HH SHOULD BE IN JAIL INSTEAD OF ASPIRING FOR PRESIDENCY – TAYALI
Lusaka ~ Sun, 15 Nov 2020
By Brightwell Chabusha
I have come across some evidence that suggests that, instead of aspiring for Presidency, Hakainde Hichilema should actually be in jail, EEP leader Chilufya Tayali has said.
Speaking during a briefing in Lusaka today, Tayali said he had evidence suggesting that Hichilema benefitted from the privatisation process which happened during the reign of the MMD government.
Tayali said Hichilema acquired several properties from privatization and deprived citizen’s opportunities to be empowered through job creation.
He added that leader of the opposition UPND has two different NRC’s and further alleged that his name is different from the one he was using when he was at UNZA.
“For a long time, now, Zambians have been crying about how privatization was corruptly executed, making it look like Late President FTJ Chiluba and the MMD government made a mistake, but in my opinion it is the selfishness of people like Mr. Hakainde who make privatization a bad policy,” he said.
“I have come across some evidence which suggests that Mr. Hichilema corruptly benefitted from privatization. My investigations has revealed that Mr. Hichilema acquired several properties from privatization, depriving citizens opportunities to be empowered through job creation, accrued benefits, houses and other properties. One example is a house on Plot No. 77/a/609 on Poplar Avenue in Chelstone, Lusaka. This house was under ZIMCO (list of houses produced) and it was offered to a sitting tenant, Mr. M. Jere, who used to work for ZIMCO, at K9.8 million, unrebased, (offer letter produced). Mr. Jere paid for the house through SP Mulenga Associates International (Receipt produced), but without proper explanations, this house was later brought by Mr. Hakainde Hichilema at K31 million, unrebased (Printout produced). Evidence points to Mr. Norman Mbazima who was the joint Liquidator, together with Brian Musonda, of ZIMCO, seconded by Deloitte & Touche, that he is the one that gave a house to Mr. Hichilema. There seems to be a very strong link between Mr. Hichilema and Mr. Mbazima who even went as far as being the Deputy Chairman of AngloAmerican.”
He alleged that the AngloAmerican is the key sponsor of Hichilema and his party.
Tayali said Hichilema owned the house belonging to ZIMCO, “depriving Mr. M. Jere a sitting tenant and former worker of ZIMCO. In my opinion this is a clear case of Corruption.”
“Another interesting issue relates to FARM No. 1924 belonging to late Samson Siatembo. This property is in Kalomo Southern Province and it was mortgaged to Lima Bank in 1989 (Memorandum of Discharge produced) . Lima Bank was placed under liquidation between 1997/1998 with Grant Thornton as the Liquidator. Suspiciously, this property was bought by Mr. Hakainde Hichilema in September 2004 (assignment produced) when he was the Managing Partner of Grant Thornton. There are no records showing that Mr. Hichilema declared interest when buying this property which was mortgaged by Lima bank, an entity he was given to Liquidate. This, to me, is a clear case of conflict of interest abrogating the ACC Act, Penal Code and the Privatization Act. Therefore I am taking this matter to the ACC so that Mr. Hichilema must be prosecuted.”
He added that the house in Kabulonga is one of the houses he has been investigating and that he will report the case to ACC.
Tayali stated that he is also investigating the Sun Hotel issue “but I want to make a trip to Mauritius to dig deeper, unfortunately, I could not get a flight due to COVID-19. However, I am trying to see how I can get the evidence I need to prove another conflict of interest on Mr. Hichilema.”
He said he knew that Hichilema was loved by many as he is the biggest opposition leader but urged people to look at the evidence and judge who has the interest of the people.