The Zambian Voice has announced that it will be joining the legal battle demanding that the K14 billion Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ) loan obtained by Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mutembo Nchito, Post Newspaper owner Fred M’membe and Nchima Nchito be paid back.
The K14 billion DBZ loan was obtained by fraudulent misrepresenation.
Zambian Voice executive director Chilufya Tayali said he was happy that the Supreme Court had ordered for the retrial of the K14 billion DBZ loan saga that has over the years attracted angry reactions from citizens and concerned stakeholders following uncertainty as to whether the loan would be paid back or not.
Tayali said the K14 billion was public money and that it therefore in order that many stake holders joined in the legal team that is seeking that M’membe, Nchito and his brother Nchima paid back the loan because the money could be channeled to many other areas of need in the economy.
He said the ruling by the Supreme Court that the case should be subjected to a retrial would give Zambians and other stakeholders the opportunity to participate in the new court process in which the trio would have to defend themselves and show why they should not pay back the loan they had obtained by fraudulent misrepresentation.
The Zambian Voice chief told the Daily Nation that he did not mind how long the case was going to take but that the ultimate goal was to have the loan recovered because the amounts involved were colossal and could not be glossed over.
Tayali said his organisation was ready to go on a crusade to demand that those who got public money by fraudulent misrepresentation should not get away with the crime and that Zambians must now rise and demand that M’membe and his business partners, the Nchito brothers must redeem themselves by settling the loan.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the retrial of K14 billion DBZ loan saga with Judge Muyinda Wanki ruling that in the name of justice, the case should be redirected to the High Court under a different Judge because Judge Nigel Mutuna who had presided over the matter did not have the jurisdiction. Judge Wanki in his ruling explained that the transfer of the case from Judge Albert Wood to Judge Mutuna did not follow the normal procedure and should therefore be taken back to the High Court for retrial under a different Judge. The Supreme Court also lambasted Nchito, his brother Nchima and M’membe for contemptuously ignoring court decorum and walking out of a court session when the proceedings were going on. President Michael Sata subsequently suspended Supreme Court Judge Philip Musonda along with High Court Judges Nigel Mutuna and Charles Kajimanga and immediately constituted a tribunal headed by Malawian Judge Lovemore Chikopa to probe the three judges for alleged professional misconduct.
The tribunal has suffered several legal complications and has failed to commence its sittings and the whereabouts of Judge Chikopa has now become a mystery as government through the Vice-President Guy Scott has declared that he (Scott) was not Interpol to know where the embattled Malawian Judge had disappeared to. Judge Chikopa is currently facing possible imprisonment in Zambian jails for contempt of court for disregarding the court order to halt his sittings because his tribunal was under litigation in the courts.
Are we surely going to give these thugs another term? These are the worstest, “ngakwaliba icisungu caso” thieves to govern this country.
“whereabouts of Judge Chikopa has now become a mystery’
flead with our money again. He needs to pay back all the money he received from Zambian tax payers. Obtaining money by false pretence.
DBZ is owed by Zambian airways, not by individuals. Zambian airways assets have to be sold to pay back debts. The investors in Zambian Airways (Mmembe & Nchito) lost the money in the company because of RB politics. DBZ also lost their investment. It is normal business. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Dull Action man, the issue here is the loan was acquired by ‘False representation’ which automatically lifts the veil of incorporation and makes the directors liable in their individual capacity, oh dull one. Read and research first before rushing to comment, do u think in your puny little mind that this is something these professionals pursuing these monies would have overlooked? Something as basic as who is liable? That’s the problem when tuma dependants who have never paid tax start talking about what they do not know i.e. Action M.oron.
It is you dudelove who is dull.A consortium of banks (experts) where involved in the aquiring of DBZ loan.These are the experts who latter on advised the Post to invest in Zambian airways.How can you fraudulently obtain a loan when you are not part of the company?Whatever Mutuna wrote in his judgement came from his head.There were not raised by DBZ lawyers (a friend to RB).This was RB’s battle,he wanted to fix Mmembe and Nchito.
The money was obtained during Mwanawasa as President and Ngandu Magande as Finance Minister era.How does one explain that within one month when a total of $5.5million was borrowed,the Airline went bust?This is a classical case of fraudulent misrepresentation.A political hand was at play which forced DBZ to release the funds when it was very clear this airline was suffocating under the heavy weight of debts.Surely,the corporate veil in this case will definitely be lifted.This case has nothing to do with RB who merely reminded Mutembo Nchito and his colleagues to pay back the loan.
Mmembe has alot mula, why is he refusing to pay back the money he knows very well that he obtained? you cant refuse to pay back the nkongole through stupid laws………….just pay coz you got the money, there is no need of even going to courts
his balance isheet is ZERO,thats why he cant pay.on paper and to myopic people he has got a lot of mula.tabakwata ninkongole chabe.
My concern is what will the Supreme Court do if again the trio found guilty as the Mutuna, Kajimanga and Musanda found them, then they appeal to the supreme Court, what will the president and Chikopa do?
I feel Mutembo Nchito should resign from being a prosecutor and through the president who appointed him.
The trick the supreme court did was to send back the case to the high court so that the high court can rule in the favour of the cartel. When this happens, the Attorney General will refuse to appeal to the supreme court, just like they did during the Chiluba and others case.
Scott.. there is nothing to hide, Chikopa sneaked out of Zam, he is back to Malawi.
Where is Chikopa and if he is in Zambia what is he doing?
…walking out on a court session by the trio is a big insult to judiciary. Judges must bite the bullet and nail penalties on these guys. No one is above the law. My message to the judges is: you represent the poor, rich, underprivileged , uneducated Zambians and please do your job professionally. Protect the integrity of Zambia us a country. Jail when appropriate and serve the Zambian tax payers money.
The loan was for the purchase of an aeroplane. But they bought houses ,pumped money in post news paper and bought expenses cars.
They used the money to buy former Anglo American (Occupied by Holiday inn senior staff) flats at Mulombwa Close in Rhodes Park. Mutembo Nchito was at the time company lawyer for Holiday Inn Hotel (2002).
The High Court will rule in favour of the Cartel, no doubt about that, in fact I hope they do rule in favour of bene Nchito coz that will be added ammunition for the removal of these monsters from power. Extremely poor people cannot afford ubunga and then here is this heartless government protecting people who are already multi-millionaires. Opposition will have a field day kuma rallies coz they already have in their arsenal: i. Constitution issues ii. Chitimukulu iii. Mealie meal iv. Subsidies and now the K14 million.
Some comments are made without legal knowledge of course. Even if the debt was incurred by the defunct Zambian Airways,as long as it can be proved that the directors who contracted the debt on behalf of the company acted in bad faith knowing that the company was not going to pay back the loan, they can be cited for fraudulent acts. So if that was the case,then the directors are liable to pay back the loan on behalf of the company.
@Zambie 1
What authorities are you relying on?
@Zambie 1
YOU ARE VERY RIGHT. BUT WE ALSO NEED TO KNOW WHAT DBZ HAS TAKEN THESE PERSONS TO COURT FOR. IS IT FOR FRAUD? ARE YOU SURE THEY KNEW THAT THEY CANNOT PAY? ARE WE NOW SETTING A NEW PRECEDENCE THAT WHOEVER GETS A LOAN AND FAILS TO PAY FOR WHATEVER REASON MUST BE PROSECYTED? AND YOU DONT GO TO COURT CHANGING CASES. OR ARE WE NOW TRYING TO LOOK FOR A DIFFERENT CASE TO CHARGE THESE PERSONS WITH? IT MUST BE CLEAR. WE HAVE TO BE FAIR WITH EACH OTHER. IT IS VERY WRONG TO WANT TO FIX THESE PEOPLE AT ALL COSTS. PEOPLE HERE ARE LITERALLY TRYING TO FIND A CASE. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PROVE THAT THESE PERSONS KNEW THAT THEY CANNOT PAY BACK THE LOAN? THE ONUS WILL BE ON THE ACCUSER TO PROVE. AND MY FRIEND. IT WILL BE A DIFFICULT ONE BECAUSE. GOD HATES INJUSTICE. TREAT EVERYONE FAIRLY.
Righteousness and justice are the foundations of God’s throne, if anything matters to God it is justice and may I lend my cry to a call for true justice to prevail in this matter
Here it seems all the bloggers do not know how this issue started. It started like this: The airways borrowed money and offered security in form of asstes that included a plane. Later on, after less than six months, they needed some more cash about k10bn and decided to borrow from finance bank, but they had no assets to offer as security. So, Mutembo Nchito and the group went back to DBZ so that DBZ could surrender the documents(security docs) to enable them use the same collateral to borrow fron finance bank. Mutembo was asked to personnally guarantee the loan in the absence of the security. Now mutembo was in a hurry and asked DBZ to surrender the documents and the guarantee agreement would be signed later on. DBZ in their own wisdom released the security documents and mutembo used the
same ducuments to obtain a second loan within a space of six months or a year. Mutembo never went back to complete and sign the guarantee documents and within three months after getting a loan from finance bank, the airline was closed. Finance bank confiscated the assets but DBZ had nothing to show because they had given back the security documents to mutembo, who even failed to go back to sign the guarantee documents. From this senario, who is a crook between DBZ management and Mutembo/mmembe?