They are stuck

They are stuck
Written by Editor

IT is clear that Rupiah Banda and his friends cooked nshima and then went to the river to try and catch fish for relish.But there was no fish to catch - and the nshima was waiting. What we are trying to say is that Rupiah accused us of stealing US$30 million from state institutions and promised the Zambian people that as long as he is President, he will make sure that we pay back that money to government.

Rupiah made this accusation, without any evidence of us stealing even a dime of that US$30 million. After making this accusation Rupiah then instructed the police to go and investigate and find the evidence to prove his allegation. The police went all over fishing. They fished in all the banks operating in Zambia hoping to catch something for Rupiah's relish - for the nshima he had already cooked.

After the police started their investigations, they announced that they were going to work with the Drug Enforcement Commission and the Anti Corruption Commission supposedly to show that we had stolen, we were corrupt and were involved in money laundering.

They cast their net in the Development Bank of Zambia stream but failed to catch anything, not even a fingerling. They have fished in all the banks trying to find something for Rupiah to eat his nshima with. But they have found nothing. But Rupiah wants his relish and they feel obligated to find something, come what may.

There are things one can create and there are others which one has to find and can't simply make. No matter how much pressure is put on Rupiah's policemen, they will not be able to create a theft that has not taken place. If indeed we had stolen anything, by now they would have found relish for Rupiah to devour us with.

There is no doubt Rupiah and his friends want us to be nailed to the cross and they will not hesitate to do so even with the smallest, the most minute piece of evidence pointing to us having done something wrong in the management and direction of Zambian Airways. They would not also hesitate to let the public know what they have found if there is anything that supports their position even in the most remote way.

It's clear that their scheme has failed. Their investigations have not yielded anything meaningful, sensible for them to mount even a weak prosecution.

It's weeks now since Inspector General of Police Francis Kabonde called a press conference to announced to the nation that they were handing over a docket to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for our prosecution. It was interesting that Kabonde chose a press conference as a forum to do his routine work.

Why did he need the whole press conference to say he has taken a file to the DPP? It is obvious that he was trying to show the appointing authorities that he was working, he was serving their interests. We challenged Kabonde to tell the nation what he had found because it didn't make sense for him to so quickly say he was handing over a docket and not say what for. Now the DPP has asked him to show what theft we committed in relation to National Airports Corporation Limited.

Why isn't Kabonde not calling another press conference to announce to the nation that the DPP has written back to him? The truth is Kabonde doesn't have anything positive for his bosses to announce. It is not in the interest of his bosses for him to tell the nation that the DPP sees no case in what he had submitted to him and has asked him for further evidence which he doesn't have and cannot manufacture.

Talking about removing Post editor Fred M'membe from the allegations does not help Kabonde answer the DPP's question on where the theft is. It is clear that Kabonde now wants to play politics. But this will not help him and his bosses' agenda.

We told them that we were very sure that no director had stolen anything from Zambian Airways or from any state institution using that airline. We have always admitted that the airline had financing problems but criminality was not one of them. We challenged them to institute a forensic audit and establish the allegations. One must be mad to call for an independent forensic audit of an institution he is being accused of having stolen money from or which he is said to have used to steal from state institutions.

We did that with the full confidence that an honest, sincere and innocent person exhibits when he is unjustifiably arraigned. We have never shied away from discussing the allegations that were thrown at us. We are not even afraid of being arrested and prosecuted. We have actually called for our arrest and prosecution so that we can have our day in court where evidence and not political propaganda reigns. We do this because we know that the allegations thrown at us by Rupiah and his friends are simply not true.

And when we say allegations thrown at us by Rupiah, we are not in any way trying to be malicious or to politicise the matter. It is a matter of fact that it was not the police who accused us of stealing. The police did not even suspect us of having stolen anything; they were simply drafted in to find evidence to support Rupiah's charges. This is not a police matter; it is Rupiah's matter.

The police is just being abused by Rupiah. This is why they are not able to tell Rupiah that they have found nothing. If it was their own matter, the police would have by now closed the investigations. But this matter is beyond them; it can only be concluded by Rupiah himself.

We know that the police are working under pressure. There is disappointment in government that when Rupiah announced US$30 million having been pocketed by us, the police are only talking about less than US$1.7 million allegedly stolen from National Airports Corporation Limited.

And now the police are being accused of incompetence for failing to find evidence of how we pocketed US$30 million. It is not incompetence on the part of the police. It is simply because there was no such theft and they can't invent it.

The police know that the National Airports matter is a commercial one and not a criminal issue. But they have a problem: how do they tell their boss, who has told the nation that we pocketed US$30 million, that he was wrong! Probably, the way out for the police is to go back to Rupiah and ask him where he got the information about this US$30 million theft and seek clues from him.

But the truth is that he has no clues; Rupiah picked the issue from rumours, from lies being peddled by jealous and empty heads who were looking for favours, jobs from him. Probably, Rupiah should also turn to his sources and ask them to provide more information that may be helpful to the police.

It is this frustration, this desperation that is making the police now turn on the people who were supposed to help them to nail us to the cross. They are now turning on innocent bankers and are starting to accuse them of corruption, of abuse of office. This is why they are today in panic, in desperation targeting officers from the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ). DBZ have sued us and we will be in court with them but this does not stop us from speaking out when people are doing wrong things, unjust and unfair things against them. Just the other day, Rupiah was telling the nation that we stole. How do they now turn to innocent officers and start accusing them of all sorts of things before they even finish dealing with us? Rupiah tried to turn the commercial problems that Zambian Airways faced into a political tool to silence us. And now that the people he had sent to fix us have failed, they will stop at nothing. This explains the attacks on DBZ officers. We know that they have been harassing all the commercial banks that dealt with Zambian Airways. But why harass them if money has been stolen from them? It was actually these same banks that should have approached them to seek help to recover their stolen money from us. But now the banks which are supposed to be victims are being pursued. There is no logic in what is going on. It is just a matter of senseless politics and it is unfortunate that innocent bankers have to be harassed for doing what they exist for - lending money. No one is above the law, we certainly are not. But even we deserve to be treated fairly. If commercial transactions such as the one that Zambian Airways entered into are criminal offences, we continue to wonder how many companies would be existing today. And for this reason, we still insist that they should arrest and prosecute us so that this criminalising of commercial transactions can be put to test.

There is no way out of this web for Rupiah. There will be no fish caught for his nshima and he has only two options: to throw it away or eat it without relish and risk being choked. There is no sensible alternative for Rupiah out of this other than to back out of the issue and admit that he was misled and accordingly apologise to the nation. But we know that this is not possible for Rupiah to do. This can only be done by honest people who are misled and later on realise they are wrong. Rupiah was not misled. Rupiah has not been dealing with this matter in an honest manner. Rupiah has been deliberately telling lies about us. Rupiah is not in the truth business. Rupiah deals in lies. And he will continue to lie to the very end. Rupiah will not accept the truth or acknowledge it in this matter.

As we have stated before, we are able to prove and justify every allegation, every word we have used on and against Rupiah. But can he do the same? Certainly not. Rupiah already has serious problems proving his allegations against us of having pocketed US$30 million from state institutions, among other many allegations and insinuations. This is where the balance sheet stands. It will require a serious change of attitude on Rupiah's part to correct this situation because this is not a matter that will be resolved through lies and cheap propaganda. Only truth can permanently put this matter to rest. And that truth is that we have never stolen a ngwee or a dime from Zambian Airways or any state institution - or any other entity for that matter - using that airline. And no one, no matter how much they search, no matter how long it takes them to do so, will find anything against us on this matter. And it is for this reason that we have repeatedly challenged Rupiah to get us arrested and prosecuted over this matter. We are ready to give account for everything we did and to answer every question that will be asked of us in court. We are confident that no director of Zambian Airways is guilty of the allegations that Rupiah is making. This same Rupiah is busy going round talking to foreign companies to see what assistance the government can render some of the distressed ones because of the current economic situation and yet for Zambian Airways, they were ready to play the role of assassins. According to them, the foreign companies have commercial problems because of the economy and Zambian Airways had criminal problems. This is the level of reasoning Rupiah and his friends engaged in over Zambian Airways. We repeat our cry: arrest us if we have done anything wrong!