Africa-Press – Zambia. 1. So a few days ago, the Supreme Court of Zambia finally passed judgement on an appeal by four individuals who had been convicted of corruption by the Magistrate’s Court way back in 2010, and upheld the convictions of former Finance Minister; Katele Kalumba, former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance; Stella Chibanda and former Directors and Shareholders of Access Financial Services Limited; Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu.
2. I cannot comment authoritatively on whether Katele Kalumba and Stella Chibanda committed the crimes that they were convicted for, because l did not have the opportunity to review the evidence against them. However, l thorough reviewed the evidence against the two Access Financial Services Limited Directors, and to be honest, l keep scratching my head up to now on why their company was taken away by the State and liquidated by the Bank of Zambia (BoZ) and they were convicted of corruption and their conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court.
3. The background to this matter is that after working for various international financial institutions, the two Chartered Accountants; Faustine Kabwe and his friend Aaron Chungu came back home in Zambia in the early 1990’s and founded a bank called Access Financial Services Limited. This bank was very innovative and within a few years, it grew to prominence in Zambia. Among it’s customers was the Zambia Security Intelligence Services (ZSIS), which is our agency that is responsible for domestic and foreign intelligence. After Fredrick Chiluba left office in 2002, and Levy Mwanawasa took over, the later engaged in a spirited corruption fight against plunder of national resources during the reign of the former. The main theme that arose during this corruption fight was that members of the FTJ regime were using Zambia Security Intelligence Service’s bank accounts across the globe, including the Zamtrop bank account maintained in the United Kingdom, to siphon money out of the country.
4. Among the many ZSIS bank accounts that the former FTJ regime members were accused of abusing for personal gain was a bank account maintained at Access Financial Services Limited. In the matter at hand, Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu are today behind bars serving a five year jail term because they were convicted of corruption because of a $20 million payment that their bank made to two United States based security companies from a ZSIS bank account. But the question is; where is the wrongdoing? Where is the culpability? Besides no ZSIS official was ever charged with any offence.
5. Access Financial Services Limited was a duly registered bank. The Zambia Security Intelligence Services is a legitimate national institution. The payment was authorized by duly authorized officials at ZSIS. The ZSIS bank account maintained at Access Financial Services Limited had adequate funds for the $20 million payment to be made. The bank received a legitimate payment instruction from their client, and they executed it. Where is the wrongdoing here for which Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu should be serving a 5 year jail sentence?
6. The funny part about this injustice is that during the hearing of the appeal at the Supreme Court, the Director of Public Prosecutions testified that there was no wrongdoing by the two shareholders and directors of Access Financial Services Limited. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court of Zambia still decided to uphold the convictions and send Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu to prison for five years. You might ask yourselves why?
7. It is worth noting that this travesty of justice has traversed five administrations, being Mwanawasa, Rupiah, Sata, Lungu and Hichilema. So why didn’t any of these administrations allow justice to be served with regard to Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu? The answer is; giving justice to the two individuals would have been very costly to the State.
8. If you vividly remember Mwanawasa’s corruption fight, there was alot of excitement by law enforcement agencies who mostly pursued cases, not out of merit, but in order to make a political statement. Out of that excitement, our law enforcement agencies decided to take over Access Financial Services Limited and place it on liquidation even before it’s shareholders were charged with any criminal offense. The Bank of Zambia was responsible for liquidating Access Financial Services Limited, and to say that they squandered these assets over the years, is an understatement.
9. Because Access was a very healthy bank, after all the creditors of the bank were paid, there was plenty of money left, but that money was never given back to the shareholders of the bank; Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu. Up to now, the Bank of Zambia has not concluded the liquidation of Access Financial Services Limited in order to render a final account as per the Insolvency Act No. 9 of 2017. Actually, Access Financial Services Limited had so many properties around the country that up to now, the Bank of Zambia collects rentals or more than $35,000 per month from these properties. This also proves that BOZ had no sound basis for placing Access Financial Services Limited on liquidation and that the liquidation of the Bank was wrongful and politically motivated.
10. This brings us back to the question of why the appeal by Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu took more than 10 years to be determined? It is because the State was faced with the quagmire of either giving justice to Faustine Kabwe and Aaron Chungu by acquitting them because they did not do anything wrong, in which case BOZ would have to be held accountable for liquidating their company without a sound basis and the compensation would run into hundreds of millions of dollars, or just uphold the conviction and send the two to prison even if they are innocent. Rupiah Banda’s, Sata’s and Edgar Lungu’s administrations did not want to make that difficult decision so they just sat on the appeal until they left office. However, Hichilema’s administration decided to deal with the matter, although sadly the State chose a path of convenience and not justice. Perhaps because upholding the convictions of these two innocent men fits into Hakainde Hichilema’s narrative that he is a corruption crusader, just like Levy Mwanawasa.
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