Maravi

Seizure of my property is political, says GBM

Seizure of my property is political, says GBM
By Agness Changala
Mon 12 Apr. 2010, 04:01 CAT

Mwamba (r) with Kabwata MP Given Lubinda at his residence in Kabulonga where he held a press briefing - Picture by Eddie Mwanaleza

KASAMA Central PF member of Parliament Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba has charged that the seizure of his building on Luanshya Road in Lusaka by FRA which has been accommodating the PF secretariat is highly political.

At a press briefing yesterday, Mwamba wondered why his property was not seized when MMD was using it in 2006. He said in 2006 when he stood on MMD ticket and lost to Given Lubinda in Kabwata, MMD used the same premises PF was occupying as its campaign centre and at that time he owed the government but no one harassed him.

Mwamba said the government decided to act now because the tenant was PF. He said what the government had done was beyond business.

He said PF would go back to the premises and would stay there for as long as they want and that he would remain the major financier of the party. Mwamba said today, he would instruct his junior accountant to transfer the money he is said to be owing into the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) account. Mwamba said the money he would pay FRA today will not an overdraft or a loan, but from one of his petty cash accounts.

He clarified that he did not owe FRA K522 million as reported in the Times of Zambia of Wednesday last week but K390 million.

Mwamba said the debt came about because he supplied mealie meal to most government institutions who he said were bad payers.

”As a result I had difficulties to pay FRA because it’s common knowledge that when you supply, you are to be paid and offset your debt,” he said.

Mwamba said his company started dismantling the debt and the balance was K390 million. He said Zambia Police, for instance, owed him a similar amount of money. He also said the government owed more money than it was claiming through FRA.

Mwamba warned agriculture minister Peter Daka and information minister Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha to stop playing with him because they were not his match as he was a prosperous businessman not only in Zambia but the world over. He said none of the Cabinet ministers were his match economically and financially.

He said the MMD government was treating him like this because of the humiliating defeat that President Rupiah Banda, Vice-President George Kunda and their sympathizers suffered in Kasama.

He said that humiliation was just a beginning.

“We have 2011, I will still remain the major financier of PF and I am still solid and I will always remain solid,” he said.

Mwamba said he had heard Cabinet ministers saying he was finished and “broke”.

“More especially Daka, I am sure you know me very well because before you became anything, you knew how successful I was,” Mwamba said. “Do you really think I am stupid, I don’t save money?”

Mwamba said he was too powerful to be destroyed by Daka and Shikapwasha. He said Shikapwasha had forgotten that he and his wife campaigned for him in Kembe constituency.

“Has he forgotten which office the former first lady sent him to when former Minister of Home Affairs Luckson Mapushi died in a road traffic accident?” Mwamba asked. “My wife and I gave Shikapwasha K10 million and we also gave them bags of mealie-meal and we spent our time campaigning for him and I even bought a new car for that purpose. Has he forgotten that?”

Mwamba expressed sadness that Shikapwasha was one of the people who wanted to rise against him. He said most Cabinet ministers together with Daka and Shikapwasha, once fired, would become nonentities.

Mwamba said he would use his strength as a powerful businessman and politically to fight them.

Labels: CORRUPTION, GBM

posted by MrK @ 4:14 AM