FORMER Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) chairman and Chief Executive Francis Kaunda and Access Financial Services (AFS) Director Faustin Kabwe have been jailed for two years each with hard labour for abuse of office and conspiracy to defraud.
In the first count, Kaunda, 70, was charged with abuse of authority after he allegedly offered Ndola Primary School to Ndola Trust School for sale.
In the second count, Kaunda was charged with Kabwe with conspiracy to defraud ZCCM by arbitrarily offering Ndola Primary School to Ndola Trust School, an act that was prejudicial to the interests of the Government.
High Court deputy registrar, Edward Musona sitting in the magistrate’s court sentenced Kaunda to two years imprisonment in the first count and another two years in the second count of conspiracy to defraud.
The sentences will however run concurrently. Kabwe was also jailed two years for conspiracy to defraud.
In passing sentence, Mr Musona said he appreciated that the crime committed was a misdemeanor but that he had observed some seriousness in the circumstances of the offense.
He said that the school was not sold to the right buyer as per privatisation guidelines and that the two were senior citizens who were supposed to lead by example.
The court was satisfied that Kaunda was contracted to assist in the sale of ZCCM assets and was therefore described as a public officer.
Mr Musona noted that Ndola Primary School PTA had offered K520 million while Nsansa School offered a total of US$300,000. He also noted that the valuation for the school was K400 million.
He said the offer was not given to Nsansa Primary School, which was the preferred bidder but instead a firm called Cave Malik made a bid after the closing date and offered K200 million which was less than what other bidders had offered.
Mr Musona also observed that at the time, Ndola Trust School was not yet registered and Bimo Thaker, the lawyer who represented Cave Malik and was also a consultant for ZCCM at the time of privatisation was still on the run.
He said Ndola Trust School communicated their offer after the closing date for bids and that what happened was unusual because the school was sold to a fictitious and non-existent entity represented by Kabwe.
The court stated that Kaunda knew that Kabwe who had signed for the bidder was his friend and that he never declared interest.
Mr Musona said the school could have been sold to anyone provided that the procedure was followed and that Ndola Trust School could not have had the experience because it was not yet registered.
He said the State had proved that there was dishonesty in the manner the school was offered and that the Government and ZCCM lost out on the higher bids and Nsansa School, which had the past experience of running schools.
In defence, Kaunda had stated that it was not true that he conspired with Kabwe to sell the school without the approval of the owners who were ZCCM.
He said he did not arbitrarily offer the school because it was not possible as ZCCM assets had to be sold by ZCCM themselves through the negotiating team.
In mitigation, Kaunda and Kabwe through their lawyers, Vincent Malambo and John Sangwa urged the court to be lenient in sentencing them because the offense was a misdemeanor and therefore a custodial sentence was not necessary.
The lawyers said the fact that their clients had been found guilty was enough punishment and that the court should consider that it had not been proved that Kaunda and Kabwe benefited from the transaction and therefore did not deserve the jail term.
After judgement, Mr Sangwa indicated that his client was going to appeal to the high court.
Where are all the bloggers is it only interesting when its lpm
The case looks so straight forward that i do not understand why Sangwa whats to appeal. If anything the judgement was lenient on the convicted persons. Surely ba Kaunda how could you award someone after tenders had closed and worse still with a far LOWER bid!!!! using a company not yet born hence with no track record in school management. Very sad indeed
These *****s should have been sentenced to hang! Chiluba should also be tried for high treason. Remember that nonsense about the so called torture tunnels? Those were security installations my dear Zambians and not torturte chambers as Chiluba and his fellow *****s claimed. What we saw was a radio transmitter and desks for the Defence force commanders underground. Every country needs and has those facilities in case there is an existential threat to out being as a sovereign nation. Kafupi exposed our last line of defence and it is treasonable. The ***** should face a firing squad!
Thats already stale news ba LT!!
As a someone who was born in a mine hospital, went to mine schools was sponsored by ZCCM, i’m so disheartened by this news.I don’t see why Francis Kaunda should go to jail over a school. He didn’t even benefit from the sale.If fingers shoul be pointed lets point them at Chiluba who decided to break up ZCCM for a peanuts. Look at how much money Zambia would have been making if we held on to ZCCM.Please why send a 70yr old man to jail over a school.It seems someone is trying to settle an old score.Its incrediously petty.
There is no old score to be settled. The case is straight forward.
Next is Katele Kalumba 5years with hardlabour
kaunda deserves to to hunged,that was pure theft of public money,i hope he will learn a lesson in jail that stealing dont pay,i hope they send him to mwembeshi prison in lusaka west so he can be cultivating crops day and nite to feed the nation he deprived of millions
I told you that these stupi *****s were thieves, you did not believe me. They were stealing at night, morning and afternoon. Remember $20 million Chiluba gave his Congolese friend? All is gone. They deserved 20 years or so of imprisonment. Bale chaya twankane. Surely how do you give the lowest bidder who even came in late? That smells of corruption. Chiluba has flats in Belgium. Chiluba should be hanged from his scrotum.He is a disgrace to the Zambian people. VIVA COURTS, WE WANT MORE CONVICTION!! Am sure Katele is shivering.
I held Mr. Kaunda in high esteem up until he crossed paths with FTJ. See where it has landed him! Or is it because he too has the genes of the northerners…..laiden with the ‘natolafye syndrome’?
During the KK days, Francis Kaunda served as ZCCM Chief Executive and retired honourably. But he was used to legalise such dubious transactions by the Chiluba regime. That’s the sad trait Kafupi’s administration established; using the good men to rob the assets of the nation. I feel remorse for Mr. Kaunda. On the hand, Faustin Kabwe is one of the most shrewd & crooked accountants to have walked this earth. He was at the centre of the matrix of plunder. He has more coming with his other cases yet to be concluded.
mr Kaunda. just go in my man 2 years is too short a period. you will have to be a man. i actually think sentence is very light and you can handle it. goodluck.appealing may at times lead to the years being revised upwards. so be careful. this is just brotherly advise
Two years not enough, they would still come out of jail and enjoy their money. this money is lying somewhere. have you seen the picture of kabwe.he was even laughing just minutes afer convicted.
#10 Ndate you are petty,you don’t even deserve the ndate name coz you are tribal!
Always lets talk about issues and not Westerners/Easterners/Southerners and Notherners all the time! Grow up.
Agreed 2 years and with remission is nothing. the guys will mnaybe just serve 16 months only. Worst still if they behave well they may just end up serving say 8 or 9 months. This is mockery, why jail a guy who steals a chicken for “justified” poverty from Shoprite, for 5 years and then plunderers of billions which could have bettered peoples ives to a mere 2 years sentence. They needed to go in for at least 15 years, pakuti baletina bamambala.
# 5 INONGE.If one can do time over a pen or an ounce of marijuana,what about a school build by taxpayers.
Be realistic sis.
And where is Chitalu and HH? They should be next and everyone else who served in the Privitisation programme!
Some cases go quick, others take a snails’s pace!
Please bring more culprits to book and justice. Maybe some sanity with arise in our country.
Atlast justice has been done!these chaps have mansions where they live!!they will have to be at Chimbokaila for the next 24 months!throw out any appeals …the money at stake is alot and could have helped alleviate poverty in Zambia..
Ndate tawakwata amano. what northeners genes? You need to grow up a lil bit. Just comment on the topic and leave us alone…tribalist
Ndate #10.Please grow up.You behaving like a “Bututu”.The guys are actually lucky to get away with only two years in jail.Richard “Tricky Dick” Sakala was jailed for 4 years or so just for second hand cars.
Let’s be objective in Zambia, where are the former ZCCM GM’s who plundered during ZCCM and KK when trains full of copper used to disappear in the 1980’s. They are loads of thieves beyond the people they call criminals in public who are stil in the game. A GM in the mines like Luanshya Division would have 5 mine cars packed in the yard, even the wives had personal to holder vehicles but they were not mine employees. The mess in Zambia started just after independence, don’t be fooled. Most of these Mine and Parastatal bosses are still in boardrooms in Zambia still at it, with the old school freebies, talktime, laundry, fuel,workshops and salaries x 20 compared to juniors with MSc’s
Ndate of faeces, (you are a father of faeces) take your stinking armpit and stinking socks away from this blog!!
F Kaunda was a KK Man. He joined hands with the Chiluba regime which made him to develop an insatiable appetite for staeling public resources. The final result is a lenient Jail term of only 16 months. These guys dont deserve any sympathy from the Zambian people. A lot of people died due to lack of medicines in hospitals.Money for medicines was plundered by these guys. May God deliver us.
NDATE – WABA KAPULI!
I think more serious crimes have been committed in zambia and people give a blind eye to it.Where is justice when people die in our poorly equipped hospitals whilst politicians are able to fly out of the country at any whim.where is justice when big businesses that affect many peoples lives are poorly managed. Why should you just serve justice over an insignificant school.
Madam Inonge, I thought with all the education you are talking about, you would be the best person to understand what is going on. Do your analysis well and reason well.
these guys should have been locked in for 10 years. so who now owns Ndola Primary school?
Ba Kaunda, Mwaona Manje,
You should never have joined the Chilubas since you were so high in the Kaunda regime. Principle is important!!
But you joined the Matrixsters and seee what has happened. How and Where did you meet the Kabwe and Aaron Chungu conmen?
Ala mupemba bwalwa apemba inkonto. Mukulolekesha namo emu kutobolwa.
Ndate Mwanana alimunw’i kuba bakushenda ki Sikebenga. Bata kubulaya. Kozo!
#26 I totally agree with your comments.ZCCM was a mother to us,whether you went to a mine school or not.I’m sure there are more serious issues such as healthcare and education that could be pursued vigorously than over a school(for over 5years..and the cost of legal fees to the state is quite exhorbitant) from which Kaunda didn’t profit.Infact if one takes time to read the full judgement,it was said there was insufficient evidence but was a misdemeanor.I really appreciate ZCCM and what it did and was for us.
two years.did i hear right yes 2 years, how?#15 ur right hungry and poor,disadvantaged,defenceless are saving dearly at the expence of these heartless,inhuman,selfish beasts.honestly 2 years is not enough considering the huge sums of money plundered.what more the chief thief chiluba wont it be 8 months nakamutima kake koola.
Francis Kaunda has always been a criminal. He and Luke Mwanashinku sold the Luanshya Division to Binani. He new quite well that Binani have never run a mine before. It was a trading company he used to deal with to sell Zambian copper to India.
They will never serve these sentences, the late lawyer Johnnie Cochrane once said “The color of justice green, not black or white!”
#26 Bo Inonge namikupa please restrain yourself if you have nothing better to say. I grew up in Ndola and I know what kind of place Ndola Primary School is. It is a prestigious school in the ranks of Nkwazi School here in Lusaka. It is not an ‘insignificant school’. If that was the case, it would not have been valued at K 400m. If you think that is not value enough, then you live in utopia my sister. In fact it’s value must be in billions now because this valuation was done about a decade ago.
#22 You are right as far I can remember the rot started in the KK era. All those district governors, the members of central commities, the general managers of parastatals. They completely mismaged the parastals, yet managed to live in opulence in their homes. We had a distant relative of ours who would have stacks of cooking oil in his pantry when there was an absolute shortage of commodities in the country, all because he was a hot shot in INDECO. Such is our past, now we need people who can own up, who know what work hard is and not rely on handout or political appointments!
Two years yachepa bamachoka fast baanyama aba elo ba difilement naka ganja ati 15yrs? Inkaleko che fair sentencing chifukwa if you analyse all the plunder imprisonments bachoka before they finish serving time. So bafunika chaabe life kaufela muchimbokaila naku milima open prison so that bachuche kaili banabrokesa dziko!!!
inonge my sister i hope u r not my real elder sister in zambia,anyway dont feel pity for kaunda he deserves to be jailed,u r privileged to have gone to mine schools,i was also born and bred i kitwe,but cos my parents were not miners so didnt go to mine schools,kaunda is a thief,
Just jail all Zambians now …..lol…
#36 you are a liar. UNIP leaders left in poverty and Chiluba and Nawakwi said so. When Mr. Shapi left office, Mr. Makasa, Mr. Haswell Mwale, etc.. etc.. left office in 1991 they had hardly anywhere to go. Do you think they were friends of Chiluba and MMD. They would have been prosecuted and jailed.
So be real and talk true. Go after the thieves and don’t bark up the wrong tree.
Western – Beer is part of their living.
Southern – Polygamous issues normal.
Northern – Awe nachitola fye (Long hands).
Eastern – Muzungu anikonde (Pupperts).
The campus is set – North, East, West & South (NEWS).
ZESCO and the current constitutional office holders are defrauding Zambians over the new conditions of service they want via a bill in parliament.
Zesco’s rates are being touted as being the lowest in the region. Great this is how they should be BECAUSE we have hydro plants as opposed to Botswana which use coal fired plants! Coal fired plants are more expensive to run than hydro. Why are we being cheated by fake comparisons? Our constitutional office holders DO NOT deserve any increase in their benefits as our economy is not self-sustained. There is no productive sector in manufacturing. Our inflated prices are due to imported inflation. The best thing to do is to get rid of the MMD.
The lazy chaps from Angola came and settled in North Western Province.
The lazy chaps from Congo DR settled in Luapula.
The lazy chaps from Tanzania – Nothern Province.
The lazy chaps from Malawi – Eastern Province.
The lazy chaps from Zimbabwe – Southern Province.
So Zambia its made up of docile people and cowards. Thats why neighbouring countries will always progress better that Zambia
Nature of Zed you are right # 43
One province is a product of most theifs in Zambia
#41 Are you being groomed by the terrorists to distabilise Zambians?Your head is sick so you can’t see beyond your neighbours fence.SHAME
Zambia was on the cliff of being privatised.Next time be careful which thief you choose to run National affairs.
Surely i wonder why they have quickly jumped on Kaunda leaving Chiluba himself, any way lets wait and see.
Ignorance will surely be punished for. There is no excuse for ignorance. Be it in the home, school, couts of law, heaven or even in hell.
Please do some research before making useless comments.
Ati iyayi sinazibe zamene nenze kuchita.
Ngena, Tiza yasha!
Mu court zi kalala.
Iwe, wenze kuyiba naba ndani?
Iyayi bosses nenze nekha.
Manje, ndalama unadia naba ndani?
Bosses, nekha chabe.
(Sentence)- Chingeneseni muchinfungo, china kaso mangi.
Mu court zi kalala.
Iwe, wenze kuyiba naba ndani?
Iyayi bosses nenze nekha.
Manje, ndalama unadia naba ndani?
Bosses, nekha chabe.
(Sentence)- Chingeneseni muchinfungo, china kaso maningi.
Bo Inonge!!! It’s not about how much was transacted. It’s the principle involved. We should learn sometime from such cases because they do happen even in our small tender committees we sit to decided who should get which contract. This is a straight forward case and should not bring about your cries! In business law, the contract is void if the company is non existence (there was no company at the time Kaunda awarded the contract to Kabwe).
#43, and to which lazy group do you belong? May I remind you that no one is born lazy, but circumstances make people what they are. Anyway, I hope we all learn that no one is above the law and we all reap what we sow.
Kaunda”s daughter is here in ATL and drives BMW’s without a job.
Its about time some of these *****s were jailed, bafingili balya sana tikki yapa zed.
Two years ya chepa sana?for Dagger or Marijuana they give more years.It’s high time the judges changed the length of the sentence after all ba ma mbala they have made the economy very difficult to adjust to Umulandu wa bungo.Sangwa can appeal so that he canget more money and put it back into circulation in time to help out on BOZ issues.I am very happy let him appeal so that they should slap a longer sentence atase bantala misoka balaonaula Icalo.
#53. Every man is lazy untill he realises the reason not to be.
Every human being is like a big resistor, and some force has to be applied to him to make him work.
You “The Nature of Zambians” (your name) are showing that you are yourself retarded. Essentially saying all Zambians are lazy is what will make our children have low self-esteem and low level of success. It is interesting that they got Francis Kaunda for only that “small offence”. Also, two years is so little. Car thieves are jailed for 5 or 7 years. The problem in Zambia is that prosecutions are laregly political and so are the sentences. Remember how the Bulaya case was off and on?
#41
sICK FOOLISH PIMP
Francis Kaunda has been used as a scape Goat!! Say it the way you want. Bottom line is, some people in goverment are using him as an example which in itself is cheap. The gravity of the case does not compare to some of the cases that are still lingering around. If anything, no one is immune from corruption in as far Zambian politics are concerned. Jail Francis Kaunda, then what? Distraction is a key political tool and it is playing well in Zambia at the moment. The biggest corrupt people at the moment are the ones preaching anti-corrupt sermons!!!
2 yrs is not in syncrony with the offence, should have been > 5yrs. To avoid a single judge melting out a sentence on an individual of high profile, Zambia should learn to use the jury; has advantages- less time lost, impartial, cheap and no gradge to an individual judge.
Other cases in court should have judgements passed, long overdue. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Even if Kaunda is 70, you sleep with dogs and wake up with fleas. Being greedy by stealing, lying, and duping the hard working Zambian, will eventually catch up. A big man like that should have known better, this is a prime example. “Money IS THE ROOT OF EVIL.” He fell in the trap and is brought down as a criminal.
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
Francis Kaunda was always corrupt. Even in the Kaunda days. He was shielded by Kaunda because he would readily divert ZCCM money to UNIP ventures. Who doesn’t remember Cobaltgate, Memacogate etc? He is going to die with a thief label, no more Board positions! Kaunda’s sentence is certainly too little but he is a proven thief now. I wonder why Shamutete has survived – getting Chester House for a song! Asset strippers of ZCCM!
Chiluba startin runnning the clock is ticking!!
Fellow Zedians, Some of you chaps who are supporting Francis Kaunda are ignorant of what was happenning in ZCCM. I worked for ZCCM and Francis Kaunda and his friends mismanaged the mining company.There were people like Chileshe who used to live in Kitwe and used to fly everyday by a ZCCM jet to his office in Lusaka. During my ZCCM days, they were times when we earned a bonus but were not paid coz the money was diverted to UNIP. Francis Kaunda deserves to go to jail and I feel no sympathy for him as a former ZCCM employee
#62 For the love of money is the route of all evil.Mukazi #54 that chick check out long time ago
Its FJT we want. No amount of “smoke and mirrors” diversionary cases will satisfy the need for the chief rappist of zambias coffers to be sent down.
kwasala tubene Amon sibande ka?? iye ine manta
Who’s next?
Oh, what vanity does to men! FK’s own vanity has swallowed him & what a shame that a man with such a distinguished career, can have all that erased by petty greed. Inonge(#5), don’t let your petty emotions cloud your common sense. I too, was priveledged to benefit from KK’s socialist principles via ZCCM, but that’s not the issue here! Francis Kaunda went to bed with jackals & hyena’s and now as the saying goes, $hit has finally hit the fan! I bet Aaron Chungu, Katele & FJT are now $hitting in their pants, their best bet is for Levy to die & either Sata or Katele take over power…
…
???
The problem is that these guys will be released after 16 months or maybe get a presidential pardon depending on behaviour. Thereafter, they will come out and now use those billions freely because after the jail terms no one is going to ask them where they are getting the money to enjoy themselves.
So I would propose that in such cases which involve billions, the culprits should go for life imprisonment so as not to come out and dig out sacks of money they had buried underground, or they should be hanged until pronounced stablly dead.
It does not matter the amount involved, a thief is a thief. If FK was caught in selling the school, how much did he get from selling other ZCCM assets.Valentine Chitalu is now one of the richest men in Zambia-has anyone asked the source of these funds and investments, Task Force you need to look at more of these guys. Its good as a judgement but more needs to be done, go after all the crooks, by the way two years is lenient,anyway these two will be welcomed at Chimbokaila…..
These pipo must have lined their pockets nicely and with the best silks only for things to go the wrong way – i ask dear bloggers how can u be rich on poor pipos’ money???????????????
Quite frankly, I think two years imprisonment is short given that both these men clearly have access to vast amounts of wealth for which the sources are dubious. Give me a government job any day if it means that it will yield me such astronomical sums of wealth.
I fear that this short period of imprisonment has merely been given to divert our attention away from the true magnitude of these criminals’ careers in plundering the nations coffers, as well as to show that some form of “justice” has been meted out, thereby placating those who bay out for the blood of the criminals.
#62, Money is not the root of all evil. It is the LOVE of money.
Any criminal caught is good but it is the biased prosecution. To avoid prosecution you have to be well-conneced or be a woman. If you are unlucy and you are a woman accused with men (Babe Stella) then you might be prosecuted. Case in point: Dr Mwangala Beatrice Kamuwanga, formerly UNZA lecturer, formerly Executive Director Law Development Commission (contract terminated) and soon thereafter Secretary of the Judicial Complaints Authority (no longer there). A report about the Law Commission showed that she committed offences (abuse of office and paying herself for doing a consultancy for the organisation for which she worked) but she was never prosecuted. Olo ni woman libaleshoni?
#77 If money wasn’t there how would you love it?
#79, Money is not there to be loved. It is very safe to love God and your neighbour.
Hope this will serve to inform wrong doers that every wrong activity will be rewarded with just purnishment!
Though the sentence is not long enough to make them feel guilty of the offence committed, let’s hope they will not be legally permitted to provide consultancy services after they have served their sentence(s). They really acted like con artists by not following a clear laid out tender procedure. What we need are people of high integrity to do business in Zambia it be private or government related. All with little or no education must work towards that. When you see or witness a wrong being done, report it to the right authority for investigation. Yes, we can attain the goal if we all work together.
He will at liberty soon. All he needs to do is appeal and he will be a free man like Bulaya. We are just being taken for fools by the powers that be.
…
Kaunda used his brother Chad to embezzle billions. Chad owns the building that used to house the defunct Access Financial Services. Kwasala Aaron Chungu, FJT & Katele manje…
These guys are all guilty. Shansonga (brother to Stanchart MD Mizinga) is hiding like a rat with his family in London while his baby mama, Naomi, is in Zed with the kid? Xavier Chungu is constantly watching his back like a kwindi kojo, yet these guys were the ‘Dons’ back in the day? What goes around comes back around indeed…!
I hope this is a good example to the rest of the thieves. That is why we need LPM to come back. At least LPM resigned in 93 because he could not stand the corruption.
# 87 Shidada wa Dada tell them mwana.
#87 Are you sure of what you are talking “He could not stand the corruption” but its the same corrupt money that ascended him to the presod in 1996!
Who was the lawyer for Isa Galedu and who got his property when he was deported?
These bali’s will be raped in remand! i.e they will lose their a$$ virginity hahaha Bukabolala does not pay. I wonder why these chaps are all members of St Ignatius Catholic Church in Lsk? pls stop giving the church a bad label, people will think all members are crooks!
Mischief #91, you’ve got a twisted sense of humour, I don’t know whether to laugh or cringe with disgust…?
#54 you’re clearly stuck in the past. His daughter doesn’t live in ATL no more and she had a really good job when she lived there. Get your facts straight from people close to her or myself before you place any comments–don’t forget there’s cyber law and you can be sued!
I see ignorance is gigantic amongst most commentators on this blog.
Get reading people…it helps you understand politics deeply and the reasons why the corruption game is high in Zambia and most of Africa. Donor money and benefits is all this regime want therefore, they need to please the donor in whatever way possible. Even if it means dragging people through the mud-
Next is Mabenga and HH. HH was also involved in privatization programs and he benefited as an individual so much.
Kaunda should “sell the family silver” he he