Zambia Railways Limited chief executive officer Clive Chirwa (left)
and Senior Chief Mukuni (right) exchange light moments inside a train
the launch of the midweek train service in Livingstone
The Lusaka Magistrate Court today heard that the payments for former Zambia Railways Limited (ZRL) Chief Executive Officer Clive Chirwa’s accommodation at Falls Way Apartments were authorized.
Former Zambia Railways Limited Finance Manager Elijah Nyirenda told the court that payments were authorised by former ZRL Director of Finance Regina Mwale.Mr. Nyirenda, who is currently ZRL Director of Finance, told the court that Mwale in her capacity as Director of Finance was the one who authorised all the payments of goods and services for the company.
The witness told Principal Resident Magistrate Obbister Musukwa during continuation of trial that after the authorization of the payments by Mwale, he as Finance Manager signed the vouchers to facilitate for the payment of the money towards Chirwa’s rentals at Falls way apartments.
When he was asked during cross examination by defence lawyer Mulilo Kabesha where the payments for Chirwa’s accommodation were coming from during the period he stayed at Falls way apartments, he responded that it was from Zambia Railway Limited.
He further said when the investigations officer visited him over the matter, he produced three payment vouchers for payments for Prof. Chirwa’s rentals at Falls way apartments which were later produced in court.
And state prosecutors told the court that they were only remaining with one witness in the matter before closing their case..
This is a case in which Prof. Chirwa is charged with failure to disclose interest and abuse of authority of office contrary to the laws of Zambia.
Prof. Chirwa is in the second and third counts jointly charged with Regina Mwale, 50, of High Ridge in Kabwe and former Zambia Railways Limited Finance Director for abuse of authority of office, after the duo allegedly authorised payment of K72, 282,210 to Falls way Apartments for Prof. Chirwa’s accommodation, an amount which was beyond his entitlement and an act which is arbitrary and prejudicial to the rights and interests of the government of Zambia.
The second and third counts allege that the accused persons authorized the payment to Falls way Apartments on unknown dates but between February 1st and March 2nd 2013 in Kabwe.
The Magistrate has since adjourned the matter to June 4, 2014 for continuation of trial and police bonds for the accused persons have been extended.
Mwale,Nyirenda and Chirwa at the centre stage,this does not sound right…lol
When Prof Cive Chirwa wins, please, he should be reinstated at ZRL. Atanga wont do what Chirwa envisioned. There is no way Atanga can succeed using another person’s vision. Chirwa had a time frame. That means people would have been checking him according to his time frame. Atanga has no time frame. It is the usual endless project plans with a bottomless pit. We don’t want such projects at this time. They are costly because people just have no idea when they will end. Chirwa was just setup by fellow Zambian engineers who felt that it will be a shame on them when Chirwa achieves a lot in his time frame. If there will be that chance, Chirwa also must learn to listen and stop being childish in his speeches.
…from #1
For instance,
1. It was down right childish for Chirwa to start saying I will huff and I will puff if so and so is not done. (I get so much money in the UK and I will go back if you don’t pay me this amount- childish indeed),
2. It was also very myopic and unprofessional for him to stop observing the (communication structure) appointing authority of which if he did he wouldn’t have ended in this kind of situation. The president as an appointing authority would have known where all these jealous were coming from.
Mr Chirwa is arguably the most educated man the PF accorded in their government
WHat upsets me is that as we all know there is resentment to people educated in the UK, which let us be honest unless you are educated in the Uk your education is inferior to us.
But the way he was treated was awful saying that I have confidence in president Sata and therefore we must respect their stance
Thanks
…from #1.1
3. Chirwa was advised mainly by Zambians abroad who and how many to employ from where and why he should do as such: a) He was advised to employ a certain number of top engineers from overseas (Zambians and non Zambians) and a good number of graduate engineers from UNZA and CBU who were going to have an opportunity of learning from highly experienced world class engineers to prepare them for takeover etc. People did not see this happen. In the absense of the above Chirwa had no support from fellow Zambian engineers but subotage. I wish him lucky. Zambia needs him.
Zambia needs modern trains. Not what the other engineers were negatively saying when he spoke of electrical trains. Those are self-defeat-engineers. It sounded whole impossible to them. Kenya has electrical trains. South Africa has them. Namibia I here has them, too. Why can’t Zambia?
I agree with you that Atanga cannot turn around ZRL on the back of Chirwa’s vision. One thing to remember is that Chirwa is an excellent engineer, methodical in his approach of engineering solutions. The problem at ZRL was that book keepers, like Prof Sasaa wanted to eat even before the eggs hatched. This is the same problem across the entire engineering industry in Zambia. For instance, because of the latest boom in the construction sector, megistrates, lawyers, court clerks, pastors, bishops, musicians you name are all contractors pouring concrete on site. Why cant everyone stick to their profession so that the country can get the best service? I cant represent a client in court despite the rising crime rate, so what the f**k are you doing pouring concrete on site.
Sata hates educated people eg Prof Chirwa, Prof Saasa, engineer Sosala,,,, even the just educated kambwili etc Sata wants them all jailed… it makes him(Sata) feel more clever
@Peter – I completely agree with you. It is a shame we lost this money at Zambia Railways…the President was misled on this issue. He should have just put his foot down and allowed him to stay at ZRL. Now everything is vision-less expenditure without passion to succeed.
But once he is acquited, Chirwa will just leave Zambia and return abroad.
I really fail to understand why people stand up in support of Clive Chirwa as if he is a victim of Sata’s evil schemes. The real victims of Sata’s vile schemes are the poor Zambian people. Prof Chirwa graduated to “international conman” level when he lied through his teeth to “inflate his financial and social standing”. KR72,000 UNAUTHORISED rentals paid by a poor country when you claim to have been enjoying an income of £2m annually is morally criminal. Its is legally criminal to then select your own company that has NEVER transacted before to be the training provider – only to enrich yourself despite already being given a salary of KR250,000 a month. There is nothing this man can tell me that would change my mind that his sole intention of coming to Zambia was to enrich himself
#1.6 you are very wrong. In fact I can conclude that you don’t know Michael Sata. Sata whole along has worked very well with educated people. He knows too well that educated people in their respective areas can deliver and do deliver. Sata does not hate them. Just one or two days ago, that was what he was praised on- embracing educated people. My dear, don’t be political here. Just be objective in your contribution to the topic. Did you yourself tell Sata to appoint Chirwa? He himself (Sata) identified Chirwa and concluded that Chirwa can contribute effectively to the development of Zambia. Its educated people themselves who hate and become jealous of their fellow learned people. Just be fare even if you hate Sata. And look back how Sata has used educated people to achieve certain goals.
#1.7 I hate to hear that Chirwa will go back once acquitted but its a fact. No one would love to stay where he is not appreciated. It’s we the Zambians who are going to lose in this case and the indigenous Zambian “maintenance” engineers will win. Because, this is what they wanted. To avoid embarrassment after he(Chirwa) achieves his goals of really reshaping our railways. But, we don’t have to lose hope. He may decide to be a man of principles and still decide to contribute to Zambia. There is one or two things ZAmbians don’t realise with Chirwa. His ambition was to become republican president and he was frustrated. The only way to that was going to be through achieving to reshape/modernise ZRL. That would have been his express ticket to plot 1.
Waste of money. He should have been found a house in Kabwata!
Has a lot of support from Engineers including EIZ Institution. The problem was from prof. Oliver Saasa and group. Very sad. While the minister supported him, the president got it all wrong. Hope for his vindication one day and a curse on those testifying falsely against him.
The country will lose out of expertise it needs from people like c chirwa with that kind of treatment. Better way of combating what happened at ZRL should have envisaged to sort out the problem.
Is this another case headed nowhere? First, it’s unclear what the case is. Second, the amounts quoted appear trivial at circa. $14,000 equivalent to 2-3 months rent for an executive house in Lusaka. Surely, the case is costing far more than this.
Perhaps someone can explain what is going on?
Give the guy a slap on the wrist and end the madness.
The amount involved may appear “insignificant” but the justice system does not work that way.
It looks principally at whether or not the law was broken and not how much was involved in breaking the law.
Any one tell me why Zambia imports tooth picks with engineers like Moneni all over the place. We shall pour concrete together until you manufacture a tooth pick
A toothpick doesnt need an engineer. Just craftsmen
Ubuntungwa Mujambojambo. How many tooth picks can one craftsman make pay day. You need a machine even to avoid contaminating the tooth pick.
Who orders tooth picks in the first place. I thought book keepers and their account dept order tooth picks for use in their endless seminars whose results are never implemented. It is this kind of behavior Chirwa wanted to Stop. Three board meetings in a month and book keepers wanted allowances. Ditta, tell me of a book keeper that you know, made a positive contribution to the country apart from driving around organising more useless seminars.
#4.1, a toothpick needs both an engineer and a craftsman/woman. First and Engineer to recommend the right machine for toothpicks. And then again another sort of engineer for designing. And lastly a machinist (craftsman/woman) to operate the machine on the production line. And along the way you also need a maintenance engineer to fix any fault occurrence with the entire system. If we go deeper than that, we may also need software engineers to automate the system.
@Peter
iwe Peter, One can make toothpicks with basic hand tools, you dont always need machines and engineers and all that crap,,,,,, i`ve met serious traditional handy/craft men here in sweden whose products are serious woodworks and they have never done engineering studies (the same can be done in Zambia),,,, yet their works are at par with engineered works
Chirwa is just a conman. £2m salary at Bolton polytechnic? Pleaseee! And those plans he was hallucinating about were 100 times more expensive than the $120 million from the Eurobond . And these are the phantom plans he did not want to share with his board when asked to! Why are some Zambians so gullible and stewpid.?
Iwe chimbwi!!! ever had a dream or anything??????
Zambia a country full of losers wants to destroy every successful person. That man Chirwa is one of a few accomplished engineers. He qualifies to sit at the same table with late Dr makulu, Francis Kaunda. I don’t qualify to brush his shoes.
Horrifying testimony. The authorizer of the payments is none other than Regina Mwale; the one with whom the former Zambia Railways Chief is jointly charged with for abuse of authority.
Chirwa was a fraud right from the start. Its a wonder people continue to think this man was and is the one to resuscitate ZR .
I mean how many people of international standing let alone of renowned world academic credentials would pose in front of a mansion( which he claimed was his but where he was renting a flat) and in front of 2008 Toyota Avensis. Real academics and professional are not given to such pettiness.
People in England are not judged by the make of car they drive even cleaners here drive the latest and most expensive of cars here- you can wake up and get any car on finance so that zambian thinking does not apply here most people use public transport for your own information.
@Sata what I missed out to include in my statement above was to simply point out that Chirwa was bragging to the uninitiated Zambia that he owns a Mansion and car, basically showing off. Yet these items ( especially the car) matter very little to some people and are not really a status symbol in the west.. Get my gist?
Lol was the ‘authorization in line with Clives contract? Did the Board approve payments towards his inflated accommodation? Could a Director for Finance interpret her own understanding of Chirwa’s entitlements? Did she seek clarity of the legal Counsel of ZRL? Clive now at you have time to blog kindly reflect on the above the State has a solid case against you will not walk
We did not need a professor to revive ZRL. We needed to analyse the dynamics underwhich it operated profitably in the past and what was needed to bring it to profitability now. I personaly knew that the prof could not deliver because he talked too much about what he wanted to do. I thought what was needed were baby steps first before we went to the bigger issues. As to local and overseas engineers I think we have a lot of local engineers and crafts wo/men to handle everything thankyou.