Former finance and national planning minister Ng’andu Magande has charged that the number of commissions of inquiry is slowing down the pace of development for country.
Mr. Magande has described the commissions of inquiry as a waste of time for senior government officials who are suppose to attend to pressing national issues.
He says the time wasted on the commissions of inquiry could well be channeled to addressing the many challenges facing the majority Zambians.
Mr. Magande in an interview on the side lines of the ZANACO commission of inquiry has however stated that he is available for any explanation that might require his questioning on issues to with his time in government.
He says he has nothing to hide during the time he served as finance minister in late president Levy Mwanawasa’s government.
Mr. Magande has since pleaded with republican President Michael Sata to concentrate on developing the country.
And yesterday told the Sebastian Zulu led tribunal on the sale of Zanaco to Rabo Bank that he does not know how the US$8.25 million raised from the sale of the bank was used.
Mr Magande said he was not sure whether the amount raised from the sale of the bank was deposited into the national treasury.
Mr Magande denied ever interfering in the process of privatising the Zambian bank, saying all the proceeds from the sale went to the Zambia Privatisation Agency (ZPA).
“The money was paid by Rabo Bank but I am not sure if it went to the treasury or an account was opened elsewhere.
“It was not my responsibility as minister of Finance to privatise any companies. That was the duty of the ZPA and I followed the regulations of the duties of the minister of Finance,” he said.
Mr Magande said the responsibility of the minister of Finance in the transaction was only to sign away assets held by the state that had already been sold.
Mr Magande said he was not aware how the valuations of the assets were conducted as he signed the sale and purchase documents on an understanding that the technocrats who conducted the valuation were competent enough.
“The ministry of Finance had no role in privatising Zanaco and it was convinced that ZPA negotiators would come up with a good price and I never got into details on how they arrived at $8.25 million.
“I had a lot of things to attend to and I could not have looked at Zanaco, I was not concerned with its privatisation,” he said.
[Times of Zambia/QFM]
Magande,What are you scared of?Tell us why you are so quick in transferring the attention of Inquiry from your side!
ON ONE HAND YOU ARE RIGHT, THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRIES ARE A WASTE OF TIME AS WE HAVE CAPABLE PEOPLE WHO CAN PERFORM THESE DUTIES WITHIN THE JUDICIAL CYCLES. ON THE OTHER HAND YOU TONE SOUNDS MORE OF A WORRIED OR SCARED PERSON. I GUESS MWANAWASA HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE MONEY YOU DENY KNOWLEDGE OF. BUT SINCE HE IS LATE, YOU WILL COME OUT CLEAN. I LIKE YOUR HONESTY!
Mr Magande is a hypocrite!! He was in the forefront supporting the probe and subsequent take-over of Zamtel, how can he now claim Commissions of Inquiries are a waste of time? Simply because it is him being investigated? Muna shaina pali banzanu, now it’s you! Face it my man
But bro how do you just sign without making comments or questioning?
Mr Magande is commenting at a wrong time. He should have waited for his name to be cleared of any accusation re: sale of Zanaco, prior to dismissing the commissions of inquiry.
Awe mwe what a circus! zambians these politicians are all the same! that reply from magande is really funny
Magande Magande Magande! When it was on Zamtel you were reported to have said that ‘the President was right and he could make as many COI as he wished if he suspected that the sale of any publuc asset was illegal’, what is the problem now?
Chiwamila galu kuluma mbuzi! Your comments justifies why the COI on ZANACO should be even more forensic!
chi magande wabe tole,iddioot zamtel waleti pono now zanaco you have developed cold feet.
Chiwamila galu kuluma mbuzi!!!
Thief !! Thief !! Thief !! It your time..
Have these COIs been budgeted for?
They are not a bad thing but they were not planned for and the criteria used to select companies to probe is unknown.
sHah! kawalala iwe!
Hypocrisy at its best.
@10 mitch, do you need to budget for any action aimed at catching a thief? Remember a thief comes to steal, kill and destroyer.
Yes Pepecho, you need to budget. Commissions of enquiry were set up before the budget was announced or effected. But there were no budgets. Something has to give, perhaps a road somewhere.
l smell a rotten rat!!!!
Magande is chatting bare rubbish, can someone please cage this thief? He is guilty till he proves his innocence!
up to now i donot understand the vision of the government for the next 5 years. can someone please state for me the vision which the current government has in developing the nation. What is the vision please? and how is the government going to arrive there? It seems for me the PF lead government is still on campaign stage and does not know that it is on driver’s seat. I see no stability in the actions, for example appointment etc. are we saying we have a goverment on trial basis. today they appoint tomorrow they revoke. are we joking, running a home or a nation? can people be serious with what they were voted for. i am disappointed so far.
From the time Mangande formed his party I posted a blog stating that he is not electable, marketable and he is a snake. This simply adds icing to my cake.
He was the Chief Accountant for the nation and it was his role to follow were the money from Zanaco sale went.
He welcomed the COI to probe Zamtel and praised Sata. He also welcomed the probe on Zanaco and now that the questions have become harder, he is changing the Goal Post.
Heh!!he! He! Ke! Ke! Ke !yah! Like they say he that laugh at last laughs the loudest
Wat was he doing at the World Bank? was he a kamalonda?.
… Gross ignorance or maybe negligence from the person who was expected to be the manager of the affairs of the ministry…
They say “never foresake the spoon that feeds you”.. Magande ditched upnd which brought him in the lime light for that big job but where is he now…
If he didn’t forsake upnd but just agree to serve government as minister of finance this time maybe he would still be MP or something… Well he is a elderly fellow, he makes his own decions
But for Zanaco, the details a shocking, we will soon know who they were serving. Zambia or themselves
Ba Makandi,, when criticising you’ve been precise,, but when talking about development, mwacishafye mumwela!!! what development are you talking about that’s being relented? inquiring the corrupt practices that might have taken place in your MMD bosses is also the base for thethe development that the PF is bringing in our country,,,,,, Don’t be afraid Mr. Makandi if you’ll be called for questioning, we only want to rectify what went wrong to build a better ZAMBIA… Mind you, history cancelled is the distruction of our present and the distruction of our future prospect… TATULEFWAYA BANA BESU BAKACULE NGEFYO TWACULILE…. Viva PF!!!
Number 17 exactly my question. Where is the driver taking us and how does he plan to reach that destination. Very soon these PF supporters will be saying ‘amano kuli driver’
As minister Magande is right saying that it was not his business to get into details of sale as that was the responsibility of technocrats. Granted he is a professional in the field but as minister he would have been seen to be meddling in a matter outside his terms of reference. A construction engineer if appointed minister of works does not involve himself in how a highrise building eventually takes shape but on completion will ceremoniously just cut the ribbon. However of some comments when fault finding is the aim, objectivity is blinded. The incompetent controlling officers are the ones who also mislead weak ministers! Why would Magande receive RABO payment and take it for banking or start vending banks?
Nevers Mu mba is a lia r and a mon ey lau ndering ma chine
Him and the de puty Mr Nz oya are ste aling tax pa yers money. They had fired Mr Tem bo beca use he knew about this sc am and was aga inst it. They also have a office slut , Caro lina Rod- riguez who is also abus ing the money. The Ottawa Zam bian mis sion are th ieves
Strange world. This is the same Magande who never raised a finger when the PF Govt systems generated multiples of Commissions of Inquiries tailored to harrass RB, George Kunda, Dora Siliya and other prominent opposition leaders. Now that he feels being presses against a thorny wall, Magande starts to sound democratic. For the love of money this man hated his own peopled by forming a political party just to tear apart the strength of UPND. Wonders will never end.
Only a thief thinks that courts are not necessary!. Magade should just keep quiet, if he had done his job properly they will be no need for this commission.
Commissions of Enquiry are not courts. This is why some of you dont understand why the govt was wrong to grab Zamtel without the matter being heard in a court of law.
The people on these useless commissions are being paid K2million per day. This has nothing to do with development. The officers and technocrats in ZPA, Accountants,the Attorney General, just presented what they found to Magande. Ministers get an overview and they sign documents, it is not for them to start asking questions when 50 other people have been working on a document/project. If there is a document on mining is Sata supposed to know every engineering detail? No. That is why Ministers are changed from one ministry to another, often in fields they do not know because at the end of the day they are just overseeing, it is not for them to get involved in the nitty gritty when others have already done the major work.
Wrong Professionals!!!!!! Theophilis,Who told you that the minister of Finance should just Agreement of Sale of the biggest bank in Zambia without going through the document.What was is he doing in his office???? just drinking coffee and watching pornography on his Lab top?? This is no-sense gentlemen.Magande and other civil servants called useless professional must be arrested by the ACC,DEC and police so that they account for the misdeeds that took place in the illegal sale of ZANACO and other transactions which smell a rat.Move on Sata and the Zulu commission of inquiry.only thieves are scared but the honest people are still holding their heads high.Arrest the thieves Dr Malama !!!!! please go PF Government we are behind you. Dollar
commission of inquiry can make more sense if it can be instituted on companies like chilanga cement, Zambian breweries, Zambia sugar etc. otherwise it will be perceived as witch hunt.
Why am I the only one who remembers Magande boasting that his net worth had risen to K 3 billion at the height of the wage freeze and austerity measures imposed by him and his handlers, the Washington Consensus Group, the on poor Zambian civil servants!! Magande was at the centre of the privatisation of Zanaco and cannot now plead ignorance of the process!!
mu kakeni mambala uyu, ale mona kwati twali tumpa!! Uyu afimwena pali Mutati, kwati bonse mu Zambia twali tumpa, mwi swileni icibi pa Chimbokaela!!! Makaka!! Muntu ku tumpa!! Pumbafu sana!!
So far I haven’t experienced any change in this nation. The roads in townships are so bad. I took my niece to a Kabundi high school in Chingola and the road is like a big pool of water.Impassable to both motorists and the pedestrians which includes the pupils. Yet what we hear are just commission of enquiries for the past without any outline of how they are going to improve on what made us bring them to power.Its too much of witch hunting which displeases God.Pls PF government priotise development and the rest should be secondary.
I always said this guy was useless and i was called names
All the comments here seem like mad angry people, when are we gonna move ahead
It’s like MMD is headlining everything ,so much negative reporting, I’m waiting to hear all
The good things lined up for country,
you have denied levy foolish man