CHILUBA’S REBUTTAL TO MWANAWASA
Chiluba held a different view. On July 28, 2002, he appeared on MNET’s Carte Blanche programme, complaining that Mwanawasa’s decision to prosecute him for corruption was the worst betrayal. He denied ever stealing government money. Chiluba was reacting to Mwanawasa’s statement in which he said should Chiluba return 75 percent of what he had stolen, he was ready to use his prerogative of mercy to pardon him. But Chiluba frowned upon this statement, vehemently denying that he had stolen anything.
In his own words:
His [Mwanawasa’s] turn-around is something I least expected. I only think it is a betrayal of my confidence. I can assure you that just as the sun rises from East and sets in the West, I did not steal anything. If they had dared and bothered to check thoroughly, they could have found that I did not steal anything. It is not being pardoned with malice that matters to me, it is justice that matters. President Mwanawasa should first let the State machinery go ahead and investigate me to prove whatever allegations levelled against me.
Let him investigate and then come and say, ‘You have been cleared on number 1, number 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…not cleared on number 7’, and then pardon. I am very certain and very, very sure that I was not involved in what the President has been talking about.”
Three days after Mwanawasa addressed the Special Session of Parliament, where he beseeched parliamentarians to lift Chiluba’s immunity so he could be prosecuted for corruption and theft, on July 13, 2002, Chiluba called for a press conference to respond to Mwanawasa’s allegations.
He said:
I am very scared that charges brought to seek removal of my immunity are an indicator of the slowly degenerating record of human rights observance. The revelations of corruption and plunder of national resources against me by President Mwanawasa are a mere figment of imagination and have no basis in fact or substance.
That is why I feel saddened that President Mwanawasa went to Parliament last Thursday with the express intention of inciting and inflaming the honourable members to remove my immunity. He presented to the House a travesty of charges to justify this very serious and onerous decision. I address you today because I feel aggrieved by the allegations levelled against me and the manner in which they have been handled. The President acted as prosecutor, jury and judge to determine that a prima- facie case has been established against me meriting the loss of my immunity without my being heard.
I am concerned that the inflammatory allegations of theft, corruption, carelessness and misuse of national resources have been deliberately fanned over some time to incense public opinion as to jeopardise any semblance of due process and the role of constitutional officers like the Director of Public Prosecutions and judiciary and Parliament.
Chiluba died believing that allegations of theft against him were made out of malice and in bad faith.
An excerpt from the book: LEVY PATRICK MWANAWASA, An Incentive For Posterity: Pages 149 – 151. By Amos Malupenga (2009).
Picture caption: President Frederick Chiluba, flanked by Republican Vice-President Levy Mwanawasa, during a press conference in the early 1990s
MWANAWASA ( MHSRIEP)HAD THE INTEL AND DESPISING HIM IN DEATH IS LIKE WHIPPING HIS CORPSE.
MWANAWASA WAS HATED FOR HIS HONESTY AND THE ‘CLIQUE’ WORKED HARD TO EVENTUALLY ELIMINATE HIM AFTER THEIR FIRST ATTEMPT FAILED IN THAT FUTILE ACCIDENT.
IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT HE WAS TO BE ASSASSINATED, BALDWIN NKUMBULA WAS, BENNIE MWINGA WAS, PAUL TEMBO WAS, HUMPHREY MULEMBA AND A LOT MORE WERE, AS LONG AS THEY WERE A THREAT TO THE ‘ SWEET SEAT’ OR HAD VITAL INFORMATION THEY COULD SPILL.TO THE PUBLIC.
DO YOU WONDER WHY HH IS NOT THE DARLING OF THE ‘CLIQUE”? THEY SAY HE IS ‘ STINGY’. ATI WAKASO!
PRAY FOR HIM BECAUSE THEY ARE SCHEMING AGAINST HIM DAY AND NIGHT.
AT THE MALLS, NIGHT CLUBS, FARMS, MANSIONS, LOCALLY AND ABROAD.
THIS COUNTRY IS, SADLY, DIVIDED BECAUSE OF DIRTY POLITICIANS WHO RUSH TO TRIBAL SUPPORT.
EVERY ZAMBIAN DESERVES TO RULE THIS COUNTRY AND IF HE IS DOING WELL, SUPPORT HIM FOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS, ONCE AGAIN, PEACEFUL COUNTRY.
HE IS HATED BECAUSE HE DIES NOT WANT INDIVIDUALS OR A GROUP OF PEOPLE STEALING FROM POOR ZAMBIANS, SENDING THEM INTO DEEPER POVERTY SO THAT THEY COULD MANIPULATE THEM WITH HAND OUTS INSTEAD OF GIVING THEM A FUTURE THROUGH FREE EDUCATION, BURSARIES, SCHOLARSHIPS, ETC.
PEOPLE THAT PUSH THAT AGENDA ARE SEEN AS ‘ENEMIES OF LOOTERS’ AND THEY WANT THEM OUT BY ALL MEANS.
SO SAD THAT WE LOST AN OPPORTUNITY TO THRIVE ECONOMICALLY AS A COUNTRY WITH THE DEATH OF LEVY.
WE SHOULD NOT LOSE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO RISE AGAIN , SO, LET US PROTECT HH BY ALL MEANS. PLAN B SMELLS AND WHILE THEY CLAIM SICKNESS, A LOT IS LIKELY HAPPENING UNDERGROUND..
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