DOREEN ‘EXPLODES’
…Not that s**t! minister shouts when pressed over Chabinga shame audio
By Mast Reporter
MINISTER of Community Development and Social Services Doreen Mwamba yesterday exploded with anger when The Mast asked for her comment on the call for her arrest over her role in a leaked audio.
The Mast called her and asked for a comment on the demand by Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) president Kelvin Fube Bwalya, popularly known as KBF, that she be arrested for being an accessory to a crime.
Mwamba politely picked up the phone call at 10:59 hours.
But upon hearing the name The Mast as the caller introduced himself, she angrily said she was not ready, uttered an obscenity and cut the line.
“No, no, no! Not that s**t! Not that s**t!” Mwamba exploded before she cut the line, leaving the journalist in shock.
Later, at 11:05 hours, Mwamba sent an SMS asking the journalist to text his question to her.
“Kindly text me,” the SMS read.
The journalist sent her a press query in form of an SMS, to which she had not responded by press time.
“Honourable… I wanted a comment from you over KBF’s demand that you should be arrested for being an accessory to crime with Chabinga. What is your comment? Secondly, is it you with Chabinga in the audio alleging that President Hichilema assigned Chabinga to bribe a judge in SA?” the query read.
On Wednesday, Bwalya said in a live statement by failing to report Chabinga to police after he voluntarily confessed to a crime, Mwamba had become an accessory to the same crime.
He warned Mwamba that being a Cabinet minister, she had a responsibility to report a crime, especially that Chabinga had personally confessed to her.
“We are not fools. Iwe [you] Robert, I know you. I know your voice. I know how you speak. I know your intonations and I know when you’re speaking. And don’t think we are fools. Honourable Doreen Mwamba, you are an accessory to that offence because Chabinga confessed a crime to you and you did not report him to law enforcement,” he said.
Bwalya said Mwamba was part of the crime and should therefore be arrested for complicity and being an accessory.
He said Mwamba did not enjoy immunity from arrest and prosecution for a crime she was aware of.
“You too are part of that criminal enterprise. You also must be arrested. You don’t even enjoy immunity. You’re not a president. You’re just a minister. Who tells you a minister cannot be arrested? Who tells you that?” Bwalya said.
He warned that if Mwamba and those committing crimes were not arrested, they should be ready to face the law once the United Party for National Development (UPND) lost power next year.
Bwalya also warned director general of intelligence Friday Musiyalike Nyambe not to commit crimes.
“This power that you are enjoying, don’t abuse it because I can warn you now next year, come August next year when we kick you out of power, you know where you’re going. Friday Nyambe, you as an individual, as director of intelligence, your job is not to commit offences. Your job is to conduct intelligence for this country, not criminality,” he said.
The audio at the centre of the storm is about a conspiracy to influence the outcome of the court case in South Africa in which the Zambian government has sued the family of late former president Edgar Lungu over the burial of his remains.
Lungu died in South Africa on June 5 and his remains remain there awaiting burial pending the outcome of the high-profile case.
In the audio, Chabinga is heard boastfully telling Mwamba how he was sent by the “boss”, whom he also refers to as “His Excellency”, to South Africa to try to bribe the judge handling the case and sponsor protests in that country so that he can make a decision in favour of the State.
He also describes how he is going to pay people to wear Patriotic Front (PF) regalia in different provinces to protest with placards demanding that Lungu’s body be buried in Zambia as part of the scheme to influence the judge.
