(LUSAKATIMES) I simply represented a gold buyer’s interest – Maureen

I simply represented a gold buyer’s interest – Maureen
TIME PUBLISHED - Monday, November 7, 2011, 5:03 am

MAUREEN Mwanawasa, wife of late President Levy Mwanawasa, represented a prospective gold buyer, but has stated that the connection was not sinister in anyway as the ‘golden triangle’ unravels.

“I represented one of the people that were interested in buying the gold,” the former First Lady, a Lusaka lawyer from Mwanawasa and Company said, “We gave a South African client the necessary advice and got our fees for the job…that is all we did.”

Mrs Mwanawasa identified the client as a Mr Moto Mabanga who could not meet the sale criteria stipulated by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) which required the interested party to buy the entire 118 kilogrammes of gold at once.

“Our client just wanted part of the gold and not the entire amount,” Mrs Mwanawasa said, “We just provided the necessary legal documents at Mwanawasa and Company. That is all I know about the gold. I went to see Mr Zulu at DEC with our client’s offer and later he called us to say our client did not qualify to buy the gold.”

The gold with a present day value of about US$6 million or K32 billion was ostensibly sold at US$4 million after being seized from two Zimbabweans. Former President, Rupiah Banda and his former press assistant Dickson Jere recently in Lusaka and Mfuwe met a Swiss man, Nicolae Buzaianu, who is believed to have bought the gold.

Mr Jere did not answer his phone more than three times yesterday when the Daily Mail called him. He is said to be in South Africa on business. The Swiss man has asked Mr Sakwiba Sikota of Central Chambers to sue the Zambian government and demand US$100 million for being linked to the gold but President Sata, who cannot be sued as a head of State has instead challenged Buzaianu, 42, to come to Zambia and “explain” himself if he is not tainted.

The President who has embarked on a spirited campaign against corruption that has won him kudos locally and internationally also disclosed that the Swiss man whom he stripped of diplomatic status at UNESCO in Paris is on a DEC “watch-list.”

Mystery surrounds how the gold was sold while in DEC custody but information reaching the Daily Mail suggests that the seized gold excited lots of top government officials leading to an abortive attempt to switch it for fake bullion while it was still in DEC custody. The attempt to switch the gold for fake bullion was thwarted by a named female senior DEC official.

[Zambia Daily Mail]