Maravi

George Kunda is a political charlatan

George Kunda is a political charlatan
Written by Editor

Yesterday we spoke about a thief defending a policeman. This was in connection with the absurd situation where Frederick Chiluba was defending the Director of Public Prosecutions, Chalwe Mchenga and speaking on his behalf. One would expect that things could not get more ridiculous than what we saw yesterday. It is not normal for a person facing charges to jump to the defence of his prosecutor. But this is what Chiluba was doing for Mchenga.

As though that was not enough, today we have seen the accuser becoming a witness for the accused; the person he took to the London High Court. George Kunda was Attorney General and Minister of Justice when the Task Force on Corruption was created. It cannot be denied that George was Levy Mwanawasa’s right hand man in every way. In fact, George inherited Levy’s law firm after Levy became president. That is how close George was to Levy. It was when George was Attorney General that Chiluba was sued in London for the recovery of monies that were fraudulently obtained from the government treasury by Chiluba and his accomplices. The case in London was started in the name of the Attorney General for Zambia – in the name of George who was then Attorney General. As we all know, that case was won by the people of Zambia and a judgment was delivered. This is what is today called the London judgment.

But today, George whose government is sitting on a judgment against Chiluba obtained from the London High Court has joined the band of shameless Chiluba defenders. This, however, should not surprise anyone. George has demonstrated over the years that he has no problems defending the indefensible. He has proved capable of cheating the Zambian people and hoping to get away with it. Like Mchenga, George has proved that he has no courage to stand for what is right when it brings him into conflict with his appointing authority. He, like Mchenga, is also a spineless wimp whose courage only manifests when he is working against public interest.

No one has any reason to respect George’s legal opinion on matters of public interest. He is a shameless political charlatan who will try to deceive the people if he thinks it will gain him some mileage. We saw this recently in the case of Dora Siliya and RP Capital transaction when George called a press briefing to announce that he was going to hold a press briefing the next day. When he finally called his briefing, he was prepared to lie and tell the public things he did not believe to be true. For instance, he treated the nation to a nonsensical discussion on what the RP Capital MoU is. He tried to tell our people that what Dora signed was a non-binding MoU and accused those who were denouncing the abuse of government authority in the hiring of RP Capital of telling lies. Today we all know that government is saddled with RP Capital whether they like it or not.

But there was also the much publicised case of former Ministry of Health permanent secretary Kashiwa Bulaya in which again George and Mchenga tried to pervert the course of justice as they are doing in the Chiluba case. Just in case some of our people have forgotten, in that case, Mchenga, working together with George, went into court and withdrew a matter in which Bulaya was being prosecuted for abuse of office and corruption. Mchenga and George tried to cheat the public that the case was very weak and not likely to succeed. George even went further to admit that he instructed Mchenga to withdraw that case because continuing to prosecute Bulaya was not in the public interest. George also managed to involve his boss, Levy, in this criminal scheme. We all know today that George and Mchenga lied. That case was a very good case and the state won. Today, Bulaya is in jail serving time for corruption and abuse of office.

We know that the reason George wanted to stop the Bulaya case had nothing to do with whether or not the case was strong; whether or not there was evidence to convict Bulaya. We covered that case verbatim. No normal person can say that there was no evidence of corruption and abuse of office by Bulaya. The question is: why did George try to stop that case? Bulaya testified favourably in favour of Levy in the 2001 presidential election petition where Levy’s election was challenged by the late Anderson Mazoka and others. Since Bulaya delivered a political favour to George and his boss Levy, George tried to return the favour by criminally engineering a nolle prosequi to stop Bulaya’s prosecution. And to do his dirty deed, George, you guessed right, got Mchenga to do it. Are there any similarities between what happened in the Bulaya case and what is happening in the Chiluba case?

To start with, it is the same George and the same Mchenga that are at the centre of this criminal withdrawal of an appeal which even the Law Association of Zambia says is good. That is one similarity. The same crooks that were at the centre of the Bulaya saga are at the centre of the Chiluba saga. They have regrouped to try and carry out an even bolder miscarriage of justice than they tried to do in the Bulaya case. What is interesting about these friends of ours is that their methods are the same. That is another similarity. In the Bulaya case, they withdrew the case, claiming that the case was poor. The same people! In the Chiluba case, they have withdrawn an appeal claiming it has no merit. The same people! They have no shame. They are hoping our people will somehow not notice this rot and accept their nonsense this time.

It is clear that George is working on behalf of his boss Rupiah Banda. The deal is not difficult to discern. Chiluba is supposed to be a political ally who is going to deliver the Bemba vote. This is another similarity with the Bulaya case. In the Bulaya case, Bulaya was being rewarded by George for testifying favourably for Levy. This was the political game that was being played. In the case of Chiluba, he is being rewarded in the expectation that he will deliver the Bemba vote. This is the political game that George has allowed himself to join. There are no principles involved, just criminal pragmatism. This is why George can claim that there is not going to be an appeal because according to him, the case is weak. How then is George going to deal with the London High Court case? We know that George has always tried to use the fight against corruption for political ends. We are therefore not surprised that George has joined the bandwagon of Chiluba’s defenders. He is a shameless minion prepared to do anything for political expediency. These are the kinds of people our people do not need occupying public office. George is a petty, small-minded and vindictive politician who cannot think beyond his immediate needs. Looking at his background in the law association, one would have expected George to have championed the interests of our people. But from the time that he entered public office, George has demonstrated that he is no public servant at all. He has become a self-serving career politician who will do anything to defend the power and authority that he now thinks belong to him permanently. George should have formed part of a new generation of politicians untainted by the selfish politics of the Chiluba era. Unfortunately, he has demonstrated that he has all the marks of a politician that could have sat well in a Chiluba cabinet. His conduct in public life has been without principles. And instead of reducing the list of public misdeeds, George seems determined to keep increasing his wrongs against our people. There is a day of reckoning. Could it be that George is hiding something. It is not possible for a man to so consistently defend wrong things if he himself has nothing to worry about. But this is not for us to say; it is for George.

George has demonstrated that he does not belong to a democratic dispensation. He wants to live in an autocratic state where only minions like himself and his paymaster Rupiah have a say on issues and nobody else. He wants all of us to become his praise singers and sycophants. George is a political novice, a charlatan leading his boss to destruction. We know that if George had his way, he would stop us doing the work that we do. He has tried. We know of his schemes but it does not bother us.

We will continue to denounce the nonsense that he stands for and help our people in our own small way to understand the issues that are at play. We will not be intimidated by this charlatan who is threatening to stop us exercising our constitutional right to the freedom of expression. We will write as we please. Let him defend his criminal friends as he pleases. To us, he has proved that he is a charlatan; a self-professed expert on all things who knows nothing.

Labels: CHALWE MCHENGA, CHILUBA, DPP, GEORGE KUNDA

posted by MrK @ 3:28 AM