A team playing a KCM game of thrones over $120m bounty

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The Mast Editorial Comment

A team playing a KCM game of thrones over $120m bounty

Not even Shakespeare could have written a tragedy better than Hakainde Hichilema and his team of incompetent band of State House advisors. They have self-destructed within six months of being in office. When rhetoric faced reality it all came tumbling down. It’s been a constant series of crisis – one fit for a super novela amidst the high cost of living and other economic challenges afflicting Zambians. More so that Zambians are thirsty for that change they voted for!


In Game of Thrones, Lord Varys says, “Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.”


Then Cersei Lannister quips, “When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
And Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish warns that, “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail, and never get to try again — the fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb, but they refuse. They cling to the realm, or the gods, or love … illusions. Only the ladder is real, the climb is all there is.”


Is there any middle ground in this Milingo Lungu saga for State House? If they want to play politics in a game of thrones manner, does the new dawn leadership have an ability to create chaos and still come out on top? We really doubt it because even when they were in opposition, they were naïve and a confused lot. It had to take angry Zambians to guide UPND, guard the vote for them and force them into government, just to punish PF. No wonder they now seem stranded or lacking in strategy. They don’t know what to do and where to start from, except hiding in being “methodical”.


But they should have by now transitioned and offered predictable policies and programmes.
Hakainde cannot blame anyone except himself. These are self-inflicted wounds. This is the price one pays when they clinch a spot in a finals game but they take a team of amateurs and expect to win. Victory must be earned – it doesn’t come easily or as a by the way. An easy way out in life is hazardous! Chaos in the world brings uneasiness, births mistrust.


Konkola Copper Mines is a poisoned chalice left by Edgar Lungu. And in trying to untangle the mess that is at KCM, Hakainde chose unconventional ways to resolve the issue. It is alleged that he asked one of his friends/advisors at Brenthurst Foundation and known local business associates to help resolve the impasse with KCM. This process if true, we are informed, is outside the government processes. It has no legal mandate. Under normal circumstances in situations such this, Cabinet Office would have advised if they had been asked by Hakainde that there is precedence. An official negotiating team would have been constituted to negotiate with KCM. It could have been two-tiered, oversight by a committee of ministers, and a team of experts (legal, mining and financial), who would negotiate and make recommendations to a committee of ministers. This process is what had transpired in the past administrations.


On the other hand, in dealing with the problems regarding the provisional liquidator Milingo Lungu or is it former provisional liquidator, Hakainde, who seems to know better, chose an ineffectual team and misguided processes. At the centre of all this is Bradford Machila, the principal private secretary, who with his ill-advice seems to have exposed the Presidency to ridicule.


Milingo states in his affidavit that he met Hakainde, Vice-President Mutale Nalumango, Minister of Finance Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane, and Bradford. And justice minister Mulambo Haimbe at his press conference on Wednesday denied that the President ever met with Milingo. We now await the opposing affidavit from the government. It is either that Milingo has been audacious enough to lie in his affidavit or he actually has proof that this meeting took place. We wait and see.


In the briefing Mulambo maintained that the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions is an independent office, yet Milingo states in his affidavit that the meeting where he entered into a bargain with the State was represented by various state agents spearheaded by Bradford and included Christopher Mundia, special assistant to the President – legal, Attorney General Kabesha Mulilo, Solicitor General Marshall Muchende, DPP Lillian Siyunyi and Administrator General Natasha Kalimukwa. Again, either this statement in the affidavit is true or false. We now await the opposing affidavit from the government.


What is also alarming in this comedy of events, is how Kalimukwa entered into an agreement with Milingo to pay five per cent of the KCM sale of assets as a fee to the provisional liquidator for his services which was later revised to 10 per cent. On whose authority did Kalimukwa enter into such an outrageous exorbitant agreement? As it stands today, Milingo claims to be owed $120 million (about K2 trillion). Already, this figure is beyond our national budget. What an incompetent way of running a government after giving so much hope to the Zambians! This is totally outrageous!

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