A DIGGERS INVESTIGATION PUBLISHED ON 7TH JANUARY 2026 (link in comments) ZRA employee denies gifting a vehicle to Archbishop Alick Banda By Ulande NkomeshaI have never seen or touched the vehicle that ZRA claimed I bought from the institution and sold to Archbishop Alick Banda, says Mulopa Kaunda, a man who has suffered over four […]

A DIGGERS INVESTIGATION PUBLISHED ON 7TH JANUARY 2026 (link in comments)

ZRA employee denies gifting a vehicle to Archbishop Alick Banda

By Ulande Nkomesha
I have never seen or touched the vehicle that ZRA claimed I bought from the institution and sold to Archbishop Alick Banda, says Mulopa Kaunda, a man who has suffered over four years of public ridicule for supposedly dragging a high-ranking Catholic priest into a dirty deal.

In this exclusive interview, Kaunda explains how fraudulent receipts and other documents were generated in his name by his named supervisor, in a deal that was meant to facilitate the illegal disposal of government vehicles from the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA).

Since 2022, the law enforcement agencies in Zambia have been investigating a case of abuse of office among ZRA employees and the illegal possession of proceeds of crime involving private beneficiaries, among them the incumbent Catholic Archbishop of Lusaka, Alick Banda.

During the reign of late former President Edgar Lungu, several government institutions were ordered to release vehicles for use in the election campaigns for the ruling party, while some were gifted to PF sympathisers.

Under the ZRA, at least 22 motor vehicles were ‘disposed of’ under questionable circumstances, and records show that some of the vehicles were passed on to employees and private individuals, as well as entities aligned to the ruling party at the time.

Former ZRA Commissioner General Kingsley Chanda and his Director of Administration Callistus Kaoma were convicted and sentenced to six years and nine years respectively for not following procedure in disposing of government vehicles.

According to ZRA and RTSA records seen by News Diggers, one of the vehicles, a Toyota Hilux registration number ALF 7734, was purportedly sold to a ZRA employee named Mulopa Kaunda, who is said to have changed the car documents into his name on 21st April 2021 and then gifted it to the Catholic priest Alick Banda, who also changed the vehicle ownership documents into his personal name the very next day on April 22, 2021.

Records also show that another vehicle which came from ZRA was gifted to Heart of Mercy.

“I don’t know Alick Banda, I never sold or gave him a vehicle”

In a surprising turn of events, Kaunda reveals that he never participated in any tender or auction to buy the said vehicle from ZRA, and that he has never met or communicated with the high-ranking Catholic priest in his life.

He now narrates the agony, frustration and reputational damage he suffered since the public scandalisation started, leading to his hospitalisation, after Emmanuel Mwamba released fraudulent documents linking him to the scandal.

Sitting in his office in Ndola on 17th December 2020, Kaunda, a ZRA employee, received a surprise internal email from the accounts department with an attachment of a receipt. The receipt was an acknowledgment for a payment received from him towards a vehicle he had apparently bought from the institution through an auction sale.

In shock, he responded, saying he had not bought any vehicle from ZRA and he certainly did not make any payment to the institution for that purpose. Little did he know that the purchase of the said vehicle was going to be forced on him officially, as a new receipt was going to be issued for the same transaction.

VERBATIM

Question: You are the person at the centre of this vehicle scandal, can you explain how you bought this Toyota Hilux plate number ALF 7734 from ZRA?

Answer: “The short answer is that I never bought the vehicle and I know nothing about it. I never participated in any tender or auction at ZRA where I bought that vehicle. I know that ZRA advertises assets that it wants to dispose of, but I never participated in any such process. So, I can say this is a misrepresentation of facts.”

Q: How did you get involved then?

A: So, it was on 17th December 2020. I was in the office and I just saw an email from finance. It was an internal email with a receipt for the payment of the vehicle from ZRA. I was surprised to see this. So, I talked to the boss at finance and the Director Administration Mr Callistus Kaoma. They told me that it was an error and I should ignore it. Later they sent me another email telling me that the receipt in question had been cancelled because it related to a different transaction.

Q: But the records show that you bought the vehicle from ZRA.

A: I have never seen or touched that vehicle, I don’t even have the capacity to buy that kind of vehicle.

Q: So, how did your name end up on the white book for the vehicle?

A: One day my boss Mr Kaoma called me and told me to send him my NRC on WhatsApp. But I was not comfortable doing this because I didn’t know what he wanted to use it for. So, I told him my WhatsApp had crashed. But him being my boss, I couldn’t refuse. So, I sent him my NRC using my work email to his personal email, I still have that email and all the correspondence.

Q: And that was it? The next thing you heard was that you are the new owner of a ZRA vehicle?

A: That is the only thing that I genuinely did. My boss, Mr Kaoma, called me on phone and asked me to send him my NRC, without saying what he wanted it for.

Q: But what could have made him pick on you out of all ZRA employees? Did you have any personal relationship with Mr Kaoma?

A: Yes actually. I have known him since I was a young boy. He used to drink with my father and he used to get along with my mother at Chililabombwe Municipal Council where I grew up before joining ZRA. So, he was kind of a family friend, I would say.

Q: How did you discover that this vehicle issue had not been resolved yet?

A: In 2021, I was called by the Joint Investigation team. By the way I was working from Ndola, so I came all the way to Lusaka for questioning at Force Headquarters. At that point I had to engage a lawyer now because I realised that this matter was serious. I told the investigators the same story of what had happened. At one point I also discovered as they were showing the documents, that the receipt which they were producing was different from the earlier receipt that they said they had cancelled. The receipt number was different. I knew that there was something wrong going on.

Q: How do you explain the fact that there is a record of you driving out of ZRA offices in Lusaka with the vehicle that you had bought from the auction on 13th November 2020?

A: The funny thing is that I was not even working from Lusaka. On that date I was in Ndola and the record will show where I signed in the log book that I was in Ndola on that day. In fact, there is CCTV at ZRA premises, let them check who drove that vehicle out of ZRA. Maybe they can also ask the person who issued that gate pass to explain whom they handed the gate pass to. But it was not me. I was in Ndola, I only got transferred to Lusaka in May 2022.

Q: That’s really shocking. But do you know Archbishop Alick Banda and do you have personal interactions with him?

A: I don’t know Archbishop Banda, I have never met him and I’m sure even him he doesn’t know me.

Q: Meanwhile, you have been a celebrity, and the country knows that you are the Good Samaritan who bought a vehicle from ZRA and gifted it to the wonderful man of God. How does that make you feel?

A: I’m not a celebrity (laughs), this is a bad record. I have been appearing for interrogations from that year up to now. In September 2024, the Drug Enforcement Commission went to ZRA to investigate this same story and I was summoned again. I remember I went with my wife because I feared that I was going to be arrested, so I wanted her to drive our car back home.

Q: It must be very frustrating and depressing for you and your family.

A: It has been a very emotional period for me. Especially after Ambassador Emmanuel Mwamba published the documents on social media. It left me very depressed; I even fell sick. I was hospitalised for high blood pressure.

Q: How has this affected your professional career?

A: It has been hard. Sometimes when you meet friends, they mock you “imwe bama dilu” and you feel bad. But I really thank my employer. I still work for ZRA and I have never been charged or taken to disciplinary hearing even as I am appearing for interrogations. They have been very patient with me, otherwise I was going to be gone by now.

Q: What do you wish to see happen in this matter?

A: I wish for God’s wrath to deal with the people who have put me through this. They have been trying to destroy my name over an issue that I have nothing to do with. You know, it is easy to destroy a name, but it’s very hard to build it. Those are the words of my mother. I always remember her telling me that a good name is better than gold.

Investigation did not start yesterday, says DEC

When contacted for a comment, DEC Director General Nason Banda confirmed that the Commission had interrogated Kaunda and that he pleaded innocence over the entire transaction.

“I can confirm that we have been interrogating different people over this matter, not just Kaunda, but different others. I cannot give much details because it may jeopardise the matter, but he (Kaunda) explained that he never bought the vehicle from ZRA. In short, what you are saying he told you is also what he told our officers,” Banda said.

Asked why the summoning of the archbishop has taken so long, Banda said the investigation started a long time ago.

“This is a matter that has been under investigation for a long time. If I showed you that record you will see that we did not start this yesterday. You remember that the President has guided investigative wings not to inconvenience citizens if we have not done our thorough investigations. We could not summon him before reaching a stage where we are sure that we have solid information about what transpired. So, for us to summon him, it means we are confident with what we have,” he said.

When asked to explain how the interview went on Monday with Archbishop Banda, the DEC boss said he did not say much.

Who is Alick Banda

Archbishop Banda was ordained a priest on 7 August 1994. He was appointed Bishop of Ndola on 13 November 2009

The archbishop has been serving the Archdiocese of Lusaka since his appointment by Pope Francis in 2018.

Archbishop Banda has been critical of the UPND government since his time in Ndola. He succeeded emeritus Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu, who was himself critical of the Patriotic Front government until its election defeat in 2021.

The summoning of Archbishop Banda has sent a chill of anxiety among some citizens, especially the Catholic faithful, who have raised concerns around whether the interrogation has merit or is mere political persecution.