Maravi

Police, ACC probe Rupiah's origins

Police, ACC probe Rupiah's origins
By Chibaula Silwamba
Tue 29 Nov. 2011, 14:00 CAT

ZAMBIA Police and the ACC have launched investigations into former president Rupiah Banda's parentage, according to well-placed sources. Sources revealed that a team of investigators would be deployed to Eastern Province, Banda's homeland.

"Our officers were assigned to pursue the issue of the former president's origin. If you remember it was a very controversial subject ahead of the just-ended elections," the source said.

"So our officers will visit Chipata, where the former president comes from and will go to a primary school he attended somewhere in Katete in Eastern Province."

The sources said the investigators would cross check the years indicated on Banda's official documents concerning his education background and roots of his parents.

"Of course, the documents indicate that he was born in Zimbabwe," the source said.

"But what is of interest is that he got his green national registration card in the early 1970s using his passport when in fact one uses a green national registration card to get a passport and not the other way round."

The PF had dragged Banda to Lusaka High Court, seeking to bar him from standing in the September 20 elections, claiming that his father was not Zambian but Malawian.

However, Banda disputed the allegations, insisting that his father and mother were both Zambians, born in Chipata in Eastern Province.

Lusaka High Court Judge-in-Charge Jane Kabuka dismissed the case on technicality because it was wrongly filed and that Banda was not party to the suit.

The constitution states that "a person shall be qualified to be a candidate for election as President if (a) he is a citizen of Zambia; (b) both his parents are Zambians by birth or descent;(c) he has attained the age of thirty-five years;(d) he is a member of, or is sponsored by, a political party;(e) he is qualified to be elected as a member of the National Assembly; and (f) he has been domiciled in Zambia for a period of at least twenty years."

Banda contested the elections but lost to opposition PF presidential candidate Michael Sata.

Labels: ACC, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 7:06 PM