Leader of the opposition in Parliament Hon Brian Mundubile has accused President Hakainde Hichilema of corruption in the awarding of contracts to companies that belong to his friends.

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Mr Mundubile said that if President Hakainde Hichilema called former president Edgar Lungu corrupt on allegations that he was giving contracts to his friends, he should say the same about himself now.

Hon Mundubile alleged that companies owned by friends of the Republican President are the ones getting government contracts through single sourcing.

“By the mere fact that the Auditor General did not sign those contracts when the President was in opposition, he campaigned vigorously that President Lungu was giving contracts to his friends. This was corruption. He called it corruption then, he should also call it corruption now,” he said.

“I want to call it corruption using his definition. Because if he is going to allow companies that are owed by his friends or indeed companies where he has interests, to be single sourced, everywhere. Talk of Mopani, KCM, Military Units, the same companies are doing work. What should we call it?”

Hon Mundubile said it is strange for the government whose leader claims to be fighting corruption to be single sourcing.

“And these particular contracts are not given out to public tender. So this is very strange for a man that has said he will fight corruption. We can’t turn Zambia into a private business. We want to call upon the President to resist the temptation of believing that Zambia is private business. Let the President understand that the way we run a business and the way a country is run are totally different,” he said.

“What we are seeing now is your friends and your companies being given business everyday through single sourcing. This is unacceptable. And we are going to call it out for what it is, this is corruption. And I hope that from here, the President and his handlers will sit down and reflect to ensure that if they are going to build confidence in the Zambian people, in the fight against corruption, we must see that political will.”

The Lawmaker added that “when any minister under the government of the saints is reported to have committed corruption, all the President does is pick up the phone and call that particular minister. And when the Minister refutes the allegation, it ends there because it is the government of saints.

“We have tried with my fellow lawyers and colleagues to try and find the law in the fight against corruption that provides for a mare phone call from the President asking the suspect and once he says no that’s the end. To this end we haven’t found it.”

State House says any decision that the government will make concerning the Lusaka Forest number 27 should be logical and must make legal sense.

Speaking when he featured on the Friday edition of Let the People Talk programme this morning, Presidential Spokesperson Anthony Bwalya has indicated that what happened in Forest 27 is a scandal, improper and an injustice to the fight against climate change but it was done using the law because Former President Edgar Lungu de-gazetted the area.

Reacting to concerns by stakeholders over government’s intentions to re-gazette Forest reserve 27 while allowing the existence of structures in the area instead of demolishing them as promised when in opposition, Mr Bwalya says government cannot be going about breaking the law simply because it wants to be seen to be fulfilling a campaign commitment.

Mr Bwalya is however saddened that the previous regime legitimized an illegality by de-gazetting a piece of land which should have been protected for selfish reasons, a situation he says should never have happened and must not be allowed to repeat itself in future.

“What happened in Forest 27 shouldn’t have happened because diabolical circumstances need to be recognized as the portion of the Forest reserve was given out to private individuals,” he said

Mr Bwalya disclosed that what happened in Forest Reserve number 27 was done for the benefit of a small group of individuals and there’s need to understand the challenges that portion of land was de-gazetted under the hand of President Lungu.

“We now have to firm up the protection of those environments such as the Forest reserve number 27 and other Forests, adding that a good example of this protection is the MoU and Forestry Partnerships that has been signed with the European Union, as it is not something that is only beneficial to the environment but it’s also beneficial to lives and livelihoods, as it protects the integrity of the source that gives us food, the source that is supposed to protect us from floods and holds the vegetation,” he said

Meanwhile, Mr Bwalya has assured the nation that the government is making difficult but responsible decisions to ensure sanity is restored in the fuel supply chain by creating new capacities within the economy and solving problems created by the past regime.

“Fuel is not a commodity that we produce in this country hence, the price of fuel is not determined by in this country, it is determined at the international commodities market, previously, our colleagues who were in the Government had a strategy of which they were putting brakes on the price of fuel at the pump through subsidies, of which on a monthly basis they used to borrow up to 67 million Dollars money which they didn’t have to subsidize fuel, multiplying 67 by 12 months will approximately give you an amount equal to Euro Bond money and this is money that was essentially supposed to be paid back by us the citizens,” Mr Bwalya explained

“And in the midst of all that crisis stated above, a scandal was created when, the international oil prices had started surging and rather than taking the money they were collecting at the pump after subsidizing, to pay back the people who were supplying the fuel, the money was instead diverted and used for other purposes, and by August 2021 rather than just ending up with a debt in terms of loan money that was being taken to subsidize fuel which was equal to the size of a Euro Bond, there was also close to half a billion Dollars arrears which had been accumulated because they could not afford to pay international suppliers, this was a scandal that led into problems,” Mr Bwalya added

Mr Bwalya mentioned that the President Hichilema’s New Dawn Administration had to think candidly about this problem, as to whether or not they could afford to borrow 67 million Dollars per month to subsidize fuel, when teachers and nurses needed to be employed, thus the cutting off of fuel subsidies.

Former Tourism and Arts Minister Ronald Chitotela has lost a settlement agreement discharge case as the Lusaka High Court orders him to stand trial under a new Magistrate.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Division of the High Court in Lusaka has set aside the Ruling of Magistrate J. Bwalya which discharged Mr Ronald Chitotela on the basis that the Anti-Corruption Commission had made an undertaking not to institute criminal proceedings against him by way of a purported Settlement Agreement.

In a statement issued by the Anti-Corruption Commission – ACC Head Corporate Communication Timothy Moono, explaining that the High Court reasoned that the Defense misconstrued the meaning of Section 80 of the Anti-Corruption Act as the said Section does not apply where criminal proceedings had already been instituted.

Mr Moono further explained that the Court found that at the time of the purported undertaking not to institute criminal proceedings against Mr Chitotela by way of a Settlement Agreement, criminal proceedings had actually already been instituted against him.

“The judgment was a unanimous decision of a panel of three judges composed of Justices E. Musona, S. Wanjelani and C. Zulu,” Mr Moono disclosed

Mr Moono stated that in delivering the Judgement on behalf of the panel, Honourable Justice E. Musona said that the undertaking in question through the purported Settlement Agreement was futile as criminal proceedings against Mr Chitotela had already been instituted.

He mentioned that the Court has referred the matter back to the Subordinate Court to commence afresh the criminal proceedings against Mr Chitotela but before a different Magistrate.

In this matter the Commission arrested Mr Chitotela in 2019 on nine (9) counts of concealment of property and possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime. The matter could not, however proceed as a Settlement Agreement was entered into by the Commission under Section 80 (3) of the Anti-Corruption Act.

The Commission later reviewed the matter and found that the Settlement Agreement or undertaking was lacking in fulfilling the requirements of the law and re-arrest Hon. Chitotela on two counts of possession of property suspected to be proceeds of crime.

However, Mr Chitotela contested the arrest before court on grounds that he could not be tried again over the same matter on which he had an undertaking with the Commission. Hon. Magistrate Jennifer Bwalya who presided over the matter delivered her Ruling in which she discharged Hon. Chitotela.

And being dissatisfied with the outcome, the Commission appealed to the High Court requesting the court to set aside the purported out of court settlement that was entered into between the Commission and Ronald Chitotela.