FIRST LADY MRS MUTINTA HICHILEMA SHOULD RETURN THE K100,000 DONATION THAT SHE RECEIVED FROM INVESTRUST BANK SHORTLY BEFORE THE BANK COLLAPSED
Liberty House, Lusaka
5th April 2024
1. As Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) we would like to urge the First Lady Mrs Mutinta Hichilema to immediately return the K100,000 donation that she received from the now collapsed Investrust Bank PLC on 15th December 2023, on both moral and legal grounds.
2. We have no doubt in our minds that by the time that Mrs Hichilema received the K100,000 donation about 3 months ago, the bank was already experiencing liquidity problems. Therefore, it was irresponsible, immoral and illegal for the Investrust Bank PLC Managing Director Mr. Simangolwa Shakalima to give out a donation of K100,000 to Mrs Mutinta Hichilema, just like it is irresponsible, immoral and illegal for the First Lady to keep the donation, now that the bank has collapsed, and depositors are unable to retrieve their money.
3. The K100,000 donation that the Investrust Bank Managing Director, Mr. Simangolwa Shakalima made to the First Lady, at a time when the bank had liquidity challenges, amounted to asset stripping and is criminalized under section 176 of the Corporate Insolvency Act No. 9 of 2017.
4. Based on previous cases where the Bank of Zambia (BOZ) has taken possession of a collapsed bank including Inter-Market Banking Corporation, Development Bank of Zambia etcetera, depositors are often given only a fraction of their deposits that is usually less than 30 percent. In other words, depositors always lose their money whenever a commercial bank collapses and is taken over by the Bank of Zambia.
5. In the premises above, if the First Lady Mrs Mutinta Hichilema insisted on keeping the K100,000 donation that she illegally received from Investrust Bank PLC, she would be benefitting from the misery of depositors who have lost money from the collapse of the Bank. She would also be exposing herself to possible future criminal prosecution for being an accessory to the Bank’s asset stripping, in contravention of section 176 of the Corporate Insolvency Act No 9 of 2017 of the Laws of Zambia. While the choice of what step to take next is entirely hers, we urge her to make the right decision.
ISSUED BY:
SEAN E. TEMBO (SET)
PARTY PRESIDENT
PATRIOTS FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS (PeP)
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA
