Friday, March 29, 2024

Mr James Ndambo and Zambia: We seem to loathe any of our own who can make Zambia Rich

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By Miles B. Sampa, MP

Around 2019 in my meeting with Mr James Ndambo as Mayor, one of his dream was to establish a huge modern cold room in Lusaka to anchor perishable goods from Namibia to the huge Congo DR market. Before I joined the Council, my predecessor Mayor Wilson Kalumba (MHSRIEP) had actually travelled with one other Councillor to Walvis Bay in Namibia to see Mr Ndambo’s modern commercial cold room facility at the Atlantic Ocean shores that he was to replica in Lusaka.

The Lusaka projects that would have by now employed around 5000 Zambians did not take off because we at the Council got blocked by the Central Government from implementing because Mr Ndambo was suspected to have been UPND linked. “ Miles is using the mayoral office to promote companies owned by people that sponsor HH” the usual gossiped into Statehouse.

I was therefore made to believe Mr Ndambo must have been one of the main financiers of the UPND victory last year. I know with certainty that he had never been to the PF-occupied Statehouse and therefore I assumed he must have been visiting the Community House instead. As it turns out, however, he may have not been there either. He is simply apolitical (non-politically aligned businessman).

When I saw police attention and protection upon his arrival in Livingstone last month, I thought President HH was honouring back one of the sons of the soil. I may have been very wrong actually. It now seems just like with the past regime, he may not be a darling of the current systems and establishments.

It is very true that DEC has seized his vehicles and yes including those won by the ‘ My Home Town’ models. They are suspected to have been bought from ‘proceeds of crime’. Lol.

I gather after the Choma gymnastics from Minister Cornelius Mweetwa and the apology therein, Mr Ndambo opted to cut his planned extended trip to Lusaka. He rode back to Livingstone in one of his donated Marco-polo buses, summoned his private jet from abroad and took off.

It will be interesting to hear the exact official charges from DEC on Mr Ndambo or his companies.

As for my ‘relatives’ the twerking nurses from Chilonga in Mpika, this is how their pronounced USA scholarship may be hard to access from Mr Ndambo whose return date to Zambia may not be certain. The ‘My Home Town’ models on the other hand may consider going directly to the DEC offices to claim their prize motor vehicles that have been brought to Lusaka to register them in their names.

To the youths that were hoping to rub shoulders with Mr Ndambo in person, they may need to wait a bit longer for his return as he continues to make money away from Zambia.

I think this is rather some sad deflating story to most that were hoping to access empowerment from Mr Ndambo. We seem to loathe any of our own that has the potential to make other Zambians rich. History keeps repeating itself from UNIP, MMD, PF and now to the UPND era.

Meantime USA has Elon Musk, Nigeria has Aliko Dangote, SA has Patrice Mosepe, Malawi may have Bushiri but in Zambia, we still have non as is given Mr Ndambo has been ‘forced’ to declare himself Congolese.

25 COMMENTS

  1. If above is true then it is unfortunate. However, I just think futur organizers of like events ought to familiarize themselves with basics…ie guidelines if any for the ‘donation’ of moving assets to grz organs…,the ‘prizes’ ie the cars and cash…how should they be accessed in the country….eg issues on taxes, on winnings, or the declarations of cash before its distributed, physical security for the dignitaries ishould be clear resolved long before JN ever sets on the ground. I just hope sanity will prevail at the end of the day and this matter brought to its logical conclusion.

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    • Many people have complained that for you to prosper in Zambia you must be a friend of the ruling party. That is from primitive dictatorial governments! Most dictators love to narrow the path to prosperity by having this kind of policy running their country. Tyrants are usually too angry with anyone who isnt with them they block his every move. This is why the presidential defamation law has become a weapon against freethinking Ndambos of the country.

  2. This guy is coward this Sampa..if he believed Ndambo’s cold storage warehouse was viable he would have pushed it through as Mayor but as is the case with Sampa its all about self preservation.

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  3. Exactly what I say about our people
    – we take delight in depriving each other, whilst foreign nationals get all the support they need! As soon as our people realise you live abroad, the ‘walls’ go up, and spanners are thrown in the works! Everything is made doubly difficult. If we embraced our Zambia brothers & sister living abroad, a little like Jewish people embrace their own, we would have more investment by Zambians – who for various reasons, reside abroad, but are just as indigenous as you are. It’s senseless self-defeating mentality!

    #plant a tree please.

  4. I’ve heard people say “to do these things you should come back home”!…really? I am able to invest, exactly because I live abroad, if I came back to Zambia in order to queue for things – I will end up just like the rest of our people – struggling! But then, that is the intention isn’t it? We must all be poor & struggling together! So misguided!

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  5. Sampa is complicite in what he is complaining about……………

    He was an enabler in the previous regime in blocking Ndambos cold storage project by believing the lies , he even embarrassingly admits to beliving ndambo to be sponsoring HH……..

    I was disappointed that HH did not embrace Mr Ndambo , no matter who he supports in politics………

    I was the first to voice my displeasure on LT………..

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  6. @Miles relax, Never Judge or act with emotions without Facts. There is no smoke without fire, if our own is clean and has been rejected by two governments, something may be wrong and needs investigations. We want Zambians to do well but not in criminal ways. The problem with PF chaps is that you love money so much that you compromise on ethics. Bakandile.

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  7. Ndambo is a real wealthy tycoon where as hh stole zambias resources during privatisation and thinks he is something. Yet he failed to even build a flashing toilet at his mother in law’s village. Hh owes alot of gay organisations for the support they gave upnd. Hh is threatened by ndambo

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  8. Proceeds of crime, my foot.

    It is sad that we delight in perpetuating a culture of poverty.

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  9. PHD Syndrome. The trickiest part is that the person who bewitched us is long dead and no likelihood to bring him/her back to Life and undo the witchcraft. Tukafwa tulecula!!!

  10. MP Miles Sampa is right. I never thought the UPND of all people would catch feelings ( HH well knows origins of Ndambo wealth… pure business) but it’s so petty to even imagine the DEC can confiscate the Pegeant’s cars.

    Seems like that country will always be ruled by self-serving narcissistic maniacs & it makes ?

  11. The only reason the cold room storage didn’t materialize in lusaka is because he refused to give the then PF a cut so they blocked it.

  12. Ndambo is sketchy. He is busy giving out money when his company is going through liquidation, right now. You would think that he would be preoccupied with that. Let me dish out some millions first. He is deflecting attention.
    Ps Good to know that because of PF we do not have state of the art walk in fridges.

  13. Kikikikikiki!
    Meantime USA has Elon Musk, Nigeria has Aliko Dangote, SA has Patrice Mosepe, Malawi may have Bushiri but in Zambia, we still have non as is given Mr Ndambo has been ‘forced’ to declare himself Congolese.
    Elon Musk is actually from South Africa

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  14. Let citizens freely compete and the nation will prosper. Allow even political foes to compete. That is free market policy. If Ndambo was a whiteman the reception would have been very different! Blacks!

  15. So nakacinda was right. Only certain people should have wealth. If you are not in that circle and you are wealthy then you are corrupt and have property suspected to be proceed of crime.

  16. Iwe miles Sampa tekanya. This is not about the play games with your home batalion. It is about a nation. You will need to fight your own battles before you start those of others sucgh as James Ndambo. You may know very very little about the man (James Ndambo).

  17. I have said it so many times that we in Zambia need to love ourselves first before we can even think of prosperity. This business of pulling each other down is a recipe for disaster. Others inherit billionaires while in Zambia we loath them unless they look pale and have some imperialistic fetures.

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