.