Maravi

Rupiah’s admiration of Chiluba’s crooked ways

Rupiah’s admiration of Chiluba’s crooked ways
By The Post
Tue 01 June 2010, 04:10 CAT

EDWARD Musona, the magistrate who heard and decided the cases of corruption against Katele Kalumba and others, was very right in his observation that there was no remorse on Katele’s part.

This observation can also be extended to Frederick Chiluba and others. There’s clearly no remorse on the part of Chiluba. And this is one thing that Levy Mwanawasa used to consistently demand from Chiluba and his friends. He consistently asked them to show remorse and return even part of the money that they had stolen and that if they did that he had no difficulties asking for the charges against them to be dropped. But this seems to have been too much for hardcore criminals because remorse is not something in their line of thinking.

To date Chiluba and his tandem of thieves are showing no remorse for what they did. Instead, Chiluba is going around telling more and more lies and pretending that he is innocent. But he is forgetting that there’s enough evidence that was laid before our courts of law for the Zambian people to analyse and come up with their own judgments, their own conclusions.
The claims by Chiluba that those who were facing corruption charges with him were being paid for security services is nonsense. Why is it that most of those who were being paid from the Zamtrop account worked at the Ministry of Finance?

Why did the intelligence need so many operatives at the Ministry of Finance? Honest and sincere people can clearly see that this was nothing but a scheme designed to reward those who were helping Chiluba and Xavier Chungu to steal money. This is not the way the intelligence of the country is supposed to be run. They chose security as a cover for their crimes because they thought it was much easier to hide their activities behind the cloak of secrecy under which security activities tend to operate.

But it was not only the Zamtrop account that Chiluba and Xavier abused in the then state-owned Zambia National Commercial Bank. The whole bank was turned into their personal petty cash which they raided and ransacked at will. They appointed a managing director, Samuel Musonda, who was entirely under their control and friendly to all their schemes.

Musonda broke almost every norm of banking and accounting to satisfy Chiluba’s insatiable appetite for crisp kwacha notes which he had to supply in suitcases to State House. Today Chiluba can claim, albeit unconvincingly, that the activities in the Zamtrop account were security matters, but what about his activities at Zambia National Commercial Bank in Lusaka?

Musonda was also one of Chiluba’s key finance officers. Like Katele, Professor Benjamin Mweene, Stella Chibanda, Boniface Nonde, Bede Mpande, Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu, Musonda played a very key financial role in Chiluba’s scheme of plunder. Like his other colleagues, Musonda has been tried and convicted for abuse of office. He appealed to the High Court but he failed. Musonda has now appealed to the Supreme Court.

But what is of interest in Musonda’s case is his explanation of how he was running Zambia National Commercial Bank in concert with Xavier and Chiluba. Musonda testified in court under oath that he used to get instructions from Xavier to deliver cash to Chiluba. Without any proper banking documentation, Musonda would collect cash from the bank, pack it in trunks and deliver to State House, to Chiluba personally. Other monies he delivered to Xavier in cash, in trunks also.

This is the way that Chiluba was dealing with our money. What security operations required Chiluba as a head of state to receive cash at State House from a managing director of a bank? When Musonda was asked how he accounted for the money that he was giving to Chiluba, he could not provide any meaningful or sensible explanation. There was no accounting in the bank that showed that money had been delivered to Chiluba. This was a deliberate ploy to cover the criminal activities that Chiluba and his tandem of thieves were engaged in.

And because the boss himself, Chiluba, was engaged in such naked theft and abuse of public resources, his subordinates joined. Xavier could do as much as his boss did, if not worse. He also used to have trunks of money delivered to him by Musonda and some of his subordinates at the intelligence. Some of these trunks, according to the evidence that we covered in the Musonda case, were taken to Access Financial Services where Faustin and Aaron seemed to do with the money as they saw fit.

As the case for which Faustin and Aaron have been convicted has shown, they too kept no proper records of what they did with the money which they claimed to be managing on behalf of the state. Such was the wanton plunder that they did not even care to cover their tracks with any meaningful skill. Basic bookkeeping of debit and credit was lost in their thinking.

What can these criminals tell us today, who are they trying to fool with lies and propaganda? What innocence can these criminals claim? If anything, they should thank the Zambian people and their courts for the leniency they have received. The Zambian people have shown great tolerance and restraint when it comes to their response to the behaviour and conduct of these crooks. In more intolerant societies, Chiluba wouldn’t be saying the things he is today saying and continuing to stay in a house he bought using stolen public funds. In more intolerant nations, Chiluba wouldn’t be enjoying a salary and other benefits from the taxpayers he has defrauded. Chiluba and his friends are certainly pushing their luck too far.

Look at Zambia National Commercial Bank; the financial black holes that Chiluba and his tandem of thieves left in that bank almost sunk it. The bank was so ravaged that it ended up being sold for a song. Chiluba and the thieves that worked with him brag about what they did to help the country reach HIPC when in fact they stripped this country bare of its resources and dignity and left it in intensive care. Their thefts made it impossible for them to work for our people in the way that they should have. We have said before and can say again that if people like Katele had avoided the temptation of reaping where they did not sow, they could have been very useful to this country.

Their crimes have rendered them of very little value to our nation. If anything, they are a danger to the wellbeing of our country because their continued relevance to our politics almost invariably requires them to do wrong things to prove their loyalty to the powers that be. They have no dignity upon which to base their service to our people. These are terminally wounded people who cannot be relied upon to do an honest day’s job.
These are Chiluba’s friends. These are the people that he claims to value. It is said that “show me a man’s friends and I will tell you his character”.

Chiluba’s friends are those who stole with him and stole for him. And these are the people that Rupiah Banda thinks did “a damn good” job for our country. It is difficult for any honest person to appreciate what Rupiah’s presidency is all about when he thinks that Chiluba was “a damn good president”. If Chiluba was “a damn good president”, then stealing public funds is “a damn good” thing for a president to do. Yes, even keeping money from inexplicable sources in a government account for the benefit of a president is a “damn good” thing.
This is what Rupiah seems to be telling us. And if all these criminal activities are “damn good” things, then they are being admired by Rupiah. Then these are the “damn good” things Rupiah would like to do. Maybe that is why he needs Chiluba close at his side. But Chiluba’s example should only be emulated in the negative. It teaches honest people what not to do. Criminal elements will admire him, not honest people.

Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 12:49 AM