MAUREEN Mwanawasa, wife of late President Levy Mwanawasa, represented a prospective gold buyer, but has stated that the connection was not sinister in anyway as the ‘golden triangle’ unravels.
“I represented one of the people that were interested in buying the gold,” the former First Lady, a Lusaka lawyer from Mwanawasa and Company said, “We gave a South African client the necessary advice and got our fees for the job…that is all we did.”
Mrs Mwanawasa identified the client as a Mr Moto Mabanga who could not meet the sale criteria stipulated by the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) which required the interested party to buy the entire 118 kilogrammes of gold at once.
“Our client just wanted part of the gold and not the entire amount,” Mrs Mwanawasa said, “We just provided the necessary legal documents at Mwanawasa and Company. That is all I know about the gold. I went to see Mr Zulu at DEC with our client’s offer and later he called us to say our client did not qualify to buy the gold.”
The gold with a present day value of about US$6 million or K32 billion was ostensibly sold at US$4 million after being seized from two Zimbabweans. Former President, Rupiah Banda and his former press assistant Dickson Jere recently in Lusaka and Mfuwe met a Swiss man, Nicolae Buzaianu, who is believed to have bought the gold.
Mr Jere did not answer his phone more than three times yesterday when the Daily Mail called him. He is said to be in South Africa on business. The Swiss man has asked Mr Sakwiba Sikota of Central Chambers to sue the Zambian government and demand US$100 million for being linked to the gold but President Sata, who cannot be sued as a head of State has instead challenged Buzaianu, 42, to come to Zambia and “explain” himself if he is not tainted.
The President who has embarked on a spirited campaign against corruption that has won him kudos locally and internationally also disclosed that the Swiss man whom he stripped of diplomatic status at UNESCO in Paris is on a DEC “watch-list.”
Mystery surrounds how the gold was sold while in DEC custody but information reaching the Daily Mail suggests that the seized gold excited lots of top government officials leading to an abortive attempt to switch it for fake bullion while it was still in DEC custody. The attempt to switch the gold for fake bullion was thwarted by a named female senior DEC official.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
Now now, let the truth come out and make sure those who stole from the zambian people go to jail
which kudos baffikala ba daily mail naimwe,namutampako apa pane.
More to come out on this stupid scandle
Kudos to the named female senior DEC official
so who bought the gold.. i guess pf is feeling pretty f00lish for accusing buzaianu. the least they can do is apologise to the guy. I cant wait for yet another mcs u-turn. bane that guy is super rich!! dont mess with him..
Please learn to read properly before commenting. Mrs Mwanawasa’s client did not but the Gold. Buzaianu confessed to being part of the transaction.
Kudos my foot!!
People, for once can we look at it from another angle. The much talked about gold was confisicated material. So much hala balu of Gold you never worked for in the first place.
Get a life
In what capacity?
Maureen has such ugly feet and yet she was using Govt. money to purchase $1000 shoes in NY city.
get a life, it was her choice, let us see your feet
So lawyers were involved in this gold thing. meaning it was not a secret deal. How can RB have been involved in such a straight foward embarrassing thing?……Moreen is a lawyer. Can she be brought into dark hour deals?
Adada you misssing the point anything brought into the country dubiously once caught becomes the property of GRZ period, Mrs Mwanawasa s hands are clean no wonder same chaps are feeling the heat now.
Don’t ever let loose anybody that will be found guilty. People must learn something from this.
So contrary to stories that there was only one buyer, Maureen is confirming representing another buye who failed to meet criteria, was this fact told to our president?
leaders must not be over excited they would plunge this country into chaos.advisors of the president must always hold a whip in their hands
please forgive mr. sata, he is still in a euphoric mood.
Ba daily mail reporter learn to be analytical in your reporting. How can you compare the current price that the Gold is valued at with the price when it was sold trying to paint a picture that it was undervalued. If you want to see whether it was sold at a good price or not. Check what the London metal Exchange price of gold was at the time it was sold then compare with what it was sold at. This whole Goldgate scandal is quite embarassing. I think whoever told the president something gave him half baked information. A police officer got dismissed for no proper reason such a shameful act.
So whats all the hullabaloo about buying confiscated gold.As Adada #7 has said it was’t even gold we worked for.Shouldn’t Zimbabwe be the one asking for the whereabouts of its gold? I think the president shouldn’t have spoken too soon.
Country men, such deals are a loophole for corruption. Other people like Maureen and her “client” could have been used to make the deal look above board. The question for Maureen and DEC is how come this Moto Mabanga and The Swiss kneww about the Gold sell yet we the Zambians did not? where was it advertised? Journalists in Zambia so dull. This is the kind of question they should did out answers. Who ever bought, how did that inidvidual know about the Gold? The papers we gave out could be used to traffic in Gold around the world. we are an insane country with poor Journalists who cant even cover war in Afghanistan.
you are very dull!!! if you’ve followed this case you will know that the gov advertised the gold in all its foreign missions.
let thm b jailed.
This is totally embarrassing. There is no scandal involving gold and the whole matter was straight forward. The former First Lady should not even worry about this. I have checked the LME prices for the time the gold was sold and there was no reason for President Sata to get excited.
Zambians are silly..why fight over 118kgs of gold when Zambia has gold in all the provinces which only needs to be processed..Copperbelt, western sourthen central province and eastern all have gold reserves. Zambians wake and go and dig the gold and become a rich country. this shows how shallow minded the nation has become. Mumbwa itself has plent of gold…..
Bob doe,
i agree with you, the President should have done some private investigations before making statements in Public. We know he wants to embarrass his Friend at all costs but i think there are better and less embarrassing ways of doing it. By trying to embarrass RB, he is also embarrassing himself by issuing statements on unverified facts. It’s a shame.
The MTN promotion ain’t BEEG. Somebody BEEG needs to make a BEEG APOLOGY to Buzaianu, Rupiah Banda, James Banda Likolo Ndalemie and Dickson Jere. NOW THATS BEEEEG!!!!!.
The Buzaianu – Bwezani gold axis is something that will end up embarrassing the current president!
We don’t know half the story. We just get bits and pieces of what could have happened and run with it. I believe H E knows.
Give time to investigations then we can conclude if the someone jumped the gun…..but one question though, how come the selling of this gold was only known about by foreigners and the so-called “top” people pa Zed??? Why didn’t the govt stock up this gold as part of our reserves? or auctioned it directly on the LME?? I guess people were looking for cuts as middle-men, after all that was the main occupation from the RB era….
So who really knows the truth on this matter? its confusing! today we hear this, tomorrow that!
just apologize to buzianu, cobra’s verbal diarrhea will land this country in serious shit one day, even worse it may lead to war with another country. may god deliver us, chipimo get ready for 2016.
There’s too much ..huh!!arrest the chaps..Maureen kudos up!
I feel for Mhlakeni Zulu the officer dismissed for allowing the “fugitive” to land into Zambia and not arresting him. He has lost the job over nothing and someone continues to to be rhetoric saying he will create jobs and more money in our pockets which should translate into food on the table,enough for schools for children, orphans under our care, children from bamayo mukalamba, bayama, my young sister who was impregnated and left to fend for the child and then brought into my home. Zambians what am saying is the firing of an innocent police officer has led to many a people suffering down the line who depended on Mhlakeni. MCS cool down gather enough data and let the institutins whose responsibility is to look into such matters do their job and esteblish facts.
nkhani yalula. so all has been exposed.
Iwe ka Nubian so called princess. Shut up! This is not about shoes and someones feet. Are you jealous about our intelligent mum? Be serious.
Don’t kudabwa !!
Sata should be impeached if this Swiss man successfully sues Zambia for$100m defamation of character.You dont just shout over legal issues as this.Hwe should have investigated better.He had the time and rsources to do so
Politicians are stubborn and sometimes ill informed creatures. Someone some where knows the story of the gold but bali nzeeee. Skimming I am ba mambala
#31 If your intelligent mum did her checks properly there would be have not been any questions raised.I have done English law and may be there are some major differences when taking up a client.I have to check that there is no money laundering issues involved etc.The way this gold sale was handled raises a lot of questions.If she was practicing here in the UK her licence would have been evoked pending investigations by SRA.
Hope all of you who voted the current president in are effin pleased with yourselves. How many mistakes is this guy gonna make? This is embarassing. He should learn to read and consult yaba. coming out with half baked stories wanting to look all tough. In eastern province we say ‘Andione andione, nyandule anagwela muthobwa’. This guy will land us in hot soup.
In the first place, the Gold was not ours and by selling it, we made a very big mistake. The Zimbabwean Government should have been consulted if they knew anything on the Gold before selling it. i hope these channels were exhausted. Our President also should learn to handle issues professionally and not just shouting on top of his voice even when information is still scattered. He should have allowed the Police to investigate quietly without us knowing and only give a statement later.I agree with Zioneke that the Police chief he hurriedly fired has a long list of families looking up to him and i find it inhuman for anyone to take pleasure in such actions.It’s not only the Police officer who has been fired but also his uncles, nephews,etc.
honestly i do not care..
Mrs. Mwanawasa identified her client as a Mr. Moto Mabanga “We just provided the necessary legal documents at Mwanawasa and Company. That is all I know about the gold. I went to see Mr. Zulu at DEC with our client’s offer and later he called us to say our client did not qualify to buy the gold.”
Interesting stuff this. I didn’t know Mrs. Mwanawasa knows everything about Gold. Otherwise how come she went to DEC on her own without the experts in precious metals evaluation??? Who is Mr. Moto Mabanga? Did he have a certificate to purchase and hold the Gold as it is a requirement by South African Law or was he to purchase the Gold and sell it on the black market? Which company does he come from?
It’s not about knowing about gold,Mrs Mwanawasa is a lawyer and for certain transactions you need a lawyer,in this case that Moto Mabanga engaged Mwanawasa and Company where Mrs Mwanawasa is a Senior Partner and representative, not that Mwanawasa and Company or Mrs Mwanawasa are gold traders or they should know about gold,they were engaged to prepare bidding paperwork on behalf of her client a gold trader or interested buyer who may have already seen the gold himself anyway.
There seems to be FOUR investigations going on here:
1. DEC.
2. State House.
3. Daily Mail.
4. Zambia Police.
What is going on? Mrs Mwanawasa is a lawyer and she has every right to represent a client. So people should stop trying to smear this honourable and learned lady.
So where is the Cash for the gold that was sold?
Why dismiss the police officer?Not knowing how the security wings operate, but surely there should have been an arrest order or is it a warrant to arrest Dr.Buzaianu.If he did not excute rightfully issued arrest warrant then he deserves a dismissal for incompetence.If he did not have such orders then he was unfairly dismissed.This amounts to interfering with work of the police service.In the event that he was unfairly dismissed any options to reinstate him? Any one with a comment on how the poor police man can get his job back.
kudos to which female officer? why do you like believing fictitious stories? look, which one is true? that the gold was sold or that the gold was exchanged for a fake bullion? nonsense. the gold was sold. the money was used to pay teachers, doctors and nurses housing allowance arrears and the remainder is in government custody
There’s a big rat smelling here. I see even this Swiss swendler will be ashamed. You call him Bogodan?l am reading a novel . Ba formal first lady is also another charactor in it. ZAMBIANS ! Ba mambaala! My God ! I miss Rb on this one. At ‘yamunyokolo injaala,’ mwanawaibwa’.ke,ke,ke,ke,ke,ke!
South Africa is one of the world’s largest producers of gold and this South African Moto Mabanga comes to ‘buy’ gold from Zambia? Is this what they call regional trade cooperation? Mrs Mwanawasa must not forget that Zambians will always suspect her to have been involved in scandals for a long time. One day the truth about this gold business will come out and many people will be held to account.
Maureen is trying to be economical with the truth…She surely knows more than these two sentences …Very soon dots and footpaths will lead to RB and James…So Maureen got the fees for driving to DEC and Back to her home..So Moto paid the fees or GRZ…this is corruption at every turn…lol..alabwafwa pa Zed..
The selling of Gold by the RB led administration through DEC is surely corrupt as a clean trail would have easily been seen, if the gold was sold in a clean manner. The people of Zambia would have been the first to know as the gold should have been openly auctioned as is the case when GRZ confiscates vehicles and owners forfeit them to the state. The Gold scam will all shortly come to light and the deal making RB and Sons will be so much in sh!t! Maureen, if you as nearly came near this dirty deal, you will surely regret!
Can someone check that Mr Buzaianu on equifax or experian?
just checked the guy’s credit repo is…..
Guys, the fact is that the gold was sold chaeply and to add salt to the wound, the money was shared among the the thieves ( RB and company), the money was not put in the Zambian coffer? But RB was a thief sure. Just jail these thieves, they never respected Zambians but foreigners…useless people were they……atase bane.
it seems most bloggers here havent followed this case. this Gold scandal is a done deal, what we should wait for is Sata to start another rumour. im sure Guy Scot was reffering to Sata when he was talking about kachepa. a president with the command of all intelligence agencies failing to make an educated statement.
There was an article on The Post this morning with a different view of this issue. It was predominantly talking about the corrupt manner in which this case was handled. I don’t
Did someone save that?
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT A MOTO NAME EXISTS IN ZAMBIA. NEVER HEARD OF SUCH A NAME. FICTITIOUS MAYBE???
“In a judgment dated January 22, 2010, then acting Chief Justice Irene Mambilima and Supreme Court judges…
The three justices upheld the magistrates’ court jailing of the two and ordered the forfeiture of the gold.
“We want to say that this case generated a lot of interest from certain members of the society who thought they would help the respondents by offering all kinds of gifts and promising much more if we ruled in their favour,” Judges Mambilima, Silomba and Chibomba wrote in the judgment.
“This behaviour must be condemned in the strongest terms as it is an act in contempt of court in that it is calculated to interfere with..” The Post online
is it true thios woman likes young boys? i am hung and ready. yes walai is back. LT bafikala u have decided to block me at any cost and yet leave that demented donkey called mushota. i knwo mushota is the attention seeking and marketing fake person u have deviced to atteact people to this site. before her i was doing that for you, but u cudnt handle criticism. where is ka gelo ka daisy?
There is no government auction of any confiscated goods that sells stuff at or even near the market price. The nature of auctions is to get rid of stuff quickly without the administrative costs. In UK I know of people who buy luxury motor vehicles confiscated by Customs for a song. The GRZ did not spend any money to produce the gold so why should it profit from it? GRZ sells in order to recoup legal and administration costs, and not to make a profit.
How many mistakes did RB make? Chansa kabwela, RP, Zamtel,….let sata also make his mistakes. Which president never made a mistake? Chiluba and privatisation, we still have not recovered fully. RB in 3 years had an endless list blunders. All you loosers on this site leave sata alone to work!!!!! he’ll leave zambia alot better than the last president who thot he was a president for all zambians!!!!
you are talking from yo an.us. u are burping faece particles
@ Mr. Dont Kubeba, privatisation was no mistake, KK’s governemnt could not afford to pay bills as they fell due. They could not even pay miners their wages.