Banda stripped of immunity to face probe

| Friday March 22, 2013 00:00

LUSAKA: Former Zambian president Rupiah Banda has started appearing before government's Joint Investigating Wing after his immunity from prosecution was removed by Parliament last Friday.Banda thus becomes the second former Zambian head of state to lose his immunity from prosecution after deceased second president, Frederick Chiluba, who was stripped of his in July 2002.Within days of losing his immunity, Banda was on Monday summoned to appear before the Joint Investigations Wing, which had earlier called him for questioning when his immunity was still in force.

Lawyers opposed to the move argued then that it was irregular to question Banda as he was legally protected by the immunity. Zambia's shortest-serving president, who ruled the country for only three years between 2008 and 2011, has been linked to Chiluba's acquittal in a case of corruption involving US $500 million (P 4 billion).He now faces charges of corruption, money laundering and fraud preferred against him by Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba. Before he died, Banda's MMD appointed Chiluba a consultant on politics and development in the run-up to the September 2011 presidential elections and the state did not appeal against the London court's verdict against Chiluba.

The prosecutor from Mwanawasa's Task Force on Corruption, Max Nkole, who had prepared grounds of appeal against Chiluba's acquittal, had his contract terminated and the abuse of office clause in the anti-corruption law was struck out of the country's legal books.The London High Court found Chiluba, together with others, guilty in a civil case for allegedly siphoning US$46 million from government coffers.The case, in which Chiluba was found guilty of embezzling public funds, is still valid even if the High Court of Zambia, in accordance with the law relating to foreign judgements, has not registered it.

Kambimba earlier told Parliament that it was possible to enforce that judgement and that the money that Chiluba embezzled could be recovered from his existing estate.However, cases involving Chiluba took long and many feel that the money that was spent to pursue him was more than the US$500 million for which he and others were charged.Objecting to that line of thinking, an official from Transparency International, a watchdog on governance, has indicated that there was need to remove Banda's immunity so that he could clear his name. Speaking on privately-owned Muvi Television, the official said that people who steal chickens are prosecuted, although papers on which the charges are written and the cost of prosecuting them is higher than the value of the stolen items.Those against the lifting of Banda's immunity claim that the former president is being victimised, inviting questions as to whether the government he led was free of corruption.

After Mwanawasa died, Banda pledged to uphold the deceased president's legacy, which included the fight against corruption. Mwanawasa was seen as a true fighter of corruption because he directed it at Chiluba with whom he was with in the MMD.May be Banda is thought of as being persecuted because his immunity has been removed by a party that was in the opposition when he was president. Otherwise, Banda received opposition within the MMD regarding some of his deeds before he was voted out of power in September 2011 elections. Former Defence Minister, George Mpombo, linked Banda's son Henry to interfering with public procurements for the Ministry of Defence and resigned from his ministerial position. Mpombo, a powerful figure from Lambaland on the Copperbelt to which Mwanawasa was tribally-connected, was arrested on the flimsy grounds of 'bouncing a bank cheque'.President Sata's government has put Mpombo in the diplomatic service assigning him to Nigeria, a country where a company has been linked to alleged fraudulent procurement of crude oil, an allegation that has also been levelled against Banda.

Another sign that Banda's government was tainted with corruption was when the police unearthed more than K2 billion at former Labour and Social Security Minister Austin Liato's farm in Lusaka shortly after President Sata came to power. Banda's former minister has been convicted and jailed, but he is out of prison on bail pending appeal to the High Court. And after ascending to power, President Sata constituted a commission of inquiry regarding operations of the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) that unearthed a scandal in which it is alleged that private companies were offered contracts to run scanners. The inquiry recommended the prosecution of Banda and 12 former ministers in the MMD government for fraudulent procurement and levy concessions offered to the named private companies. It said those private companies benefited in the form of revenue from operations that could be by ZRA. Government has since cancelled contracts to these private companies regarding operations of scanners at borders run by ZRA.

The report claimed that whilst serving as vice-president under Mwanawasa, Banda was allegedly involved in the procurement of four extra scanners for border posts and inflated the procurement loan from US$100 million to US$125 million. These could be one of the reasons Zambians opposed some of the actions that Banda's government took long before he was voted out of power. They stood up against his government's transfer of 75 percent shares in the state-run Zambia Telecommunications Company (ZAMTEL) to Libya's Lap Green Networks.President Sata's government has since reversed the deal partly because of security concerns. (SPA)