By Gershom Ndhlovu
It is well and good that former president Frederick Chiluba has been acquitted by the magistrates over corruption charges he was facing involving the theft of US$500,000 while his co-accused Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu were found guilty.
“We are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused stole funds,” Ndola High Court registrar Jones Chinyama said as he read out the verdict in a six-hour hearing. “I find that the accused is not guilty on all counts,” he said.
While the court decision by the court has divided the nation between those who have accepted the verdict and those who have not, it is Chiluba’s statement he made a few days later at a Bible Gospel Church of Africa (BIGOCA) function in Lusaka about the source of his money that I find a problem with.
Dr Chiluba said he was advised to keep his personal money in the Zamtrop Intelligence account meant for the construction of the Institute of Democratic Studies because some of his friends who donated towards the project could have given him money laundered from drugs. (Here).
He said even before he was taken to court, three financial institutions – the Bank of Zambia, Grant Thornton and Price Waterhouse Coopers audited the Zamtrop account and told the Government that there was private money in it as well.
Chiluba and his usually efficient public relations people have neither denied nor retracted the statement more than a week after he made it. Or indeed they have not yet realized the implications of the statement.
The question, however, is this: does the dubious source of Chiluba’s funds explain why he chose not to give evidence on oath during the court process. Was he afraid of incriminating himself in court, which he unwittingly did at the BIGOCA function? Is it that God, whose name and that of Israel he has been invoking at every turn, trying to expose his chicanery?
Governments all over the world are vigorously fighting money laundering but it is very strange that a leader, in this case former leader, of a respected country such as Zambia could tolerate, even worse, accept money from drug traffickers. Drugs have long been known to ruin not only the lives of the users, but also ruining the economies of many a nation through money laundering.
Closer to home, even the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) which Chiluba chaired at some point during his tenure as Zambian president, even came up with an anti-money laundering unit with offices in Tanzania.
Chiluba’s “confession” about the source of his money should have immediately attracted the Drug Enforcement Commission, Bank of Zambia and the Zambia Revenue Authority. If these institutions have taken up the matter, the fact has not been made public.
Tags: Acquittal, Drug Money, Frederick Chiluba, Jones Chinyama