Rupiah is not my friend as perceived by many people, says Katumbi

Rupiah is not my friend as perceived by many people, says Katumbi
By Abigail Chaponda in Lubumbashi, DRC
Tue 23 Feb. 2010, 04:00 CAT

DRC's Katanga Province governor Moses Katumbi has said President Rupiah Banda is not his friend as perceived by many people.

In an interview at his office in Lubumbashi, Katumbi threatened to sue the Zambian government for breaking into his seized account at Zambia National Commercial (Zanaco) Bank and getting his stones and emeralds worth billions of kwacha.

Katumbi said after he signed an agreement with late president Levy Mwanawasa that his property and all his seized assets should be returned to him, he went to Zanaco and found that his emeralds and some money were missing.

“We will invite the press and civil society just like what the Zambian government did to me when they confiscated my stones and closed my account at Zambia National Commercial Bank on allegation that I stole from the Zambian government,” Katumbi said.

“But this will not affect the relationship that I have with the Zambia government and the Copperbelt Province. I am suing the government, not anyone. When they seized my properties, they seized my personal things, not the Congolese government's.”

Katumbi said he had demanded an explanation from the now disbanded Task Force on Corruption to explain the whereabouts of his stones, a trunk full of emeralds and some money, but they did not give a satisfactory answer.

He said last week, Zanaco called his lawyer asking him to go and collect his assets.

“Why did they not give me right there and then when I signed that agreement? Why? What did they do with my things?

I will, as I said at first, call you people and the church to go and witness, to see if these are my things and I will sue the Zambian government. I was called all sorts of names when my things were confiscated,” he said.

On Tamba Bashila workers' terminal benefits, Katumbi said the Zambian government was the one that should pay the former workers their benefits because it seized the Zanaco account that had money to pay the workers.

“I think in total, I would say that there was K1.3 billion in that account,” he said.
Katumbi also said his country was developing and a lot of infrastructure had been built.

He said DRC, after the war, was in bad shape and with the efforts of the locals and people from other countries, Congo was slowly picking up. He said DRC was fighting corruption as the vice was rampant.