$400,000 is not little money you can keep at a niece’s home – Mweetwa
By Thomas Ngala
WHERE do you get the impression that the UPND is shivering over former president Edgar Lungu’s intention to come back, wonders Cornelius Mweetwa.
Mweetwa, who is UPND spokesperson said the ruling party is not bothered about a president who lost an election historically when he had all the necessary powers and the machinery.
Featuring on Diamond TV’s “Diamond Live” programme, he said at the time Lungu lost elections he had “all the money…he had all the regalia he could even afford tiling his ceiling.”
Regarding the trending $400,000 involving the former first lady Esther Lungu, Mweetwa claimed that Zambians are insinuating that the money could be proceeds of crime.
“There is no law which compels one to take money to the bank. But the practice is that when you have money, and you need that money to be secure, you have to take such monies to the bank. That is number one because that is the most secure place. And it defies any form of logic, whatsoever to justify an attempt to keep colossal sums of money, US $400,000 is not little money that you can keep at home, let alone at a niece’s home which has no security, whatsoever,” he said.
“It is not a question of law, it is actually a question of logic and what the practice is. Who keeps such an amount of money with a friend or with a niece. That is why there is contemplation out there that this money could be connected to proceeds of crime because why was it hidden?”
Mweetwa, who is also Southern Province minister, noted that the money in question was given to the “niece” sometime in September of 2021, just after the elections, for “safekeeping”.
He wondered why the money was not kept in a bank and why the former first family did not report to the police after the money went missing.
“When the former first family had decided, I am told, to go and have a holiday, somewhere but within Zambia. And then, when they came back, I’m told, did not ask for that money at that particular moment. The money was only asked for and realised that the money was no longer there eight months from the day it was given,” he said.
“Eight months from September 2021, that is when the money was known now to say, the money has gone missing and from that date, no police report has been lodged with any police station in Zambia to say we are missing cash to the tune of US $400,000. In Zambian terms, more than K7 million. You lose such kind of money and then you sit at home, you don’t report to police. Something amiss here. The police only get to know and hear about it when you now go to grab motor vehicles and title deeds to the person alleged to have gotten that money and that person is alleged to have been kidnapped to be presented before the former first family to account and produce the money that is alleged to have gone missing.”
Mweetwa said the public is asking how many relatives to the former first family could be keeping the money in a similar manner.
“There are three parties here, the former first family represented by the former first lady. We do have their niece and the third party who is now the complainant who is now arguing that my vehicle and title have forcibly been grabbed,” he noted. “We know the transactions of the Faith Musonda arrangement and the public is asking how many relatives to the first former family could be keeping millions of dollars and why not take it to the bank? Was it lawfully acquired?”
Mweetwa however castigated PF members over the allegations they made against President Hakainde Hichilema over the matter in question.
“The angle they took is that this is President HH after president Edgar Chagwa Lungu, in the like manner they allege when the convicted killer of Lawrence Banda in Kaoma was arrested by police. You saw them hold a briefing, go to Woodlands Police Station and issued misplaced and misguided statements to the nation, unsubstantiated, whatsoever to say we know they are looking to lift the immunity of president Lungu. We know that it is HH who wants to get at president Lungu. Why arrest a barber man to the former president? This is political persecution, even before they ask police to say why have you arrested this person,” he said.
“And when it turned out that actually that person was connected to the murder as it has turned out to be, even convicted by the courts of law, the PF have had no sense of shame to come back to the public they misled that this was political ploy and persecution by HH wanting to follow president Lungu yet it was a police operation to get a criminal that they had been hiding. They have never come. I thought that if they were leaning on any moral pedestal, they should have had the magnanimity and the audacity to say well, we went too far to accuse and insult somebody innocent. Now that this person has been convicted for the offence for which he was initially arrested for, let’s tell the nation how sorry we are.”
Mweetwa said PF has been mute “because they support criminal enterprise because when they were in office, their activities were anchored on violence, division, hate speech, criminality.”
And Mweetwa said the government has no intentions “whatsoever, as I speak now, to remove the immunity of former president, Edgar Chagwa Lungu”.
Meanwhile, Mweetwa said it is not normal under the President Hichilema’s reign for any government official to receive money in goodwill.
He argued that that there is nobody out there who would get a million dollars or $2 million and give a president for free to say it is goodwill.
“Under the leadership of President HH, it is a new leadership culture. There is a question of integrity. And that is why you have to differentiate quickly, the leadership of the past, those who used to receive as we are told, millions of dollars as gifts. It will not happen under the leadership of President HH and I would only assume that perhaps those who were taking those million dollars in donations were not given that money for free,” said Mweetwa.
“There is something else they would be looking at in order to recoup that kind of money which might come in terms of gratification or as a favour which the public may not be able to see. So, I disagree totally that we must run a system that will be tolerant to views that the President sitting at State House or indeed anybody associated with the President has rights to receive colossal sums of money and say that is ordinary and normal. It is not normal under the leadership of HH.”