AUDIO LANDS IN SA COURT
…ECL family reports leaked audio to South African High Court
-
We have the audio of a senior minister in President Hakainde Hichilema’s government and one of his surrogates exposing the plan to bribe the judge handling the matter, says Makebi Zulu.
By Mast Reporter
FORMER Zambia president Edgar Lungu’s family has instructed its lawyers to report today to the South African High Court in Pretoria the leaked audio discussing the repatriation of the late former head of state’s body.
The sensational audio, which has been widely shared and circulated on social media, reveals a long conversation between a Zambian minister and an opposition member of Parliament (MP) with very close ties with State House.
Their conversation exposes the chilling lengths to which President Hakainde Hichilema and his government are prepared to go to gain access to Lungu’s remains, including an audacious plot to bribe the judge handling the case in South Africa to influence his decision on the current case concerning the repatriation of the former head of state’s remains.
Spokesperson of the Lungu family Makebi Zulu told The Mast in an interview from South Africa yesterday action had already been taken.
Lawyers had been instructed to report the audio to the judge handling the case in the Pretoria High Court.
Zulu said the Lungu family would not leave any stone unturned in its quest to secure justice for Lungu for the “total abuse, humiliation and persecution” he had suffered at the hands of Hichilema and his administration even in his death.
“We have the audio of a senior minister in President Hakainde Hichilema’s government and one of his surrogates exposing the plan to bribe the judge handling the matter. In that audio the UPND [United Party for National Development] government through their surrogates are planning to finance and sponsor protests demanding for the return of the former president’s body,” he said.
“So, we have instructed our lawyers here to report and submit the audio to the court today [yesterday].”
Zulu said the revelations in the audio were “very serious and critical” to the case currently before the High Court in Pretoria in which the Zambian government has sued the family.
He said the allegations of corruption and bribery exposed by the audio could not be left unattended to.
The audio is doing the rounds on social media in which two well-known officials close to the Presidency are discussing, among other things, sponsoring protests in Lusaka, Copperbelt and Eastern provinces demanding the repatriation of the remains of Lungu as part of the scheme to influence the outcome of the case.
Part of the scheme is to pay protesters, dress them in Patriotic Front (PF) branded regalia and give them placards demanding the return of Lungu’s body, a move which could have put pressure on the family and the judge to arrive at a public interest decision.
The audio exposes the bribery scheme where huge sums of public money would have been used to pay the judge in the Pretoria High Court in order to secure a pro-government judgement.
“The judge needs to eat,” the male voice in the audio says.
The male heard in the audio was recently in South Africa to lay ground for and execute components of the grand scheme.
A number of Zambians have said they saw the State House errand boy on his way to South Africa.
Southern African Students and Youth Development Association (SASYDA) president Ibrahim Kabwe Mwamba confirmed flying on the same Airlink plane into South Africa with the State House envoy.
Mwamba said among the prominent people who were on board the same flight between June 22 and 24 were Mandevu PF MP Christopher Shakafuswa, Luapula MP Chanda Katotobwe, PF member Rizwan Patel, former Central Province permanent secretary Bernard Chomba and his wife, PF deputy chairperson for information Nakiwe Nampungwe and Bernard Kamba.
