Opposition Democratic Party President Harry Kalaba has become the first former Minister to pay back to the treasury, the money he earned for illegally staying in Office after the dissolution of parliament in 2016.
The former Foreign Affairs Minister made the payment to the treasury today of K60, 434.88, according to bank deposit slips shared on social media.
Mr Kalaba is among the 64 Cabinet and Deputy Ministers the Constitutional Court ruled will pay back over K4.7 million to the treasury which they earned as salaries and allowances during their illegal stay in Office.
He has encouraged his colleagues to pay back the money and expressed hope the resources will be put to good use and not be abused by selfish politicians.
“Fellow Countrymen and women I am happy to announce to you today that as I pledged to the people of Zambia, that I am ready to pay back the salary that I and my fellow Ministers where paid in 2016 at the time we should have been out of office but continued to perform some official duties. I will not belabor the point of misinformation or poor guidance by the appointing authority but rather hasten to say that I have today honored that obligation,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
“I have over the last few years made it clear that upon being advised the account to deposit the funds in I will be the first to pay back. I am glad to inform you that I have today 15th December, 2020 redeemed that commitment by paying back what was owed to the people of Zambia.”
He said It is unfortunate that this has had to be protracted in such a manner owing to the fact that others saw the need to argue this issue by taking it to the courts of law, a situation that could have been avoided.
“We could have saved the courts time and resources for the people of Zambia and placed our collective energy to other constructive areas of poverty alleviation, addressing the ever growing divide between those who have and those who do not have.”
He added, “More importantly, our youths are looking for hope and that much needed help of being employed as the nation cries for leadership to help address the current economic challenges that is fast turning the Copperbelt muchibolya (Ghost town).”
“Countrymen and women I have honored my commitment and I encourage all my colleagues to do the same but more importantly it is my prayer that those funds should be put to a better use of meeting the needs of those who are economically excluded and not in the pockets of a few selfish politicians. Thank you, God bless our nation and let’s Believe Again!!”
I volunteered to pay for all those former ministers who are currently unemployed and still support pf. He did not meet this criteria by virtue of his hate for pf so he had no other option but to pay it by himself.
Surely should someone paying a bill constitute headline news? He even took pictures of receipts and f00lishly posted them while forgetting to redact his contact number. Talk about desperation for political attention. Even me I will post a receipt for my tissue
But why should he redact his number, when he has been advertising the same number at every fora as part of his campaign for people to reach him.
A person deliberately puts his number on the slip to advertise his phone number and this dall lab tech thinks its f00lish.
Well done Hon Kalaba
That is good u ar now free .
Harry Kalaba has been very consistent, you cant falter him on this. Even when he was still minister he had asked for modalities on how to pay back. Though I don’t belong to his party, I know that this is genuine that he is the first one to pay back while others are still playing games for obeying unlawful orders.
Way to go, Kalaba! Still has some integrity to boast of……….. Let us see how many of them Mwanks will
Well done!
Now that he has paid the money, its time to also do time for abusing the privileges of minister when parliament was dissolved during campaigns for presidential elections. Just this ruling has exposed how some used their positions in the 2016 elections.
Why is Zambian Kwacha abbreviation is ZMW?
What is Kwacha and Ngwee in ZMW?
Who fvck did that and when? Can Chris Mvunga change or we wait for HH to fix it?
after the fall of apartied in SA they had a truth and reconciliation commission, don’t you think after pf is out power we should have a TELL THE TRUTH COMMISSION?
The other guy says I will starve if I pay, obviously just dramatizing things and yet he can afford, the other guy says I was misled by the President as if people don’t have the ability to discern what is wrong or right, so if somebody says go murder, you just go ahead and murder and you cant say no Sir this is wrong. Obey the law all the time, not an individual, a President is as human as you are. Don’t think like Bowman who asked a Diamond TV interviewer if he was more wise than ECL, obviously Bowman’s flawed thinking is that ECL is the wisest person in the country.
I am not happy with the assessment of the court, how about the fuel they were using for the campaigns, how about the money paid to their maids and workers, how about the Zesco power in their offices and finally how about the illegality itself of staying in office, who is handling the criminal part of this issue rather than just the paying back..
Well done Honorable. The truth of the matter is that this is an indication that elections of 2016 were not free and fair.
They were a fraud and ECZ could not see this.
Anyway we wait for how2021 shall be.
Well done Harry, the stubborn ones will be caught up in contempt proceedings, they might think they are clever now, but they will be fyantad together with other disgruntled elements like Kaizar in 2021. Wait and see
Way to go my Party President, well done
The head of the executive directed his ministers to “ILLEGALLY” stay in office.
ECL is therefore the perpetrator of this illegality in Zambia.
The man has no shame and is not showing any remorse.
It’s good that h kalaba has paid full amount he obtained after Parliament was dissolved. Now we want to see more ministers also to pay like President kalaba did
Well done Harry for paying back this money.
The sad thing is that the money these politicians have paid lawyers to fight this case way exceeds the money they are being asked to pay back.
That alone tells you everything about the levels of intellect of the people leading this country.
Tomorrow, we will see these same thieving politicians making donations to SDA church or giving 1000 chickens to villagers as empowerment.
Vote wisely.
Meanwhile the “hon” ministers in government sit by and do nothing.
How honourable is that?
These crooked politicians and corrupt ministers including lungu and KZ need to be terminated due to their gross misconduct and sabotaging the economy by stealing and increasing their bank accounts.
Once HH is in power a forensic investigation will need to be completed through the help of my ministry – Scotland Yard
Kalaba na Lungu BANANKWE!!!!
Kalaba you are very much part of bandit PF government no wonder you ended up with stolen money….this is not enough prosecution should now follow….all these Ministers need to be arrested since they’ve admitted the charge
ZMW, Zero-Mode Waveguide.
That’s just $3150 so you know
I hope you have learnt that obeying the law comes first, even when you were being told to break the law you should have stood your grounds. He is a lawyer and he should have known better, this could have been a deliberate over sight. All the same, let’s move on, the court has settled matters. By moving on, I mean pay as Kalaba has done. Well done Harry
@ Kapembwa I am in your camp considering the courts ruling could not put other punitive measures for these “lamenting ministers” were actually complicit in wrong doing and can not claim to have been misled while at the same time not wanting to agree then that they were “stupid!” for willingly agreeing to be misled because staying on in office and continuing to abuse the office felt “sweet!” All praise to Hon. Kalaba for not making much ado about nothing for something the inner conscience guides as not being right! Well done for complying to the courts directive though escaping @ Kapembwa!
This is a challenge to the serving Ministers especially Given Lubinda who complained that if he paid the whole amount at once his family would ‘starve’.
A former Minister who left employment 3 years ago is the first one to pay back. There should be NO excuse from the rest, especially the serving Ministers
Well done honourable Harry Kalaba, that is leadership and have set the bar high even though you are not in this… government. So, lets hear the dithering and prevarications of those still in government continuously earning huge sums of money. To mock Zambians that their families will starve is a self curse.
Thank you Mr Kalaba…now time for these corrupt foooools to cough up as well who were misled by the clueless lawyer…I remember him at that State House press conference stressing that he was right.
Where is BUFFOON CK he said he did not know the amount …he is now quiet.
I am surprised that there are some ignorant idiioots who do not know that writing the depositer’s number on a deposit slip is a Banking Regulation. Do these idiioots have bank accounts or they just transact in Chibolya?
As for those ranting over going public, has this not been a public matter? So why should paying back be done secretly? Are you just mfwiti mfwiti?
Harry should apologize for being party to the rape of our constitution. He actually didn’t have to wait for the court to determine how much he owed. He knew how much was paid to him during the illegal period and should have paid back if he was that remorseful. He is liable in all measure as he helped usurp the presidency. He should not even come closer to seeking any constitutional office.
“We could have saved the courts time and resources for the people of Zambia and placed our collective energy to other constructive areas of poverty alleviation, addressing the ever growing divide between those who have and those who do not have.”
I think these ministers should be charged for the court sittings. Cant the opposition take this to court?
This former clinical officer from Chawama compound who in a short period of time turned into
a millionair through his connections with the Lungu cartel shall be forced by revolutionaris and the massa to pay back all stollen money and the copperbelt shall return to its glorious days.
We are coming Kaizer Zulu. My noble advise is prepare yourself to flee back to Malawi.
Noble, I bought some sausages from zambeef yesterday , I will also post the receipt so that you see the evidence. Pwahahahaha . My friend fuseke from here
Now can the humble president of the republic apologise to the Nation for misleading his colleagues and abrogating the law that he signed to honour in the first place. While it is good for the courts to command them to pay back the initial salaries, they equally failed to ask them to pay other benefits they received during the same period they were serving illegally. But the good lesson is that the president and other institutions have learnt something and hopefully this will never happen.
Some comments on this platform sound childish. One would never think we have elders because of the language. Anyway, it is Zambia the real Africa after all.
Congratulations for providing leadership. Give to Caser what is due to Caser. By giving back you will receive more blessings and more honor and more respect. I just want to state one thing that is close to my heart. I think that taking conflicts to courts of law is not a luxury. It is a necessary feature of our civilization. It prevents going for each other’s throats. Yes, due process can be lengthy but that is another issue altogether. You cannot have it both ways. Fast track justice can be disastrous. Public accounting is not based on quick, quick solutions.
Well done for paying back. Can all those that are still owing pay back within the stipulated time. Dignity is very important as leaders.
This is not an attack on Kainyokolola Zulu’s rights to hold an opinion or to hold any faith and to profess it, however, I would strongly advise him to keep his cantankerous foolish lab technitian stupidity to himself! Nobody deserves to be exposed to such warped masalamusi. Such a kanamunungu ka mutu!