KABUSHI PF member of parliament Bowman Lusambo has insisted that the Anti-Corruption Commission is hell bent on destroying him, further claiming that the commission tried to seize a building wrongly linked to him in South Africa.
But ACC spokesperson Queen Chibwe says no ACC officers had gone to South Africa to investigate Lusambo’s properties.
In an interview, Lusambo insisted that he invested his money wisely.
“Remember I don’t drink, you have never seen me in a night club. My job is to put money where it matters most. One bottle of castle is equivalent to two or three blocks. They went to South Africa saying ‘we want to see Bowman’s property’, they even went to a building that ‘we want to see Bowman’s property’. When you are in Sandton, there is a building where [there’s] the name Bowman. They went there and they told them that this building belongs to [Patrice] Motsepe,” Lusambo said.
But in a separate interview, Chibwe said no such operation had been undertaken in South Africa.
“No, it is a fake story! None of the officers that are investigating that case have gone to South Africa for any matter following Bowman, whatsoever. So it is just fake! Us we just do our investigations whatever we seize, we’ll say to the press. Otherwise investigations are still ongoing,” said Chibwe.
Meanwhile, Lusambo said what ACC had done was equivalent to shooting him in the head.
“Our ACC what they want is to find you sick and they kill you. Then their aim is to find you sick and they kill you. It is not always that people who go to ACC, they should just be finding them with something. If there is nothing, there is nothing. If I had done something, it would have not taken them eight months, it would have just taken them two months or one month to pounce on me. It is a shame that they are just going to cost taxpayers money for compensation for nothing. What they did last week is more like shooting me in my head, killing me there is no difference. My life now is in danger because if they fail to find anything, they will have no option but to eliminate me. That is where they are going, which is very dangerous. I want to register this, to all the people out there, if anything happens to my life, they are supposed to look nowhere but to the current government. Are you telling me that ACC has no five senses? Their aim is to inconvenience me, their aim is to break me down,” Lusambo said.
He said his wife was his source of strength during this time.
“God has always been there, I have been surviving because of the grace of God. So everything which happened, I count it a blessing in my life. It is a blessing in the sense that I have never involved myself in any dubious works especially when I was working in government. So seeing what is happening in my life I count it a blessing. I am not moved, I am not shaken, I know were I am standing. You may seize the property, you will not seize God’s destiny in me,” he said.
“Yes my daughters, my son they maybe affected, because they are young to understand that what is going on but for my wife, she is the one who has been giving me strength. We are trying to make sure that they are comforted, you know children sometimes may become difficult especially when they are used to certain lifestyle. You can take them out for one day, two days by the end of the day they will tell you that ‘papa we want to go home now’, so we are trying to manage that. I can comfortably say that it is a passing phase.”
When asked where he was residing currently, Lusambo said he was not yet back in the country but he planned to occupy his seized Chamba Valley home upon return.
“I went out and I will be probably coming back tomorrow, when I come back I will go to my house. That is the only property I have. In Lusaka. That is my house, that house does not belong to any individual apart from me. There is no other owner apart from me. I will be having a press briefing when I come back, Zambians should not be excited, when they said they have seized Bowman’s house they should have said ‘wait a minute, don’t seize that house, first of all can you seize the 49 properties which you told us. We want to see the 49 properties which you told us that Bowman has 49 properties’. Why should they be fooling the people of Zambia that Bowman has 49 houses? From 49 houses now we have seized one house from Bowman, let them seize the other 48 houses,” Lusambo said.
“When I come, I want to call all the media houses, I want to go and show you those properties which they are saying properties, they are just brick and cement. Who can fail to do a brick and cement, even you journalists, bus drivers, conductors, they are doing that. If a taxi driver can put up a block and cement somewhere, what about me who has been working for government both in Parliament and as a minister, can I fail to do block and cement. How much is a block? So I want the media not what you captured on windows, I will take you to the properties which those guys were saying properties.”
He said it was unfortunate that his property had been seized when some ACC officers had similar properties.
“I will take you guys, don’t worry, I will tell you this is the property which they were talking about. I want that Chibwe lady to come and occupy one property there, I want that ka lady to come. Why are they trying to tarnish my name? Chris Siwakwi has a farm in Mumbwa, and his farm is bigger than my plot. This acting DG Silumesi, he has properties in Silverest. For him it is okay, for Bowman to have block and cement, it is a problem? What type of life is this? That Silumesi and Chris Siwakwi, their position and the position which I had, maybe they are number 20 to me. How can you have institutions which just deals with politicians? So I will invite all the media houses including that ka Chibwe girl. I want Chibwe to show me those properties so that I give her one property to stay in. Why can’t they just say that all those things are just block and cement,” said Lusambo.
“When you go where I was buying blocks, they won’t tell you that government came to buy blocks here, no! They will tell you that Bowman was buying blocks here. When you go and buy cement, they will tell you that the cement it is Bowman who was buying. Us we went to buy cement from the containers near our building unlike others who have started to buy cement from factories.”