POLICE ARREST A MAN WHO STOLE HIS LATE BROTHER’S IDENTITY TO GET EMPLOYMENT
By Correspondent Reporter
POLICE in Mufulira on the Copperbelt have arrested Brighton Chanda who used his late brother’s identity to gain employment thereby denying his brother’s surving widow pension benefits from the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA).
Last week struggling widow Musonda Kasonde 45, in narrated from her residence in Kitwe’s Kwacha township that she has been struggling with her four children since her husband Charles Chanda died in January of 2022 after NAPSA discovered that the NRC details she presented had similar details with another Charles Chanda who was still working in Mopani Copper Mines in Mufulira.
But Kasonde disclosed that her late husband was aware that his young brother whose real name is Brighton had used his NRC number to get a job in a company that was contracted in the mines some time back and had been pleading with him to change his NRC details but to no avail until he suddenly dropped dead last year.
“Apparently my husband did not want to take the matter to law enforcement officers because it was going to look bad with the family so he kept pleading and advising him to do the correct thing as it would bring problems in an event that one of them died but he kept dilly-dallying until my husband suddenly died,” she explained.
Kasonde said when Brighton decided to get his NRC, he told officers at the registration office that he was replacing his lost NRC with the same number but still used his late brother’s name.
“How this whole thing started is that a long time ago in ZCCM days, when a contractor won a contract in the mine, they will just call unemployed youths and employ them using NRCs, they called it icigumuna (mass employment). So that is how he came home, picked his brother’s NRC number and got employed, so when Mopani came, he was retained as chef at the mine mess on the same personal credentials, my husband used to tell him that he needed to drop his NRC and get his own but that he never heeded to that advice,” she narrated.
She said on the day that her husband died, his NRC temporarily went missing until her eldest daughter became so angry to attract the attention of other mourners when suddenly the NRC resurfaced from nowhere.
Kasonde said after her NAPSA ordeal, the matter was escalated to the Mopani Criminal Investigations department but the matter keeps going on and on amid collusion undertones.
“NAPSA have told us that the same names and details are appearing in two companies in their data base purporting to be the same person who has switched companies so they had difficulties.”
She said Brighton’s other surviving elder brother and relatives have tried but failed to have him own up.
Kasonde said an officer at NAPSA tried to plead with Brighton so that he quietly changes credentials but he rudely responded that “let the same dead guy change his credentials” and stopped picking her calls to date.
She said all the hopes were now on Solwezi based Peter Chishimba a close friend of the late Chanda who got the NRC on the same day as her late husband in 1990 to go to Mopani and NAPSA to testify.
This reporter called Brighton several times but his phone went unanswered as he had been doing to many others including his family members that had wanted him to own up.
This reporter escalated to Copperbelt Police Commissioner Peacewell Mweemba who immediately took interest in the matter but when officers went to Mopani Copper Mines, they drew a blank as they were informed that he was unwell.
But Brighton was picked up on Thursday night and is in police custody in Mufulira.
“The suspect was arrested last night. So the widow can go with his late husband’s NRC and death certificate to Mufulira and see the DCIO,” Mweemba confirmed.