Maravi

Rupiah and NAPSA

COMMENT - I say - fund all political parties, no more off the books financing.

Rupiah and NAPSA
Thu 03 Mar. 2011, 03:59 CAT

It is said that there are no indiscreet questions, but only indiscreet answers.
When Rupiah Banda was asked to react to the story that this newspaper carried on the scandalous MMD fund-raising activities that are going on at NAPSA, he should have thought long and hard before carelessly answering that question. Anyway, it is said that our words reflect what we truly are. We may try to hide who we are and what we are doing but somehow somewhere, our own words betray us. This is what has happened to Rupiah.

When a journalist working for one of the state-owned news media organisation asked the question that he did, we have no doubt that he was not interested in hearing Rupiah’s opinion about The Post. Rupiah has made it very clear that he hates us and considers us as “hostile media”. The question that was asked was about the scam at NAPSA and not about the role, conduct or character of The Post.

These are well-known by The Post. The Zambian people know that The Post, like any other news media in a democracy, has a number of overlapping but distinctive functions. One is to inform and educate.

To make intelligent decisions about public policy, people need accurate, timely and unbiased information. And because opinions diverge, people also need access to a wide range of viewpoints. Our people also know that the other function of The Post, like all other independent news media organisations in the world, is to serve as a watchdog over government and other powerful institutions in the society. By holding to a standard of independence and objectivity, however imperfectly, The Post can expose the truth behind the claims of government and hold public officials accountable for their actions. If they choose, they can also take a more active role in public debate. Through editorials or investigative reporting, they can campaign for specific policies or reforms that they feel should be enacted. They can also serve as a forum for organisations and individuals to express their opinions through letters to the editor and the printing of articles with divergent points of views.

And another increasingly important role that any independent media worth its name should engage in is “setting the agenda”. By accusing us of setting the agenda, Rupiah is acknowledging that we are doing our job well. We would not be an independent newspaper worth its name if we did not contribute to the setting of the national agenda. By setting the agenda, we simply mean reporting on matters that we know to be important to our people. The issues that our people would like to discuss are the issues that we are going to bring to the pages of our newspaper to enable our people to express themselves fully and make intelligent decisions about the destiny of their country.

Rupiah’s evasion of the question on the NAPSA MMD fund-raising scam, hiding behind his unbridled or naked hatred for The Post, has demonstratced how deep the problem is. If Rupiah thought that by refusing to answer the question, he would get away from accountability on this act of plunder, he is mistaken. Our people have begun demanding full explanations on this shameful scam.

We say it is a shameful scam because it is so naked in its abuse that one wonders how people expected to get away with it. What Rupiah and his friends are doing is similar to a person buying furniture from their own house, things that they already own. NAPSA is a quasi-government institution. The government controls NAPSA, appoints its directors and top management, but the real owners of this institution are the people of Zambia, all those who make monthly contributions to it.

It is difficult to understand how people could sit and conjure such a naked scheme to steal from our people. The government virtually controls all land in this country. We know that many so-called investors come to this country looking for investment opportunities and one of the things that the government gives them for a song, for almost free, is land. We have carried so many stories where government, chiefs and councils have given so many thousand hectares of land to this or that business entity because of the investment that they tell us they are expecting to follow. There is no single person or entity in this country that has sold or bought bare land for US $15 million. This is historic. In fact one should even ask: how much did Robinson Zulu pay for this land that he is today selling to the people of Zambia for US $15 million?

But that is not even the point. It is not about whether Zulu bought that land or not. It is about the morality of selling to the people what the people can get for free.

We say this because we have no doubt in mind that if NAPSA really needed land to develop, they could have gone to the Commissioner of Lands, Lusaka City Council, chieftainess Nkomeshya or Mungule and said:

‘We have got US$15 million that we want to invest in your area, please give us land that we can develop’. These authorities that we have mentioned would have been falling all over themselves to find them land. But today, NAPSA is telling us that the only place they could find land in Lusaka and the surrounding areas is from Zulu. What nonsense is this?

We are not surprised that Rupiah is not able to answer. This is because once we have published what they have done, even they realise that it is foolish. It is something that they will find difficult to justify to the public. How can a state institution be buying land when foreign companies and individuals are given thousands of hectares of land for free? Even if it is fund-raising for politics, surely there must be morality and limits to what people are able to do.

If it was land that NAPSA was interested in, we have no doubt that that institution employs all kinds of experts who could have advised on how to do it better. We say this because it is clear that people were in such a hurry to make some quick cash that they forgot to ask even the simplest questions that they should have addressed. Zulu is not the only person who has land in Zambia or in Lusaka. How did NAPSA arrive at buying land from Rupiah’s tribesman? What method was used to invite tenders or offers for the supply of land? What other methods were tried before this ridiculously expensive alternative was decided upon? As we said earlier, did NAPSA go to chieftainess Nkomesha or Mungule and ask for land? Did they ask Chongwe, Kafue or Chibombo district councils for land? What about the Commissioner of Lands? Are these lapses or conscious and deliberate actions to deceive, to rob the pension contributors and the Zambian people in general of their money?
In the past, NAPSA has advertised business opportunities for all and sundry. They have told the nation that they have got funds that they would like to invest in this or that. They have also clearly stated the conditions for their participation in any investment. Why is it different now?

We know that there is an epidemic of single source contracts in Rupiah’s government. But this is going too far. This disregard for public morality and decency will land Rupiah and his friends at NAPSA in a lot of problems. They might think that they have gotten away with what they are doing because they control the instruments of power and have rendered institutions like the Anti Corruption Commission, Drug Enforcement Commission and the police moribund. But things change. The people who think they control everything today will have to explain what they did one of these days. They may think they will be in power forever, but Hosni Mubarak and others thought the same way and where are they today? Things truly change in ways that no single person has control over. The day of reckoning will come when all these things have to be explained.

What is happening at NAPSA is a continuation of the Rupiah government’s increasing list of scams and scandals. Our people have not forgotten about the single-sourcing of RP Capital to sell Zamtel to Muammar Gaddafi’s Lap Green. The Zambian people also know what Gaddafi was doing for and with the political leadership of this country. They know what type of briefcases were changing hands in aeroplanes. One day, those who think they owe our people no explanations will find themselves having to explain all these things. This arrogance will not continue forever. Soon, the arrogant will be humbled and forced to answer questions they are evading today.

Our people also know that there is need for explanation on the mobile hospitals. Against all logic, Rupiah pushed to buy these contraptions. And today, they have already started breaking down. Who is paying for this? It is our long suffering tax-payers. But a time is coming when they will say enough is enough.

As for NAPSA, this is not the only questionable transaction they are involved in. They have been giving businesses of all sorts to Rupiah’s people. And our people know this. The fact that people are not talking does not mean that they are ignorant. Rupiah and his cronies at NAPSA should be ready to explain these things one day.

Labels: CHARLES MILUPI, CORRUPTION, NAPSA, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 4:39 PM