Maravi

They are behaving like mad men

They are behaving like mad men
Written by Editor

LIES, dishonesty, deceit, falsehood, malice and hatred are very dangerous things.We say they are dangerous because they blind people to truth, reason, logic, fairness, justice. And objectivity is totally impaired.This is what is today consuming Rupiah Banda. He is a victim of his own lies, dishonesty, deceit, falsehood, malice, hatred. If one looks at things in this way it will be easy to discern and understand why Rupiah is claiming that we have stolen US$30 million, through Zambian Airways, from the Zambian people when he knows very well that this is not true, this is not so.

Rupiah knows very well that Zambian Airways does not owe state institutions anything anywhere near US$30 million. Rupiah knows very well that Zambian Airways only owes money to four institutions connected to the state. And these are National Airports Corporation (NAC), the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ), the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA). These are the only state institutions Zambian Airways owes money. NAC is owed about US$2 million by Zambian Airways. And this US$2 million is for passenger service charges, landing and navigation charges. And Zambian Airways took a loan from DBZ through Investrust Bank of US$3 million. This is a five-year loan running up to 2011. The airline also owes about US$1 million to ZRA for various taxes, and US$ 230,000 to NAPSA. And how do these amounts come to a total of US$30 million Rupiah says we have stolen from state institutions, from the Zambian people? Simple arithmetic shows that the sum of this is only about US$6 million. We are not in any way saying that US$6 million is a small sum of money, especially in a poor country like ours. But in the context of the aviation industry, these are not gigantic or unusual figures. We say this because anyone who knows anything about aviation will tell you that it is a highly capital intensive business and yet it normally has very small profit margins.

When one looks at the US$2 million Zambian Airways owes NAC, the amount looks huge but the time it takes to accumulate that amount is so short. It just takes six months of bad business for an airline of Zambian Airways' size of operations to hit a bill of US$ 2.4 million with NAC, that is at US$ 400,000 per month. Any honest and fair-minded person will not fail to see why Zambian Airways today owes NAC US$ 2 million given the very difficult period the aviation business world-wide is emerging from.

As for the US$ 3 million owed to DBZ through Investrust Bank, this was a normal loan contracted under normal circumstances. The only problem that is there is that as a result of the financial difficulties that the airline was facing, this was not adequately serviced. And there is nothing unusual in companies that started well running into unforeseen problems and failing to meet their obligations as they fall due. There are many businesses in this country today, run by very honest and good people, that are having problems meeting their obligations to banks. There are many examples of this we can give, without being malicious, of companies being run by very competent professionals and businessmen that are in receivership today. Just look around Lusaka and see how many of such companies are there owing banks millions and millions of dollars or billions and billions of kwacha!

The US$1 million Zambian Airways owes ZRA is also not a small amount. But is it the only company in this country that owes ZRA such an amount? There are many companies that have suspended operations which owe more. The same can be said about the US$230,000 owed to NAPSA. These are normal operation debts that have arisen in the ordinary course of business. There is nothing fraudulent about them. Rupiah knows this very well.

But again, Rupiah sees all this as an opportunity to scandalise The Post and therefore deliberately multiplies the figure of US$6 million by five to get US$30 million as money owed to state institutions. Of course, these are not the only amounts Zambian Airways owes. The airline has other commercial obligations which have nothing to do with government. These do not add up to US$30 million. And the entities owed that money have not recruited Rupiah to be their debt collector. There are so many other companies in this country that are owed money by others, and Rupiah has not been going round trying to do some debt collection for them. Rupiah has not even done so for the many suppliers to his government that are owed billions and billions of kwacha, save for those few MMD cadres that recruited Jeff Kaande as their debt collector. Clearly, the private entities Zambian Airways owes money know what to do, they don't need Rupiah to be their self-appointed debt collector.

Why is Rupiah lying? Why is he deliberately giving the nation wrong information? This is not a mistake. This is a calculated ploy to destroy The Post. The problem of Zambian Airways have very little to do with normal business but everything to do with politics, to do with hatred by Rupiah for The Post. We know that if The Post was not involved in Zambian Airways, the noise we are having now would not be there. We are the target for the hatred.

But why this hatred? It's simply because of what The Post stands for, and what The Post has been reporting on and about Rupiah and his friends. And it is for this reason that even other enemies of The Post like Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves have joined forces with Rupiah to attack The Post. This is why Chiluba today is talking about the Zambian Airways matrix. There is no way Chiluba can put himself in the same category as us. He is a corrupt man who has been found to be corrupt - a thief - by a competent court of law in London. And last week the magistrates’ court in this country convicted his wife for receiving stolen money from him when she was his concubine. What good can anyone expect this thief to say about The Post? Every Zambian knows that without The Post, Chiluba and his tandem of thieves wouldn't be in the situation they are in today. And does any sensible person expect Chiluba and his friends to like The Post? And among Chiluba's friends is Rupiah and those around him, which is why Chiluba is today applauding Rupiah's mad attacks on us. We know all these things. Crooks, thieves and corrupt elements of all hues have ganged up against The Post. Some of them are even trying to hide in the name of God to conceal their iniquities and evil schemes. But they shouldn't cheat anyone that God belongs only to them. God belongs to all and will always protect the innocent from the acts and hatred of corrupt elements like Chiluba and his league. It is said that "every creature prefers its own kind, and people are no different. Just as animals of the same species flock together, so people keep company with people like themselves" (Sirach 13:15-16). We know that there are many evils in this world that have been committed by people who claim to be God's children, and even by people who are today claiming to be gods. The Bible teaches us that in communion with the Father, Jesus found strength for struggling for scheme of life, challenging the forces of death, represented particularly by the Pharisees, against whom the Gospels present two violent manifestoes (Matthew 23 and Luke 11: 37-57). And in this sense, all who struggle for life by fighting corruption, abuse of power and other injustices are included in God's scheme, even if they are not going around like Chiluba claiming to be little gods. It is your fellow man, and especially the one who lacks life and needs justice, in whom God wishes to be served and loved. They are the ones with whom Jesus identified. Therefore, there is no contradiction between the fight against corruption, abuse and injustice and the fulfilment of God's will. One demands the other. All who work along that line of God's scheme for life are considered Jesus' brothers and sisters (Mark 3:31-35). This is the best way to follow Jesus, especially in Zambia's present situation.

We will not criticise those pastors, those reverends who on Saturday decided to honour Chiluba. All that we can say is that even apartheid - that corrupt and inhuman system and ideology - had its own church, had its own preachers, pastors, reverends and priests of all sorts. It does not surprise us today that even this corrupt element, this stinking little thief Chiluba has his own pastors, reverends and churches - those that exalt his evil deeds, his corrupt acts. Praying for Chiluba is one thing - an acceptable and honourable thing, but exalting and honouring Chiluba is another - an unacceptable and dishonourable thing. Anyway, we only have the right to criticise them. And since we can't hate them, we can only despise them. And everything that they did on Saturday is within their constitutional and legal rights. All that we can do is criticise and despise their deeds. And in doing so we are also acting within our constitutional and legal rights.

This is how we see what is happening about Zambian Airways and why The Post, which only holds 30 per cent of the shares of this airline, is made to appear like it is the absolute owner of this business and responsible for all the problems that have left it in debt. But can this be said to be so? Only those who are blinded by power, ambition, hatred, greed and corruption can see things that way. And it's only such people who can behave like mad men when it comes to The Post.

Labels: RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 11:15 AM