The Reversal of A Irregular Sell of Finance Bank Zambia

The Bank of Zambia Governor, Caleb Fundanga has been rightly fired by the new Zambian President Michael Sata for his involvement in the irregular sale of Finance Bank Zambia Limited to FirstRand National Bank (FNB) of South Africa. The sale of the Bank lacked transparency and the circumstances of the sale unjustified. There is urgent need to investigate the former Bank Governor to get better understanding of rushed decision to allow FNB to acquire the Bank. how muck influence the ex-President RB had in the sell may emerge from such an investigation if it were to be instituted and it must be.

Zambia has hitherto been considered as place where foreign investors can go and buy going operating businesses for peanuts. Stupid "mistakes" were made by the MMD Government when they privatized a virtually all the Zambian industries that the UNIP Government of Kenneth Kaunda developed. It was clear that FNB followed the same dictum in buying Finance bank on the understanding that the Bank of Zambia lacked people with the capacity to competitively price a well rooted Bank like Finance Bank. How could Finance Bank, with 39 branches throughout Zambia, be sold for a paltry sum of US$5.4m? As a matter of fact, FNB failed to acquire a Nigerian Bank because Nigerians could not be hoodwinked to let go of their bank in exchange for peanuts. Faizal Moolla,  a banking analyst at Avior Research had even the audacity to state that "This is the risk of doing business in Africa if certain political parties are not happy there is a chance they can reverse (a deal)". This assertion is not true. What is true is that the so called foreign investors have been using fraudulent means to acquire Zambian businesses through corrupt means. Moolla agrees that although FNB could still organically expand in Zambia, such an expansion would be costly. His sentiment means that FNB was merely desirous of expanding in the Zambian Banking Sector with little or no expenditure. may have been a shrewd approach that backfired miserably. We commend the Zambian President Michael C. Sata for tacking this bold and momentous decision of reversing the purchase that, going forward, should serve as a lesson to all future prospective foreign investors going to seek fraudulent investment opportunities at the expense of the Zambian people.

What has been happening in the past was that fraudulent acquisitions had blessings of corrupt MMD presidents that protected bad deals because they may have been corrupted. The long awaited CHANGE of government has come and at the helm of the new Government is a man of his words, a man who appreciates the value of Zambian resources and infrastructure and who believes every investment must be mutually beneficial. It is not surprising that some foreign investors are crying foul  because they are being stopped in their tracks. The RB administration and that of late FJT Chiluba have been the most corrupt in the history of Zambia.

Zambians Celebrate Sata’s Election Victory, assemble for inauguration

By Dr. Kaela Mulenga and Malama Katulwende

WILD celebrations of great jubilation have characterized the election of opposition leader, Michael Chilufya Sata as Zambia’s 5th republican president.

Mr. Sata has won Zambia’s presidential election after two days of vote counting following a highly contested race with incumbent Rupiah Banda.

Chief Justice Ernest Sakala declared Sata the winner at around 01.30 hours today after the opposition leader polled 43% of the vote with just seven constituencies left to be counted.

Prior to the final announcement of the winner this morning (23rd September 2011), the election had been marred by riots in several parts of Zambia. Notable was the capital, Lusaka, the mining towns of Solwezi, Kitwe and Ndola. The border town of Nakonde was also affected.

The irate protestors – who were mostly youths who vowed to die rather than be ruled under Mr. Rupiah Banda’s government – were angered by a ban on the media announcing results not verified by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ).

According to the ECZ, however, the media black-out had been prompted by the hacking of its website by some people who posted false information to record a landslide win for Mr. Sata.

Michael Sata’s victory has been celebrated everywhere in Zambia by car honking, singing, dancing and partying. Huge crowds have assembled at the High Court grounds in anticipation of Sata’s inauguration.

Until this morning, Zambia had been ruled by the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) for 20 years. Mr. Rupiah Banda, who was Zambia’s fourth president, presided over a government which was reputed for corruption, intolerance, election rigging and abuse of public resources.

Sata’s election victory had been spurred by social, political and economic discontent of the majority of Zambians whose fortunes have not benefitted from the boom in metal prices that the country had been enjoying for some time.

Sata, 74, exploited the urban poverty and promised Zambians “lower taxes, more money in your pockets”. Yet perhaps the most revolutionary slogan of the Patriotic Front was the “Don’t Kubeba” which meant, literary, “don’t tell them”. The slogan was intended to urge Zambians to accept all manner of bribes from Banda’s MMD but keep the secret of their vote in their heart.

Mr. Sata, who lost the last election in 2008 by just 35,000 votes has been the most consistent critic of the MMD government and battled them over high taxation, unemployment, corruption, poverty and inefficiency. He is perhaps the most charismatic politician Zambia has ever had.

President Michael Sata started politics as municipal councilor and served as governor of Lusaka under Zambia’s first President, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda. When he read the mood of change Sata resigned from Kaunda’s United National Independence Party in 1991 and joined Dr. Frederick Chiluba’s newly-formed MMD party.

Sata was MMD minister of local government, labor, and health, and later minister without portfolio. He created a reputation for being “a man of action”. In 2000, however, Sata fell out of favor with the late president Dr. Frederick Chiluba and formed the Patriotic Front in 2001.

That year the PF leader lost the election to late president Dr. Levy Mwanawasa. Mr. Sata again lost in 2006 and 2008, respectively, but on every occasion increasing the vote count and number of Members of Parliament (MPs) from one to forty seven. The PF has now won over seventy seven MPs out of a hundred and fifty.

During the reign of MMD’s Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata suffered daily insults, defamation and harassment from the state media and Zambia Police Service. Mr. Banda unleashed a wave of propaganda using public media such as the Times of Zambia, Daily Mail and Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC).

He was called an homosexual, evil, a mad man, and an anarchist who was not fit to run the affairs of the country. These public institutions never said anything positive about Sata. Chanda Chimba’s Stand UP for Zambia, which was secretly funded by the Banda’s MMD, was a tool which peddled lies against Michael Sata.

Despite the MMD’s abuse of state resources during its campaign and noted serious media bias on the part of the state broadcaster, ZNBC, Daily Mail and Times of Zambia, Sata’s promises of more jobs, better education, compelling mining companies to pay taxes, decentralization and dealing with corruption and the Barotseland Agreement has endeared him to the electorate.

Zambians have demonstrated their faith in Sata. They have cast their votes, slept at polling stations and fought running battles with the police or anyone who they suspected of trying to rig the elections.

Sata’s election is truly a popular uprising that equals the 1990 anti-UNIP protests and vote which ended Dr. Kaunda’s 27 year old reign. This election has cut across ethnicity, gender, religion and race.

Zambia election: Sata wins presidential race

After his victory was announced, Sata's supporters celebrated on the streets of Lusaka

Zambians celebrate Sata and PF Victory

Opposition leader Michael Sata has won Zambia's presidential election after two days of vote counting following a tight race with incumbent Rupiah Banda.

Mr Sata was declared winner by Chief Justice Ernest Sakala after polling 43% of the vote with just seven constituencies left to be counted.

The election had been marred by riots in Zambia's northern mining region.

The anger had been prompted by a ban on the media announcing results not verified by the electoral commission.

The electoral commission said it had taken the step after its website was hacked to falsely record a landslide for 74-year-old Mr Sata.

Mr Banda's Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) has ruled Zambia for 20 years and this was the fourth time Patriotic Front (PF) leader Mr Sata had run for the presidency.

He lost the last election, in 2008, by just 35,000 votes which sparked rioting by some opposition supporters in the party's urban strongholds.

'King Cobra'

However, they were in jubilant mood after the victory announcement early on Friday morning. The BBC's Louise Redvers, in the capital Lusaka, said parties were expected to continue into the night.

Michael Sata - Profile

· Started in politics as municipal councillor and served as governor of Lusaka under Zambia's first President, Kenneth Kaunda

· Resigned from Kaunda's United National Independence Party in 1991 and joined Frederick Chiluba's newly-formed MMD

· Served as MMD minister of local government, labour, and health. Was later minister without portfolio, the third-highest post in government

· Formed Patriotic Front in 2001, losing an election that year and in 2006 and 2008

Mr Sata, who reportedly used to sweep floors at London's Victoria Station, has had a lengthy career in politics. He served as an MMD minister for local government, labour and social security, and health before quitting in 2001.

Known as "King Cobra" for his venomous tongue, foreign mining firms - often from China - have frequently been the target of his criticism about labour conditions.

While the party has disputed media reports it is anti-Chinese, it is likely to shake up the way contracts are awarded, our correspondent said.

There were suggestions Chinese firms were bankrolling Mr Banda's re-election bid in the run-up to the poll, with PF candidates expressing surprise at the amount of funds available to the MMD.

Meanwhile, international election observers criticised the MMD for abusing state resources during its campaign and noted serious media bias on the part of the state broadcaster.

However, the PF's promises of more jobs and better education appear to have won over the electorate.

Time to Deal with the Chinese

Chinese investors brought both investment and nonsense to Zambia. Much as their investments would have made sense, they felt like they owned Zambia to extent that the relationship between Zambia and China amounted to servitude. The Chinese have employed Zambians whom they have literary been ridding on their backs, for little pay and extremely poor conditions of service. The Chinese investors totally disregarded Zambian Labour laws with impunity. But, as the adage goes, every dog has its day and that day came today after The Patriotic Front dealt MMD a deadening blow at the September 20, 2011 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections that were fiercely contested.

It's now time to address all the wrongs that Rupiah Banda has caused the people and the nation by throwing this country in the hands of Chinese vultures. Such nonsense as allowing Chinese labourers to take jobs that Zambians should be doing including such enterprises as chicken selling buy Chinese people that should ideally be left in the hands of Zambians. It will be important for the new PF Government to define which businesses foreigners can engage in. All the land dubiously and corruptly given to the Chinese must be given back to the State until such a time as it is re-allocated to indigenous Zambians. There should be no single Chinese person engaging in jobs that can be done by Zambians. The mines involving corrupt RB and the Chinese urgently need to be straightened out introducing policies that will benefit Zambians.

RPT-'King Cobra' Sata wins Zambia presidential race

RPT-'King Cobra' Sata wins Zambia presidential race

Thu Sep 22, 2011 11:05pm GMT

* Sata received 43 percent of vote

* Sata victory may cause concern among investors

* Riot police, youths square off in Copper Belt

By Chris Mfula

LUSAKA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Zambian opposition leader Michael Sata was declared the winner of Zambia's presidential election on Friday, ousting incumbent Rupiah Banda as the leader of Africa's biggest copper producer in polls marred by public violence.

Sata, 74 and nicknamed "King Cobra" because of his venomous tongue, toned down his rhetoric against foreign mining firms, especially from China, in the closing stages of the six-week campaign but his victory could still cloud the investment outlook.

Chief Justice Ernest Sakala declared Sata the winner after he received 1,150,045 votes compared to Banda's 961,796 with 95.3 percent of constituencies counted. Sata received 43 percent of the vote.

Rupiah Banda, 74 and leader of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) party that has run Zambia since one-party rule ended in 1991, is expected to make a statement early Friday about the vote.

Earlier youths fought running battles with riot police in the towns of Ndola and Kitwe, 250 km (150 miles) north of Lusaka, setting fire to vehicles and markets in the normally peaceful southern African country's mining heartland.

Hackers who hit the Election Commission's website overnight, posting false results showing Sata on course for a landslide, added to the confusion and tension of what was already a neck-and-neck run-off between two old rivals. (Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Marius Bosch)