Former minister of Lands, Reverend Gladys Nyirongo, yesterday pleaded not guilty to two counts of corruption.
She was recently arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and made her first appearance before a Lusaka Magistrate Court yesterday.
In the first count, it is alleged that Rev Nyirongo, between January 1 and February 22 this year, being a person, employed in the public service, as minister of Lands, did direct a lands officer to generate offer letters of land in Lusaka’s Foxdale and Chamba Valley to 10 people.
In the second count, it is alleged that between October 1, 2006 and February 28, 2007, Rev Nyirongo, as minister of Lands abused her position by directing a junior technical officer in the ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to sub-divide a former Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM), farm number F/309a in contravention of the land alienation procedures and created property number L/1943/M which she later obtained as her own.
Magistrate Sharon Newa, adjourned the matter to July 19, 2007 for possible start of the trial.
Rev Nyirongo is on a K10 million bond signed in her own recognisance.
President Mwanawasa fired her in March this year for allocating eight pieces of land to herself, husband, son and daughters.
Her husband and other sympathisers accompanied Rev Nyirongo to the court.
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Reverend, what happened.This is supposed to be a christian nation!
How can surely someone plead no guilty when facts are there. I think ba Rev. nomba kupena. Bushe kanofye bamusanga red handed elyo mwingasumina. Mulekwatako insoni ba Rev. wesu. Twalemona ati muli ba ku churh awe kanshi muli bamuchalao. I dedicate Rev. Nyirongo the song by “Danny” – Champion.
Is the title ‘Reverend’ for keeps even when a person’s morals are compromised? Just wondering how Mrs. Nyirongo will manage to preach at her church the commandment ‘Thou shall not steal’ without her congregants raising eyebrows. But then, maybe she owns that church, so it won’t be an issue! This is where I’ve a problem with most of these ‘tuntemba’ churches which are mushrooming all over.
This is an embarrasing case not only to the president but to the entire nation. The Rev was supposed to lead by example. Why is it that high ranking official are only charged with office abuse after leaving the office? It shows that there is lack of checks and controls in the public service. If a minister can be corrupt, what about her/his subordinates. Iam sure a lot of ministers of got away with it. Control measures should be put in place so that corrupt ministers and senior civil servants are caught before they leave the office.
Well well Rev,What do you have to say.NOT GUILTY.Ah your from the church?
Only the truth shall set you free Prophet Nyirongo
“Appostle” Nyirongo you were busy stealing instead of preaching. You were even praying before giving yourself title deed. Now the same God has brough your under-dealings in the light. Shemuneni ba Nyitongo bane, Shame.
You should be heaviyly fined or jailed. You are a thieve mama Nyirongo. Tamumfwako fye nensoni. Shame on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
USA
The writing has always been on the wall: remember the way the reverend dumped Brig. Gen. Miyanda’s party and caused a by-election in Kabwe when she crossed over to MMD. She showed then how weak she was on principle. I have always been suspicious of these types who attend a theologicacal course by correspondence for 6 months, graduate with a dodgy diploma, found a church of which they are senior pastor and treasurer and from then on they are reverend!
K1.9 trillion transactions unexplained at BoZ, Finance
THE Office of the Auditor General’s report of 2005 has revealed unexplained balances of more than K1.9 trillion between Bank of Zambia (BoZ) and the ministry of Finance and National Planning headquarters.
Auditor General, Annie Chifungula, disclosed in Solwezi during a tour of North-Western Province that K1, 976,080,583,818 was not tallying between BoZ and the ministry of Finance.
She said this on Wednesday when her delegation met provincial heads of Government departments.
She told departmental heads that her delegation was not in the province to find faults, but to help resolve issues before they reached the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
“You are the key persons as you initiate payments before controlling officers come in.
Let us resolve issues before they reach Public Accounts Committee, which has been very active this year,†she said.
Ms Chifungula said her tour of provinces was also to learn from the officers because some questions from the Public Accounts Committee sometimes seemed embarrassing as issues that should have been resolved were left unanswered.
In agreeing with a call for the strengthening of the internal audits in Government departments in North-Western Province, Ms Chifungula said it was a pity that while there were no shortages of auditors in Lusaka, other regions were understaffed.
She bemoaned how some auditors when transferred from Lusaka resigned to join private companies.
Ms Chifungula suggested that recruitment of staff should be localised.
When North-Western Provincial director of health, George Liabwa, asked if time management was also audited, to which Ms Chifungula answered that time was considered during performance audits.
When asked how late banking should be dealt with, the Auditor General said it was unacceptable for some officers to take as long as four months to bank State funds.
“There is no such place where it takes four months to get to a bank,†she said.
Provincial Permanent Secretary, Richard Salivaji, appealed to the heads of department to follow guidelines in the release of funds, saying the Government ran on systems.
[Times of Zambia]
Paris – Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso on Thursday denounced a French investigation into the origin of funds used by himself and four other African leaders to buy homes in France.
He called the probe “rather shameful and sad”.
Paris prosecutors opened an investigation in mid-June after two NGOs, Sherpa and Survie, alleged that the leaders or their families used embezzled funds to buy their property in France.
“If this affair did not have the whiff of colonialism… racism and provocation, it would have died on its own,” the Congo president said.
The probe will look at the African leaders’ homes in Paris
“All the leaders of the world have chateaux and palaces in France, whether they are from the Gulf, Europe, Africa,” Sassou-Nguesso said following a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy that centered on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
The probe will look at the African leaders’ homes in Paris and on the French coast to determine who owns them.
Investigators are looking at the assets in France of Gabon’s President Omar Bongo, Sassou-Nguesso, Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma of Equatorial Guinea and Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
Under French law, foreign heads of state are immune from prosecution but that protection does not necessarily apply to their families. – Sapa-AP
11# kuku mudaala there have been even death in this scandal the french court is asking for compansention on behave of the family who late body. Its seems he knew about the Cong president and his family he ended up being killed. Just go to Monaco if you want to know who banks money there or who owns what in France. Anyway who are you to be allowed to go in. This is a reason why Germans have made a law which spitulates that anyone who has taken money away he had to bring it back by December 2005 or face proscution. Many have returned the money and nothing has been done to them because it has helped to boost the economy. No ifwe it is the lion of Africa.
#12 Easy stealing in Africa has become a qualificaion not a hobby.I think something must be done to prevent such Kleptomania type of leadership.May be in addition to free services pay them a good package like the western countries do i.e PM in britain gets £116,000 p.a in addition to all those fringe benefits so that they are not tempted to steal.Its good the west have started to realise that dirt money has contributed to their economies.
Over our reverlands I dont what to say it seems the thought FTJ how to steal. The only difference is there they have been so professional like Dr. Mumba and Dany Pule. Chiluba was donating to churches and these two were collect the money for their immoral agendas. systematic way of stealing without being caught. For Rev. she learn from the hare but she forgot that she a hyena hence being caught. She will suffer if she is not care. She must quickly seek advice from Mama Nakatindi she has more experience how to reconcile.
#13 Its not paying them well that will stop them from stealing. You pay them well and they will continue stealing. The best way of preventing them from stealing in by “hunging” until pronouced dead those who are found wanting. That way they will be scared. As for simple stealing by civil servants, make a law that will put the culprits behind bars for LIFE.
#13kuku I will always and again say this we need incentives for our leaders to give them security aftermath. MPs who manage to serve two terms shoud qualify for life pension. 2. opposition mps in parliament must be on governement salaries. on the other hand anyone committing offences as stealing public funds should go in for a minimum of 25 years like in the states. In some countries if you work at an airport you treated differently and in case you committe an offence your punishment is higher than that of a normal citizen. We must do something. I know in some countries to cub stealing they have diet allowances for their MPs. They are allowed to get extra money to a certain level the rest they have to declare. Everyone has a taxe card even for those who dont work.
Too bad for the lady. But gentlemen how do all these ministers past and present, obtain their farms. I bet very few of them passed through the ‘normal’ land allienation procedures. I hope it is not just use of an individual as a sacrificial lamb. LPM’s daughter is said to be on the list of pipo who did not even apply for land normally but was given a plot in Lusaka. When querried someone says “no, it could be that she was being compensated for a plot that may have been erronously given to someone else etc”. I think fairness should be the norm and not just vindictiveness. But of course if she did what is said to have happened, then we should let the court process take it’s course.Personally I have been to both councils and ministry of lands, and the “confusion” or corruption that is there is just immense. There is need for a clean up but of course not punishing one individual but all who involve themeselves this. Even junior officers who sit on pipo’s files waiting to be given something
MK(Windhoek) # 3,
I share your pain and shame over the Church today. The Madam Nyirongo is indeed a serving Reverend with the sheep she shepherds. But look at her ways! The Church has been infiltrated by immoral woofs and failures of the changed times we are in. It’s a challenge for everyone to be involved in correcting the dangerous scam on pulpits. There is no more reverence for the same sovereign God the church ought to fear. Remember the Ndola prophetic pastors and their third term prophesies? Shamelessly they pushed on until the almighty and unfailing God shamed them as woofs peddling lies using his name. Today they have run away from Chiluba. In the absence of the envelopes, Chiluba stinks in their mind now. He is a leper they have all run away from with their prophecies. The Prophecies went with the death of the 3rd term. They have all run into the Diaspora with majority I hear turned into sexual predator on the old Western women in hospices and last moments of hopelessness. Some are rumored to have turned into hardcore thieves and conmen on unsuspecting churches in the west. As if that is not enough, last year I met another crook that turned himself into a shameless MMD cadre openly crying for a job from GRZ after economic failures with dependency on his working wife then with ZESCO. I am talking of a provable crook and failure I have ever seen. This crook organized some Nigerian apostles into Lusaka who instantly ordained him as Bishop and Doctor of Divinations on the spot. MMD irregularly posted him at the Zedian Embassy in Brussels, Belgium. He abandoned his Church. While in Belgium as the ever-shortest serving support administration staff, he offered his soul to the US based outlaw KKK group in Connecticut through phones and emails. At the complaints of Belgium, Levy kicked him out. He since sort the support of his KKK brotherhood club members to ship invite him into Connecticut. Such my friend, are woofs predominantly the loudest in the Church. Thus, I am not stunned with Rev. Nyirongo. The Church has been overtaken by woofs God forbid.
I think we have a serious problem in the politics of our country. Politics is serious serous business and cardinal to the running of any nation and the tragedy in our country, it has been left to simple and *****ic men and women in our country. The system does not just support a situation where the best men and women of our country have a go in managing or running our political system.
All these cadres with no idea of what it means to serve just aspire for power so that they can have the opportunity to raid the national coffers and that explains why Nyirongo ditched Miyanda. Am Christian and my heart breeds to see how these people carrying such a great brand just bring it into shame. You can’t go into politics to become rich. We need to break this cycle. You go there to give. If you want to be rich & great, do what Jesus said-BE A SERVANT OF ALL. Bill Gates is rich because he is my servant. Am using the soft he gave me to easily do my thing-blog! And same for many others.
Good #17 Joe the war has just started the problem is we are still using customery laws and leasing laws of 1955 which the colonial masters left. we have to upgrade these laws for us to utilise our land. Around Lusaka there is plenty of land which not being used. We should start developing it instead of quarelling of small plots in the heart of lusaka. Those officers who are corrupted we need to give them a grace period to finish formalities who once you apply for land. If you cannot meet the deadline they then liable of proscution as far as I know at the lands ministry its the only place where there is no queuing. I hope and believe in a the technological world we can used computers to speed up land processing procedures. I know the ministry has the equipment we have to make use of it.
Just how shall we clean up our political systems and keep out all these simple men/women? Or do I just give up and hope father time & critical mass takes care of the situation? It’s frustrating folks. We have a great nation and great people. The politicians and the political system really sucks big time. Maybe my grand kids will fix this-wrong attitude though. I can’t just pass the buck, I guess.
Start sending them to jail because in Zambia we dont have politicans who have tested imprisonment. If we do this then they will wake up. Even those who are aspring to leadership will think twice before filing nomination. The crusade has just started. Our courts is one dirty systems. Cases drug and appeals and appeals. We need judges like Smith who throw away such appear. Dr. Bulaya where is he. He was convicted because he has the money he is outside and a normal Zambia who maybe didnt even committe any offence he is in suffering
It simply shows that reverends are vulnerable to material wealth too, what a shame.
Another ‘Bishop’ in emersdale who had become addicted to FTJs brown envelopes vigorously called for regime change in the run-up to elections last year in the hope that the new leader will “put money in his pocket’.
Anne Chifungula do your officers also audit churches? Extend this exercise to churches they have millions they cannot account for. Once preacher start calling for change just know his coffers are empty he wants more money, but will they declare how they use these monies we given them freely. You can imagine every sunday you going to church you leave some kwachas in some churches we thouands. These churches ministers who cannot even take care of street kids. At least we could have appreciated.
Bwana Chanda Phiri (19 & 21),
Don’t you realise that mulibachiwelewele without a backborne to impact the real world? Real men don’t hide in the virtual world of blogs that have no audience of action players. Real men build the critical mass on the ground by tangibly driving the causes. They either make internal impacts on existing powers with whhat they believe it. Real men don’t just ramble for years when results on the ground are zero. May be because of your state of buweleweleness that’s why all opposing structures have turned mere rhetoric drums to these MMD guys. Even if MMD said today that go for it, finangwa like you will just be insulting each other in blogs if not ukwipayana. It takes alot to lead. Hard it been education only, MMD has it all.
I truly dont think its only Gladies in this mess, if a complete audit is done all former lands ministers could have acquired land corruptly!!!if one goes to kafue district council does an assessment you find that from town clerk to the cleaner, they have plenty of land . Most of the land in Chilanga, lusaka west is theres.Our fomer Lusaka major has plenty of land and even those councellors have plenty of land…Zambia is a corrupt country, very sticking corrupt.Use a normal way u wont get land…
Gladys its wrong to lie especially that you are a rev. u shame us all.
All these politicians who are inclined to the church are hypocrits and blindfolders. They committee their crimes in the name of God. Ng’andu, those prophetic third term wolves should assist their messiah FTJ pay back the money. They deserve to be jailed for their false prophecies and for trying mask their messiah to perpetuate the plunder.
I think this Times of Lusaka has no topics to bring. No wonder Kuku decided to bring his own subjects. Ins’t there anything better as a topic that can provoke blogging?
Thank you Kuku for giving us a brief on those important developing stories regarding african leaders.
Easy no.# how can u honestly suggest that.Politics will be a bloody game,life pension 4 Ministers!those characters will kill each other, think again man.
Bagwila kawalala muzmai wa church,nway it ws bound to happen anabwela ayamba kuzionesa muzmai
#28 Mwaice Nkhtaboy stories on Apostle Gladys are not news,LusakaTimes must find another way of dealing with these continuity cases otherwise the whole blog is now boring, they should bring challenging topics, even those that are open for general discussion not just events in Zambia.Topics such as should we Globalise labour?,issues surrounding brain drain,Can “Vanity” Lead to Global “Fair”ness?
etc not ifi ma irele naya ku ma order
I dedicate her a song sung by atanacio band ‘mwamona shita keyboard ati nalikwate cheichi…..bafwala bombasa ati nakwate cheichi’ Bukuku pwilishisheni ulwimbo ulo.
#32….na 4 corner shoes ya lexene ati nalikwata ichechi,we just need Sharia law mu Zambia, mwaice bushe naumona ama Trillions baleyangasha abantu mu Zambia, elo nishi Ndola Central tayakwata nama blankets,relatives to patients are being asked to bring blankets for the patients, calo cashani icabula planning?Nomba mwaice inga ufuma kukawama even where you are coming from blankets are a luxury you depend on fire to cover yourself or Vodka for people like Citizen to act as blanket what can you do when admitted?
I wish we can be busy bring good ideas of developing our great nation zambia, other than chiluba, now it is Banyirongo, tomorrow it will be ba dadi ba chuchu and his fellows, meanwhile the so called chaines plunders/investors whatever you call them, are busy explioting our people, pipo can we grow, talk about investments and developments please.
There`s no unviversally accepted and legally binding definition of corruptio.However there`s consensus that corruption is the abuse of power of office for private use.Zambian Anti Corruption Act which was enacted in 1980 defines it as the soliciting,accepting,obtaining,giving,promising or offering of a gratifacation by way of a bribe or other personal temptation of inducement or the misuse of public office for private advantage.It`s unfortunate that Nyirongo got entangled in this web but what worries me the most is the polical engineering going on behind the scene.The reason LPM gave for firing Nyirongo was because she reported the Lands Commissioner to the ACC and not to him.She`s basically is paying for being a whisle blower.If these guys are really serious about fighting Corruption,then why is LPM still hanging to the stollen 150 MMD vehicles and talk of LPM`s private confidants Katele(CEO MMD) and Mabenge(MMD National Chairman).ACC wake up and follow the Auditor General`s footsteps
‘Prof’Peter Kalumba Chishala was able to discern these ‘pastors’ correctly better than those of us with eyesight. But look how he was demonised for his hit song ‘ba pastor’ at the time. If he was still around, perhaps he would have taken it to another level. It’s a pity the church has been infiltrated by turn-coats. Its no wonder that the world has converted the church and not the other way round. These days, its like every failure is a pastor, with their own church (in yester-years, these were consigned to police work or nursing).
The other day I went to Mandawire Basic School along Burma Rd. Believe you me, every classroom was a church, with these highly charged characters almost bursting their vocal cords for attention. Who’s qualifying all these people……God? I doubt it. Can someone help shed a bit of light on this.
Windhoek are you in Lusaka?
Mutende, there are only three people now who use that ‘chuchu’ name on this blog, it has failed to stick. So its only used by ba jose, kuku and now yourself. Say hi to your uncles!
Its a disgrace to GOD for Rev Nyirongo to be summoned for a such a thing.Is she really a Rev or just a goat in a sheep skin?Christian of nowadays all they think of is joining politics then still from poor fellows but they forget that LESA nimaliotola.Shame Rev Nyirongo.
Ba Nyirongo, Lesa ni malyotola, alapela kabili apoka. Ba Nyirongo bafwayafye ati impupu nipakuboko. Mulapile ilyo inshita tailafika pantu Lesa akamukanda sana. Do what you preach, and preach what you do.
Are these churches ever embarrassed? Read this from ZNBC NEWS…….
‘Orphanage shocks minister
The Minister for Community Development was shocked Saturday when she discovered an Orphanage Centre in Lusaka’s Mtendere township which is keeping children in inhabitable conditions.
This occurred when Catherine Namugala paid a surprise visit to Jesus Care Ministries Orphanage.
She found children living in a deplorable state.
The orphanage has no proper sanitary conditions with toilets producing fetid stench.
The Minister was not happy with the way children the centre is being run.
Ms. Namugala said the orphanage does not meet minimum standards because it lacks all facilities.
The Minister said orphanages should look after children well because they get a lot of funding from donors and government’.