UPND questions Lungu’s ‘sudden’ wealth
The opposition UPND has questioned how President Edgar Lungu has managed to amass so much wealth in the 18 months he has been president.
Information obtained by Zambian Eye from the recent presidential nominations shows that President Lungu declared assets worth K23.7 million, meaning he grew his wealth by more than 100 percent, having declared K10.9 million in late 2014.
But in a statement, UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma wondered what kind of business the Head of State was involved in that has seen him double his net worth in such a short time.
He noted that K12.7 million is a considerable sum to accumulate in such a short space of time, especially coming at a time of complete economic meltdown for both big and small businesses in Zambia, many of which he says have had to shut down operations and lay off their workers.
“Mr. Lungu has clearly been doing well for himself over the past 18 months. While the quality of life for the majority of the Zambian people has been worsening, he has increased his personal wealth by a staggering amount since January last year. In the recent declaration of his assets during nomination filing he has revealed an astonishing increase in his wealth to a reported K23.7 million,” Kakoma said.
“With an official annual salary of K447,559, or K37,296.58 per month, it would appear that Mr. Lungu seems to be the only Zambian who has learnt the art of business within such a short period of time in his life, especially given the difficult operating environment in Zambia. Let us assume for a minute that Mr Lungu has not touched his salary, after 18 months he would probably have saved K671,338.50 in his account.
“If only he was able to achieve the same results for our country, i.e grow GDP of at least 20%; we would have been at ease as he would have saved thousands of jobs that have been lost within a short space of time.
“Of course, the presidential salary has more than doubled under PF and allowances have increased by huge margins. Yet still his net worth from these hefty salaries and allowances are nothing compared to what he has declared within a short period of time in office. As he is amassing wealth the students have no meal allowances, the teachers are still owed millions in retirement benefits and thousands of miners have lost their jobs. We also have civil servants salaries being delayed.
“The question thus is, stopping short of saying Lungu played abracadabra with his money, how did Lungu manage to amass so much wealth in 18 months? Did he stop by the traffic lights to collect one of those little flyers with messages like “If you want to find your lost wallet….contact so and so?” Your guess is as good as ours.”