AS we are about to end the year 2024 and start the new year of 2025, we send warm seasonal greetings to you, our beloved President Hakainde Hichilema.
And in this regard, we have a New Year message to share with you Mr. President as a way of encouraging and strengthening your resolve to fight both the past and current corruption. We have gladly noticed your resolve to fight the current corruption as and when it shows its ugly head. The case in point is the latest reshuffle at the level of Permanent Secretaries because we are fully aware that some of the dismissed Permanent Secretaries were embroiled in corruption and bribery.
Mr President, while we appreciate this effort, we note that you are either too slow or just reluctant to deal with the corruption of some of your ministers and those working very closely with you in State House, as aides. We can provide numerous examples to justify this conclusion but for now, we will give you only one example touching on your legal advisor, Christopher Mundia.
For starters, we hope Mr. President you are aware that Christopher Mundia is the New Kaizer Zulu in State House. Your predecessor, Edgar Lungu, had Kaizer Zulu as a notorious political advisor who brought a lot of shame to State House specifically and government in general for his various mischief, including criminal behaviour. Edgar Lungu was advised to take action against Kaizer Zulu failuire to which Kaizer would be his downfall. For a long time, Lungu ignored this advice from the public until when it was too late that is when he fired Kaizer Zulu. The rest, as they say, is history.
We have been compelled to start with the example of Christopher Kaizer Mundia because of the recent police reports revealing plans by some people to bewitch you Mr President. But we will return to this point a little later after talking about Christopher Mundia’s corruption.
Christopher Mundia’s corruption cases are numerous and well-known in the UPND circles. But to avoid crowding issues, today we will only isolate one case. This is the case to do with the fertilizer company called ETG. This company used to bankroll the Patriotic Front (PF) in power and captured Christopher Mundia immediately the PF lost power because Christopher Mundia convinced them that he has the President’s ear and any favour that ETG would like from the government at any time would not be impossible.
That is how Christopher Mundia blocked the investigations by the Joint Task Force into the missing fertilizer at the Ministry of Defence that was delivered to ETG. This issue is well known to President Hichilema because we are aware that he raised it on many occasions as soon as UPND formed government.
The facts of the matter are that the Ministry of Defence, through Zamcapitol Enterprises Limited, in 2019 ordered 105,000 MT of fertilizer at a cost of US $72 million from Russia through Russia Eximbank. This fertilizer was to be used by the Defence forces on a rolling basis but unfortunately arrived at the end of the 2019/2020 farming season and so was to be used in the next farming season.
ETG, also known as Zambian Fertiliser, submitted a proposal to the Government to swap this fertilizer with their US $28.83 million debt owed to them by the Ministry of Community Development Mother and Child Development and Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia.
The balance of the swap, US $43 million, was to be paid to the Government as ETG were to purchase the balance of the fertiliser. But this US $43 million was never receipted by the Treasury as required by the Public Finance Management Act. It is not clear where this money was paid to. Zamcapitol was made to sign for receipt (goods received note) although they never saw the product.
The Fertiliser never went to Zamcapitol but straight to ETG without verification and valuation by the Board of Survey as required under the said Act. In this case, the Russian fertilizer was reported to be of superior quality than the one under FISP.
Even if ETG was a close sponsor of the PF, Christopher Mundia has been instrumental in ensuring that it has continued getting big business under the UPND’s FISP programme and is the only company from the PF regime suppliers that remains supplying todate.
Further, Christopher Kaizer Mundia has also been scheming money from investors that send money to invest in businesses in Zambia. Working with a known senior official at the Drug Enforcement Commission, Christopher Mundia’s scheme has been to have unsuspectimg investor funds seized and later force them into an alleged settlement with the state but at a commission as high as 30 percent payable to some selected law firms (negotiators), through his influence.
Many restricted accounts find themselves in this predicament while others have decided to settle and get what they can out of fear of detentions and deportations. Victims range in nationality but among them are Zimbabweans and Nigerians.
Without a doubt, history appears to be repeating itself. Christopher Kaizer Mundia is topping the list of the most destructive AIDES at State House. In the name of the President, he has swindled and extorted a lot of money from unsuspecting individuals and business people. Most of the confusion Zambians are seeing in government circles today is actually engineered or caused by this same Kaizer Mundia who openly brags that no matter what, President Hichilema can’t fire him. To the contrary, those wishing him to be fired are the ones who will instead be frustrated by the President or get the boot.
The big question begging an honest answer is: Why is President HH treating Christopher Kaizer Mundia as an untouchable Presidential AIDE?
It is at this point that we get back to the bewitching story. Well, we have it on firm ground that there is more to it than meets the eye. Some of you may have heard Christopher Kaizer Mundia calling or referring to President Hichilema as “my father”. That is where it all starts from.
Word on the street is that President Hichilema had a very strong bond and links with Christopher Kaizer Mundia’s late father, Mr Christopher Mundia Snr, who also served as LAZ president in the late 1990s into the early 2000s. At the time he was dying, Mr Mundia Snr is said to have entered into a covenant with President Hichilema, as an opposition leader then. Mr Mundia Snr is said to have asked HH to look after Christopher Jnr like his own son because he would be the one to continue taking care of whatever issues he had between him and HH. It is believed that to this effect, some rituals were secretly performed by HH and Mundia’s father in the presence of a few trusted people, just to entrench this covenant. HH, through this process, committed to look after Christopher Kaizer Mundia as his own son.
Today, no doubt, President Hichilema appears to be living up to this commitment and covenant. He knows and understands the damage Christopher Kaizer Mundia continues to cause to his government but he simply can’t just touch him. Instead, those who raise issues against Christopher Kaizer Mundia are the ones who are either fired or frustrated.
The public may recall that not too long ago, Lemmy Kajoba was fired as Inspector General of Police after he confirmed to the media that police had put on hold investigations against Christopher Kaizer Mundia concerning millions of United States Dollars meant for former Ghanian expatriate teachers that went missing. Kaizer Mundia was implicated in this matter and was one of those being investigated. According to Lemmy Kajoba, Christopher Mundia had informed him to halt those investigations until he heard from President Hichilema.
Christopher Kaizer Mundia was so upset with Lemmy Kajoba and whispered to a few people in his circles that “no one messes with him” like that and Kajoba would soon reap the thorns for having embarrassed him through the media. And true to Kaizer Mundia’s promise, it was not long before President Hichelema sent Lemmy Kajoba packing. Kajoba was fired, much to Kaizer Mundia’s joy.
Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year Mr President. We wish you can be more decisive and take the hard decisions for your own good in this coming year.
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Author: Chipo Banda from Saison Banda on behalf of Saison Banda.
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