The opposition UPND has charged that the prosecution of prominent business man Rajan Mahtani amounts to xenophobia.
UPND Deputy Spokesman Edwin Lifwekelo said in a statement that Zambians must stand up and condemn all manifestations of Xenophobia and Xenophobic harassment of innocent citizens like Dr Mahtani.
Mr Lifwekelo said there are a lot of criminals going about doing their business with their heads high just because they are in good books with those in power.
He said a domestic economy must be developed under policies that favour local companies and businessmen and women like Dr Mahtani.
Mr Lifwekelo said the creation of the Mahtani group of companies has helped to alleviate unemployment in Zambia adding that Dr Mahtani deserves everyone’s support.
‘Late President Sata’s vision was to empower indigenous Zambians like Rajan Mahtani and others. This is why immediately he assumed office he repossessed Zamtel and gave back Finance Bank to the rightful owners,’ Mr Lifwekelo stated.
He added, ‘the MMD who are now slowly swallowing PF have started de-constructing Sata’s vision. In any case we are surprised why government is so interested in the battles between the Italians and Rajan Mahtani. Why is there so much interest in this matter?’ he questioned.
Mr Lifwekelo said the harassment of Dr. Mahtani by the state is disingenuous, disrespectful and misleading to the struggle for economic emancipation and respect of local investors.
‘The nation appears to lack institutional capacity to strengthen good democratic governance. The selective application of the law among citizens is of great concern to UPND.’
He said, ‘as the first contact of the criminal justice system, the police are expected to be impartial in the manner they discharge their duties and in the discharge their duties and in the treatment of citizens, unfortunately Dr Mahtani appears to be a victim of a vicious conspiracy by a group of people.’
‘We agree that corruption is a major challenge that must be fought for this country to see development, however there seems to be an orchestrated ploy by some individuals that want to settle political battles by using the state to discredit and harass Dr. Mahtani.’
Mr Lifwekelo added, ‘this is totally unacceptable and against the spirit of one Zambia one nation. The state must not be used to settle political scores by persons that have issues with Dr. Mahtani or the post News paper.’
He said, ‘Our position on this matter is not to defend Dr. Rajan Mahtani for any wrongs he may have committed but to seek justice and truth on matters that were closed under the Michael Sata administration but have now been opened under the Edgar Lungu administration, we smell a rat.’
‘We believe very strongly that someone is orchestrating this vilification and malicious prosecution of Dr. Rajan Mahtani by investing so much in his prosecution though not knowing the interior motives.
Settling political issues using the state is sending wrong signals to the outside world. We must stop this politics of patronage and embrace the spirit of love and hard work among Zambians.’
Call a spade a SPADE!
This man is simply a crook that has been instrumental in depriving Zambia of millions of Dollars through transfer pricing by the mines.
He belongs in jail, the only reason he is not is that he financially bought Sata and paid for his campaign!
This claim of xenophobia is just playing the race card!
UPND, you should be ashamed. Since when are you supporting criminality?????????????????
On which side is UPND?confused lot.Is opposition opposing everything?
This is a SAD situation happening in UPND.
HH come clean. Last week you were in South Africa having secret meetings with Fred Mmembe’s messengers and now you can represent your party to this Stupo.
There is over whelming evidence that Mahtani forged the signatures. How f00lish of you to say that this is xenophobic.
HH you are so desperate and now resorting to lies and preaching fear.
It worked on Sata getting into state house. This time Zambians have woken up. Mmembe is not a factor any more.
Tell Zambia about your manifesto and not this rubbish.
This is very sad state of affairs.
UKUTEMWA UKUKOPA NOMBA MWAKOPA NE CHISUNGU CHA PA SOUTH ATI “XENOPHOBIA”…YASHUPA DICTIONARY YABA UPND..LMAO 🙂
UPND IN THE RAT RACE– ITS A RAT RACE 🙂 😀
Mathani is a jailbird all you need is to look at his dubious past to understand his fraudulent nature. When Chiluba said this man will go to all lengths to know the travel plan of the president and travel where the president is in order to look like he is part of the entourage very few people believed Don Chi Chi. Sata in his address to Zambians resident in UK he said welcome to Mr Mathani who is gate crushing. That spoke volumes it confirmed Chiluba’s statements. So many Zambians have been victims of this man’s underhand methods. Today UPND should cry xenophobia?! This is a new low!
@Bobo, you are right. To be honest the UPND and the crew does not know the way forward. How can anyone support Dr Mahtani and his dubious business deals. His guy has been around for a long time and he has worked with a lot of crooked people in power of which the UPND party knows all this, just because the government is fighting him of is it RB doesn’t make him an innocent man. Sata gave the Bank back to him all because he funded and helped PF to get in the office with his strong arm financially. The UPND is going in a wrong direction with the Mahtani issue. Everybody knows Mahtani, ask even the employees from Finance bank, he is the most crooked man around just like the people fighting him. If UPND can support Mahtani now, then they would be the same corrupt government if God willing they
I continue. God willing you won the elections next year, you would be same same as those corrupt people. I would not cast a vote on anyone campaigning to be in the office and yet supporting the Mahtani Saga. I guess I would say it’s all politics. Yes politicians are the same, they want you to vote for them and they will tell you all the things that would please you, then when they get that seat, it’s a different ball game.
Lifwekelo and UNDP idiosyncrasies. Go milk some cows or something.
upnd new catchphrase …xenophobia
nkombo…said the same now lifwekelo
Who are you trying to scare with borrowed terms you hardly understand?
If you notice, the moment UPND opinion shaper, ZWD, editorials goes a certain, UPND leadership also follows. ZWD has stopped saying anything critical about Rajan Mahtani and his Finance Bank saga and the UPND vuvuzelas have fallen in line. But these people are so gullible and blind they can’t see the invisible hand of Rajan and HH at work here. It is sad for a major opposition party to fall for this kind of cr@p!
Check the history of stories on ZWD concerning Rajan Mahtani and and the Finance Bank saga, and you will realize the major flip in the way ZWD has covered this issue. It is NOT further from the truth to surmise that since Rajan joined HH as the major financial benefactors of ZWD, the mood in UPND has also suddenly changed—now Rajan is a saint. God help us!
UPND IS A USELESS PARTY THAT WILL GO TO BED EVEN WITH FOOLS JUST TO GET TO STAE HOUSE.THIS IS THE SAME UPND THAT CONDEMED NCHITO 3 YEARS AGO OVER HIS LINKS TO MHATANI AND THE POST,BECOZ MHATANI WAS INGOOD BOOKS WITH THE PF.TODAY THIS CROOK HU HAS RIPPED ZAMBIANS IS BENG BROT TO BOOK,HH NOW HAS BECOME MHATAN’S DEFENDER.DO U KNO WAT XENOPHOBIA IS U ***** LIFWEKELO?KAN U COMPARE TRYING A CROOK TO KILLING INOCENT FOREIGNERS IN SOUTH AFRICA?U ARE THE ONE PROMOTING XENOPHOBIA KOZ MHATANI IS A ZAMIAN,ND JUT BECOZ HE HAS INDIAN BLOOD DAZENT MAKE HIM ABOVE THE LAW.THIS IS A CROOK HU HAS GRABBED MANY PROPERTIES BELONGING TO ZAMBIANS.HH HAS LOST IT,GOIN INTO A MARRIAGE WITH PIPO HE CALLED CRIMINALS JUST 3 YEARS AGO,MHATANI,MMEMBE AND NCHITO?
UPND, WHATEVER YOU CALL YOURSELVES BE SERIOUS WITH YOUR OPPORTUNISTIC POLITICS. THE WORD USED HERE MAY BE VERY INAPPROPRIATE. YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST TO SMELL A RAT WHEN MATHANI WAS GIVEN BACK THE BUSINESS(ES). AGAIN YOU ARE SMELLING A RAT. ARE YOU SURE IT’S RATS THAT YOU SMELL? IN ALL RESPECT MIND THE WORDS YOU USE. XENOPHOBIA MAY NOT BE APPROPRIATE FOR ZAMBIA.
UPND is now a party of RATS.
And the biggest rat is HH
It’s not rats they smell, it’s cow dung! This chi Lifwekelo, I did not know that he was this shallow. Lifwekelo instead of being made to look stup!d like that, please learn to raise children you sire from outside marriage…you id!ot!
Crooks should not be supported because they pay themselves through all the way when its written in black and white
We need to stop politics of blindness and folly out of poverty to see extortion and economic plunder and payments in kind to buy way out always foolish UPND on this one
Why cant we change the law to have evil and criminal presidents like Edgar Lungu be imprisoned whilst in office?
I cant wait to see Edgar lungu’s immunity being lifted so that he faces the consequences of his criminality.
EDGAR LUNGU IS A NUMBER ONE CRIMINAL.
RAJAH MATHANI IS AN INNOCENT MAN.
Go Scr€w yourself!
Sincerely on behalf of decent Zambians
Hilda ulisakafye iwe what do you understand about this issues. Instead of talking something sensible you choose to talk nonse malabishi yobe
@Hildah Malama, waba itole pamukoshi. How can Mahtani be innocent ******we are you still sleeping? Do you live in Zambia or you have never heard who is Mahtani before for you to come out and say he is innocent. You must be desperate for office and hate the people in power, just find a different strategy to have your HH in power than saying Mahtani is innocent, how can he be, you didn’t ready how he forged the shares, and he got back the Finance Bank all because he was helping Chi Sata to get in the office. Yes nakutuka, because people like you don’t care about the poor Zambians and allow nonsense to go on. Pamatako.
Ba Checkov quite honestly some of us would have said why dont you go and po1son yourself
HILDA MALAMA U RE AN EMPTY HEADED FOOL.YO OWN PRESIDENT HH SAID 3 YEARS AGO THAT MHATANI WAS A CROOK AND THE PF GOVERMENT DECISION TO HAND BACK FINANCE BANK BACK TO HIM WAS ILLEGAL.IF THEZ ANYONE HU IS CLUELESS,IT IS HH HU HAS NOW LOST DIRECTION AND WORKING WITH PIPO LIKE MMEMBE HUM HE THREATENED TO PROSECUTE ONCE HE KUMS TO POWER.MHATANI IS A CROOK HU HAS WORKED HIMSELF TO THE TOP BY BUYING EVERY GOVERMENT THAT COMES TO POWER.ITS TIME HE PAYS BACK FOR ALL ZAMBIANS HE HAS VICTIMISED.
Hilda Malama is true that you are actually a man and that your father committed suicide because he found you on top of your mother and that you produced both your younger “brother” and “sister” with your mother.
Ba UPND be careful. How much has Mahtani dangled??
Xenophobia in the context of ill treating other humans applies when a foreigner is being victimized for the simple reason of being foreign. But Mahtani is a Zambian so it cannot be xenophobia but something else if at all he is not only facing valid criminal prosecution. Then Mahtani may not even be indigenous as he is of foreign extraction (Zambian of Asian origin).Ba UPND please still to your ethics if you have to win the trust of good thinking Zambians. You seem to be supporting literally any important person who is in bad books with PF even when you have no valid truth to take such a suicidal stance on some issues. You praise Sata for taking back Zamtel and returning Finance Bank,the things you condemned and sided with RB when it suited you. Now you change since RB didn’t support you!
UPND this is by far the dumbest thing you have done and said in a short time. The more you utter nonsense, the more your own party devalues.
I didn’t think they would top the dumb statement made by HH about getting information from intelligence.
Awe mwandi, this NGO upnd kuwayawaya fye! This one barks this side, the other one that side……bo.. bo…bo.. booooooo! rubishhh!
To even think I could have voted for HH if I were allowed makes my stomach sink!!!
It seems the only way UPND does business is through tribalism and its subsets, in this case, xenophobia.
I urge my Tonga friends to either form another party, or blend into existing structures to effect change from within. Otherwise, if your path to plot 1 is via UPND, I must warn you, it’s a no through road. Wake up.
I FLEW WITH A WHITE MAN WHO LIVES IN CAPETOWN AND WHO WAS INVOLVED IN INVESTINGATIONS CONCERNING MATHANI INSTITUTED BY THE THEN GOVERNMENT OF ZAMBIA AND WHAT HE REVIEWED TO ME WAS FRIGHTENING. IN SUMMARY, ONE MR. RAJAH MATHANI IS A CRIMINAL AND DOES NOT DESERVE SYMPATHY FROM ANYONE.
SHAME ON UPND WHO ARE SUPPORTING HIM FOR POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY
UPND, what is really wrong with these guys. If such illogical comments and analysis comes from the top, what will happen at the lower ranks. No wonder all they know is insults and supporting people like Pilato. Most Zambians respect their leaders. Pilato will only continue to make UPND unpopular. Now it the Manthani case. One wonder what worse to expect
UPND should learn that opposition does not mean behaving like lunatics and not thinking straight. How can someone allow and tolerate lawlessness for the sake of getting into plot 1.
The level of irresponsibility in UPND is alarming. Worse, HH is the one supporting this behaviour.
And these are the people who want to rule this country? It will be a huge mistake. What is good is that people are watching and judging this party’s…
IT IS NOT SURPRISING FOR HH/UPND TO SUPPORT RAJAN. ARE THEY NOT BIRDS OF THE SAME FURTHERS? IS IT NOT THE SAME TREE WHERE THEY PLUCKED THE MONEY? NOT ATI NGA KWALI CHIWA BA HH BAWINA AMA ELECTIONS TETI BA ROGER MATHANI BABABIKE BA MINISTER OF FINANCE?
Lufwekelo thats RUBBISH
Indigenous Zambian, mathani? Are u serious? But yes, his persecution is strange. EL even ordered hapunda not to get mani from him.
NI BAMAIMANE BA MUZAMBIA BA LIFWEKO WITHOUT DIRECTION AND NO FUTURE JUST HANOVER TO ANOTHER AND GO BACK AND DO THE GOOD WORKS YOU WERE DOING AT TRANSPARENCY
WE KNOW HH WILL NEVER BE PRESDO BUT WE NEED HIM FOR A FORMIDABLE OPPOSITION NUMBERS WILL ALWAYS WORK AGAINST
HE MAY STAND A CHANCE AFTER LUNGUS TERM AS THERE IS NO EVISAGED LEADERSHIP THEN HE WILL COMMAND MORE INFLUENCE AGAINST ANY KNOWN POTENTIAL CANDIDATE FROM NOW AFTER LUNGU
YOU NEED TO STAND BY THE TRUTH THOUGH AND CEMENT LONGERM TRUST
THERE IS NO PRESIDENTIAL POTENTIAL CANDIDATE AFTER LUNGUS TENURE AND HH MAY JUST TURN OUT A LUCKY ONE AMONGST THE PACK
Crap! How much has Edwin eaten from this crooked indian? Its a pity that up to now, Edwin does not know that 50% of the poverty that smells on his body has been caused by mathani. What xenophobia when he runs away himself? Go back to nursery school and start afresh. Even your HH should not count on you that you will vote for him, you are a spoiled vote.
Can some please the UPND ” Press Office ” an ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
If not, please consult GEORGE MPOMBO.
Ba UPND ..What is the meaning of the world of XENOPHOBIA?
Sorry I meant…
Can someone please buy the UPND Press Office an ENGLISH DICTIONARY.
Mahtani is very good at throwing his ill-gotten monies to empty buckets who bark the most for him. Mr. Lifwekelo is obviously looking at making a quick buck – and off goes through the window, the little public morality he has. No shame at all.
So far 30 comments, out of which 29 against UPND’s stance and one (Hildah Malama, who always talks bad things about President Lungu) in favour of Mr. Mahtani. UPND executives shall keep away from Mr. Mahtani, it is a fire that will engulf anybody and everybody who comes to his rescue. He is the most hated businessman in Zambia and Malawi.
I think I support UPND statement on Dr Mahtani. Leave Dr Mahtani alone. RB’s political vengeance against Dr Mahtani thru Lungu should not be entertained.
What a party….confused. As long as someone is against PF they have to support, no matter how criminal. If they don’t see things through tribal glasses, it’s xenophobia…and they will misuse this new word to them…vuvuzelas
Based on the way Mahtani has conducted his business, I don’t believe for once that Mahtani is an angel. However, what I equally dislike is the way our politicians treat such businessmen. Just a few months ago, the PF under Sata was singing praises about this man – even gave him back seized assets without bothering to give us any reasonable ‘reason’ at all & it was OK with PF supporters. Edwin doesn’t make much sense to me in this article but obviously, in the Zambian political circles, he must be just like all others. This is the real tragedy of our times.
upnd you have just lost my vote. if u gained mathani’s vote u have lost mine.
Be carefull what statements you utter.Being in opposition does not mean opposing even that which will help recover much needed colosal sums of money probably siphoned by the likes of the accused.You will make yourselves unpopular by irresponsible statements.What xenophobia?Do you realise the impact of such an irresponsible statement on the global face?I am younger and far from politics but to have aspiring leaders with this kind of thinking just puts me off.Show maturitz and responsibility for national interest.My maxim you should adapt is that if it builds help build it but if it destructive ,destroy it!
Silly opportunists trying to gain political mileage.
Do these people know the meaning of xenophobia? Dictionary definitions of xenophobia include: “deep-rooted, irrational hatred towards foreigners” Mahtani is a Zambian who has committed heinous financial crimes and the law is just visiting him. How does xenophobia come in. These characters are *****s.
Do not stoop so low. Everyone knows that Rajan Mahtani is a known crook who has breached every part of the Financial Services Act. He deserves what he gets.
edwin lifwekelo another idi0t without brains like hilda malama the public toilet,what is forgery….altering the origional document intentionally,havent you seen the evidence?botlickers like lifwekelo whis proving to the nation to be very useless ,how do you defend something were there is evidence?dull lifwekelo
lifwekelo edwin concentrate on your 4 wives you have married than botlicking on social media.have told your wives the gal you impregnated in emasdale?we shall release the pictures on social media soon
hilda malama ,who will lift the immunity of the president,make me understand because the UP and DOWN Party will never rule zambia,i dont know if it will be your father,mother,children and your family.in your vocaburly you cant just write without mention edigar lungu.you are proving to be useless to the social media.
Mahtani is a Zambian. If he commits an offence he has to face the law regardless of his colour.
At lease supporting Pilato made a bit of sense. But this one is very difficult to understand.
Please you jokers ,please just shut up!
Move over , so that real men work!!
So typical up and down mentality.
This crook should be put where he belongs! He is a serious money launderer, ask the Malawians, they had to chase him because of being in breach. Noel Nkoma knows him very well and so does a minister in PF!
UP and DOWN party has lost direction…….too much of smocking cow dung