FOREIGN Affairs minister Joseph Malanji says it is wrong to assume that every successful Zambian business is dubious or corrupt.
He says his aviation business has been on the cards for a long time and that he started the process of purchasing a helicopter a year ago.
Malanji added that the hotel business was not his major source of income but the many years he has been doing business with the mines.
“I have been a businessman all my life. Why should someone question me now simply because I hold political office? Should every Zambian who has succeeded be labelled? It’s wrong when you have invested your energy, time and money for a very long time to be called corrupt or this and that. Not every Zambian who succeeds is corrupt, no!” he said.
Malanji has come under public scrutiny following his purchase of a Bell 430 twin-engine light medium helicopter costing US $1.4 million.
When asked to clear the air surrounding this transaction, especially questions about his source of money, Malanji said it was wrong to associate business success to foreigners.
“You see, if you ask people who are closer to me, the helicopter business, I made a decision to go into the aviation business a long time ago. That’s my business projection which has been on the drawing board for a while and I made a decision… and for somebody to come and wake up,” Malanji added. “I heard even HH saying somebody who is running a lodge has bought a helicopter. You know, HH must know that when he was driving personal-to-holder corollas from the audit firm, I was already a big boy in town. I was driving an S-Class personal, with a white book at home. If you go to the mines, you go to Konkola those days; even now most of the switch gears you will find are Gibson and Gibson. So, he should speak from an informed position. Hotel business is just like hedge fund, it’s not something that I rely on.”
Malanji said he saw an opportunity in the aviation business because each time the country was hosting VIPs from other countries, helicopters to fly them were hired from South Africa.
He took a swipe at UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema who he said was among those that questioned his purchasing a helicopter.
Malanji said Hichilema would have been quiet if a foreign business owner was the one who ventured into the helicopter business.
“I know it’s his preference that companies must be owned by foreigners, so this is what all businessmen in Zambia should look at. If somebody who is looking at being a presidential candidate in a few days from now, can think bad about somebody buying a plane for a business in Zambia…” he said. “When you look at Zambia, when we have VIPs we import helicopters from South Africa. That means money is going out, is that what he wants to continue?”
He further explained the procedure and how long it has taken for his helicopter to land in the country.
Malanji mocked Hichilema that “the opposition leader has never even purchased a brand-new car from Toyota Zambia with his money so he can’t know.”
“The problem is, he has never bought even a brand new vehicle from Toyota Zambia at his cost so he can’t know…to buy a plane it takes time. First of all, the civil aviation authority from Zambia has to go to a country where the plane is coming from and the civil aviation in that country has to inspect and there is export maintenance to go with what they call C of A,” Malanji explained. “So, you find that it will take you a year before you finish the entire process for a plane to be imported. It’s not like buying a car where you inform customs to say my car is at the border, I want to clear it. So Mr Hakainde Hichilema, no wonder he cannot look after his cadres,” Malanji added.
Meanwhile, Malanji has brushed aside suggestions that he is one of those cabinet ministers that do not have a Grade 12 school certificate and does not therefore qualify to recontest his Kwacha Constituency seat.
“The same conditions were there in 2016 and I filed successfully, so what has changed now? The opposition are more on propaganda than reality. Let them bring a candidate to Kwacha so that he or she can go through unopposed,” said Malanji whose constituency is one of the few with fewer challengers from within the ruling party on the Copperbelt.
This is when compared to others like Nkana, Kamfinsa, and Ndola Central.