Maravi

The appeal

The appeal
Written by Editor

It is said that what is good for the goose is good for the gander. If it is good for Frederick Chiluba’s wife, Regina, to appeal against the judgment of the Magistrate’s Court that found her guilty of being found in possession of property she could not explain, it must be also acceptable for the people to appeal when the Magistrate’s Court acquitted Chiluba.

Our people, on whose behalf Chiluba was being prosecuted for stealing from them, are not happy with his acquittal. What are these people supposed to do? Should they become violent or find some other means of protest? The civilised thing to do is to allow the judicial process to be exhausted.

In the same way that many of Chiluba’s accomplices are appealing their convictions, an appeal on behalf of the people is welcome. We are not surprised therefore that respectable members of our society have begun to speak, welcoming the filing of the appeal. This demonstrates that a failure to appeal would have been a great injustice to our people.

If the state had not appealed this judgment, many questions would have been asked and those responsible would have had to answer corruption and abuse of office accusations. The judgment of Jones Chinyama that acquitted Chiluba was not of the Supreme Court but of a Magistrate’s Court. And all parties have the right to appeal that judgment to the High Court and all the way up to the Supreme Court if they find it justifiable.

It is not very difficult to understand why Chiluba and his friends wanted to treat this judgment as if it was one from the Supreme Court, the last court of appeal in our country. We have seen Chiluba making all sorts of claims, including demanding his immunity back, the day after his acquittal. Chiluba was doing this knowing very well that the state had 14 days within which to appeal. He wanted to make sure that he blocked any chance of an appeal.

We are also not surprised that Chiluba is shamelessly claiming that the state owes him US $8 million and that he is going to claim it. Which state owes Chiluba this kind of money? Where did he get it from? These are issues that Chiluba failed to explain even after refusing to swear on the Bible in court. Is he now going to tell the nation where he got the money from? Is he telling the nation that he was getting donations for the institute in 1995?

How much of these donations for the institute were meant for his children? Even if say it was true that he received donations for the institute, was this the right way to spend those donations? Giving donations meant to build an institute to girlfriends? Isn’t this swindling donors?

The truth is these were not donations for the institute. It was simply stolen money being laundered through the Zamtrop account which he thought no one would reach. The nonsense he is saying of putting that money in the Zamtrop account so that drug traffickers don’t get to it is ridiculous.

What did drug trafficking have to do with Chiluba’s money? Was he dealing with drug traffickers? What type of dealings did he have with drug traffickers? Why was he worried about drug traffickers reaching his money? Did he owe them anything? What is Chiluba trying to tell us? Is he telling us he was dealing with drug traffickers and this is where the US $8million he is claiming came from?

Are these the donors to the institute he is talking about who he can’t mention? What does Chiluba think the Zambian people are? Does he think the people of this country are fools? Even little children can see that he is talking nonsense. The problem with Chiluba is that when he starts lying or dribbling as he used to call it, he gets so carried away that he forgets what he said just a minute ago.

It is not long ago that Chiluba was saying that the money that came into the account was meant for the MMD. This is what he said in court. He also said that as president, he was entitled to that money.

Today, the story has changed; it is money for the Chiluba institute. Like a typical thief, Chiluba is thinking of new stories to tell as he goes. It is clear now why Chiluba could not give evidence on oath and be cross-examined on it. There is no way these lies could withstand the scrutiny of cross-examination. We will not be surprised if tomorrow another lie is told about why Chiluba is supposed to have had personal money in the Zamtrop account.

Chiluba is saying it doesn’t make sense to prosecute a president for stealing US $500,000 because this is little money, it’s petty cash. US $500,000 is a lot of money to any honest person, to anyone who has worked for his money. Even billionaires can’t say US $500,000 is nothing. And for the president of Zambia, US $500,000 is far more than his annual salary.

The other day, Rupiah Banda was saying his net salary is K7 million. What was Chiluba’s salary as president of Zambia? It was not more than what Rupiah is getting. The vast majority of our working people will never earn that money in all their working lives.

And this is the man who was president of a country where the majority of citizens live below one dollar per day, that is less than US $365 per year. What makes Chiluba arrogant about US $500,000 being peanuts is because he was earning small but stealing big. A man who could give a girlfriend, someone’s wife, Mr Mwanza’s wife, Regina, US $300,000 for nothing cannot claim to have been working for that money. This is the psychology of a thief. Thieves have no value for money because they don’t work for it, they just steal it.

This nonsense about donors giving money for the institute is utter rubbish. We ask Chiluba to explain the house he is living in in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area. We challenge him to deny that it is a house bought with stolen money which was laundered through Cave Malik and Company, a firm of crooked lawyers, who were found liable together with Chiluba for stealing Zambian government money.

And this same Chiluba today can go round trying to claim to be innocent, a man of God and calling us devils! The devil is Chiluba. If Chiluba claims to be a disciple of Jesus, then he is nothing but Judas Iscariot who was stealing from Jesus and the other disciples.

And this is the man who thought the Zambian people should accept his fraudulent acquittal without question or appeal. He is a joker.

It would therefore have been criminal negligence on the part of the Director of Public Prosecutions and his prosecutors not to appeal. And for this, they would have had to answer for it later, if not now. No amount of political pressure from Chiluba’s friend, Rupiah, could justify such a decision, a decision not to appeal against such a highly appealable case.

We have all seen the grounds of appeal and even those of us who know just a bit of law can say there is something that needs to be cleared, that needs to be explained in regard to Chiluba’s acquittal. Surely, what’s good for Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu must be good for Chiluba, unless they were being tried according to different laws.

We agree with Simon Zukas and senior chief Bright Nalubamba that this appeal deserves the support of all the Zambian people. It will be criminal for anyone to oppose the DPP and his prosecutors’ decision to appeal that judgment. This single decision, simple as it may seem, may be the saviour of our judicial process. We say this because the acquittal of Chiluba has brought the standing of our courts and our judicial process into disrepute. The standing of our courts today is very low and needs urgent redemption or we are finished as a country. And this may lead to people outrightly rejecting judicial decisions and taking the law into their own hands. We know what happens to a country when respect for the judiciary is lost: anarchy takes over and becomes the order of the day. Therefore, any political move that takes away the dignity of the judiciary is a negative and dangerous one. It is therefore important for Rupiah to allow the due process of the law. This is the only dignified way out of this mess, this confusion that has been created by the attempt to let Chiluba go scot-free.

Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 2:50 PM