Maravi

Rupiah and Chongwe’s $5.9m compensation

Rupiah and Chongwe’s $5.9m compensation
By Editor
Sun 13 Dec. 2009, 04:01 CAT

Those working with Rupiah Banda should be very careful about what they do with him and for him. And more importantly, they should be very careful with Rupiah’s verbal instructions. Executing Rupiah’s verbal instructions without documenting them maybe suicidal.

We have no doubt that Rupiah is a kind of leader who abandons his subordinates, his agents when things get tough. Rupiah is also sly and cunning, to borrow from George Mpombo’s description of him.

It’s clear that many of our people are now beginning to understand what kind of a dishonest government Rupiah is running. As we have said before, Rupiah also seems to have begun to realise the limitations of power. When he came into power, Rupiah thought he was going to intimidate everybody and bully his way into all sorts of conduct without being held accountable by anyone because he was President. This dream is very quickly evaporating; there is a rude awakening.

In saying what we have said, we are not in any way suggesting that Rupiah is about to change his ways and become an honest President. Rupiah does not seem capable of honest dealing at any level. This is why he is having such problems handling power. Honesty would have helped him to assess the problems around him clearly and come up with appropriate decisions. Dishonesty has landed him in continuous crisis. Rupiah is now moving from one crisis to another, from one lie to another – he is piling up one lie on top of another every day.

We are not surprised that Rupiah is failing to stay in State House for any length of time. Rupiah has become a nomadic president, moving from one event to the next, looking for something to help him forget his problems at home. This is what happens when people take on serious responsibilities dishonestly.

Rupiah knew or should have known what his weaknesses and limitations were. He should have taken the trouble to create a strong team of independent- minded people, men and women of high levels of integrity and credibility around himself to help him compensate for his own inadequacies or deficiencies. Instead of doing this, Rupiah has surrounded himself with spineless wimps and pimps who are ready to sing his praises at every turn. And that’s why probably today he has serious difficulties with the likes of Gabriel Namulambe who are starting to speak their minds freely and honestly about the direction the country is taking. It is clear that Rupiah has serious problems with the likes of Gabriel who are starting to show him that obligations to the people take precedence over loyalty or commitment to an individual like him.

Today Rupiah is threatening those around him, his ministers who are speaking out openly about the problems in the country with dismissals; he is accusing them of working with the opposition to distabilise the country. Again, to Rupiah not agreeing with him is an act of treason and enemity, an act of espionage. Is Rupiah saying the opposition is distabilising the country? This is a multi-party dispensation where the activities of those in the opposition are of equal importance to the governance of the country as of those in the government party. This country is governed as a multi-party democracy, meaning that those in the opposition are also participating in the governance of the country. This being the case, how can the collaboration of a member of Rupiah’s ruling party or government be seen or said to be destabilising the country? This is the problem of people with the one-party system glued to their brains being given the responsibility to run a multi-party state.

There is a reason why Rupiah wants to surround himself with minions and yes men. It is clear that Rupiah wants to run the affairs of the nation as if he was running a family business called Rupiah and Sons. There is so much that is happening that is baffling and worrying and yet Rupiah does not seem prepared to change his ways. We know that Rupiah is barking verbal orders and instructions to all sorts of people in government. He is not prepared to put his instructions in writing because he knows they are wrong and they will land him in trouble. This is why he needs an army of minions to unquestioningly carry out his verbal orders while being too afraid to reduce them to writing for fear that Rupiah might be displeased and suspect sabotage; fearing that he might think they are setting him up.

Our advice to such people is simple: they should document and record all the instructions they are acting on if they don’t want to spend years answering for things that they did for Rupiah. We also advise them to follow the proceedings going on in our courts of law involving Chiluba’s minions who unquestioningly took verbal instructions and today are paying a high price when he himself is being defended or protected by Rupiah and he is nowhere to speak for them. These are very selfish people who only think about themselves, who don’t even care much about the wellbeing or plight of their minions. There is everything to be gained in simply writing that short note which says: “After your verbal instructions, Your Excellency, I have done the following…”

In the short time that Rupiah has been President, so many scandals have been exposed which show that Rupiah has been pulling strings from behind and does not want to be associated with his own dirty deeds. The closest direct link have been his sons as seen in the RP Capital - Zamtel deal, the Selex radar deal, the GMO maize importations, among others.

Today, Rupiah is trying to distance himself from the mess surrounding the fuel shortage that our country has been experiencing. Why were Dalbit officials being chauffered in State House vehicles while chasing government contracts for fuel? We know that one of the first things that Rupiah did when he came to power was to try and cancel the existing fuel contracts so that he could pass on the business to his friends. Again, these attempts where verbal. But people talk and people keep record. Just as much as Chiluba thought he was smart by just issuing verbal instructions the trail eventually emerged.

There is a pattern emerging in the way Rupiah wants to abuse his position as president. Last week, we carried a story about Rupiah’s involvement in the decision to pay Dr Rodger Chongwe US$ 5.9 million compensation for the 1997 injuries he sustained in the criminal attempt by the Chiluba regime to assassinate him and Dr Kenneth Kaunda. Rupiah issued verbal instructions, but today he is refusing. Rupiah is using very strong language saying that he is not mad to have directed the payment of US$ 5.9 million to Dr Chongwe. This in some way implies that Dr Chongwe is mad for expecting payment of that magnitude.

As we said before, Dr Chongwe has been a friend of this newspaper and a comrade of ours. People may disagree with his claims and think all sorts of things about them but one thing is clear to us: Dr Chongwe is neither a liar nor a mad person. Asked to decide who is telling the truth between Dr Chongwe and Rupiah and we have no difficulty in saying Rupiah is lying. For whatever reason Rupiah wanted to patronise Dr Chongwe and indeed made the directive but now that the issue is hot, he has no shame to denounce the whole compensation as madness.

When Dr Chongwe wrote to us he wrote as an honest man, as we have always known him. He was very detailed in what transpired. Indeed Dr Chongwe confirmed that when he left the country, he left his account details with the Secretary to the Treasury at the Ministry of Finance. Why would Dr Chongwe leave his details at Ministry of Finance if there was no agreement to pay him?

Dr Chongwe is not mad to give his account numbers to a government that has refused to pay him. When we wrote our story, we relied on sources from Ministry of Finance. As for Rupiah he got his home affairs minister Lameck Mangani to tell all sorts of lies in an attempt to mislead the nation. The question again is: why this desperation? It is surprising that even after Dr Chongwe’s letter has laid the whole matter bare, Rupiah continues to tell lies about this issue. Since Rupiah has no moral courage to tell the truth about this matter, he should just shut up instead of insulting a man of Dr Chongwe’s standing and insinuating all sorts of things against him. There is no doubt that Dr Chongwe needs to be compensated but the legal technicalities must be for lawyers.

By telling the kind of lies that Rupiah is peddling, he is not only diminishing his standing in the eyes of the Zambian people but also among his own Cabinet colleagues. People like George Kunda should by now know what kind of boss they have. When the going gets tough, Rupiah will leave them alone to face the music; he will wash his hands like Pontias Pilate. Professionals like Situmbeko Musokotwane and Mumba Malila who no doubt were supposed to have something to do with this matter must also be wondering what kind of president this man is.

When we say Rupiah is a liar, we are accused of insulting him but that is the truth. Rupiah must learn to live with the truth and run the affairs of the state truthfully. Lies never built anything useful; they are destructive.

Labels: GEORGE MPOMBO, ROGER CHONGWE, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:20 AM