UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma says Justice Minister Given Lubinda should stop mocking the Zambian people by saying his family would starve if he paid back K56,226.92 in a month.

In an interview, Kakoma said Lubinda and some of his fellow ministers had been seen going round the country dishing out huge sums of money.

“Let him look for the money and pay, him and other ministers have been flushing money around, giving the impression that they have a lot of money. If they have a lot of money, let them pay. Why should they start crying like babies now? No one would believe them. No one would believe them that they can’t afford to pay because they have shown that they are extravagant, they splash money around making huge donations. In many cases, these donations are beyond their monthly salaries. So where do they get their money from? So sorry to my friend, Given Lubinda he must pay,” Kakoma said.

“It is almost four years now when the case started. They should have known that at one point, they are going to pay. They can’t claim that they are not prepared for the judgement. We also know that in the run up to elections next year, they are going to spend a lot of money and they have saved a lot of money for the campaigns. They will be splashing it around. So K60,000 or K50,000 is nothing to them. If they fail to pay, it is just out of arrogance, not that they can’t afford. They will pay for their arrogance if they don’t know that law is law.”

Kakoma said UPND would ensure that all the former ministers who illegally stayed in office after the dissolution of Parliament in 2016 would honour the court judgement.

“This is a court order, whether he can manage to pay in one month or not, that is not the problem of the Zambian people. Our problem as Zambian people is that he must pay because he enjoyed our money illegally. Therefore, he must pay! If he doesn’t pay, of course there are consequences and the consequences are that it will be contempt of court. He risks going to jail for contempt of court. So which is better to be in jail for contempt of court or to pay? Even if he is to pay for one month,” said Kakoma.

“People who fail to fulfill the court judgement, they risk having their goods confiscated and as UPND, we are part of that judgement. We are the ones who took the matter to court. So if they will fail to pay, we shall call a writ of Fieri facias, I hope they know what a writ of fieri facias is? A writ of fieri facias is that we send bailiffs to confiscate their goods. So if the Ministers think that they are clever, their goods would be confiscated to sell and recover the money. That is the option that we have to meet their arrogance as they are refusing to pay. Yes they can refuse to pay but law is law and we shall call the bailiffs to visit them.”