PRESS STATEMENT BY THE GRAND MUFTI OF ZAMBIA – ASSADULLAH MWALE
IN view of the utterances by the president of ISCZ Suzyo Zimba in his continued several personal presentation in the media that he has so much associated with our religion of Islam for reason best known to himself. I wish to share my personal sympathy, pain and agony the entire Muslim community is passing through currently. Nevertheless as the sayings of the prophet goes “If one of you sees a wrong, you should try to change it with your hand, and if you can’t manage that use your tongue and if that fails use the heart and that is of weakest faith”
To that effect I wish to apologise to the Muslim community and the nation at large following my mistake to have accepted Suzyo Zimba’s application to stand as Islamic supreme council of Zambia president in 2010.
I accepted his application and recommended his candidature and endorsed him thinking he was a person who would embrace all Muslims and help resolve all the challenges the Muslims are facing. Unfortunately, Mr. Zimba has just proved to the contrary. The conduct and behaviour of Mr. Zimba has no relevance what so ever to the present day realities.
It has always been my prayer that ISCZ should be holding periodic 5 year term elections for the executive committee, unfortunately up to date Suzyo Zimba’s administration has failed to call for the AGM in order to hold elections, submit audited financial and activity reports during his nine (9) year term of office. This is a clear sign of disregard for constitutionalism and a very bad attribute of a leader. Only dictators and criminals avoid holding periodic elections.
As regards his resignation, it actually came as a relief to the Muslim community. It is therefore his wishful thinking to say that there was an outcry from the Muslim community asking him to rescind his decision. No sober-minded Muslim would request for his comeback going by the way he has handled Muslim affairs during his term of office. Mr. Zimba must be reminded that ISCZ is not his personal-to-holder company where he can resign in the morning and reinstate himself in the afternoon.
I do understand why Mr. Zimba behaved like that; this is because he managed to dismantle all the other organs of the ISCZ such as the Judicial Council (JC) and the trustee council who should have been providing checks and balances to his leadership.
Further, his claim that he never wrote the letter of resignation does not hold water because
Delphine Zulu reported in the Sunday Times of May 26th 2019 that her article was based on the letter of resignation which was presented to the newspaper and not merely a verbal statement as indicated in the Sunday times dated 9th June, 2019. this is pure hypocrisy as the sayings of the prophet goes “signs of a hypocrite are three (3) i.e when he speaks, he lies, and when he promises he does not fulfill the promise and when he is entrusted he breaks the trust”
The former president should have realized that the office he held called for a lot of wisdom. He needed to embrace each and every Muslim brother regardless of their race, colour, tribe, nationality, sect, sex and political status together and unite them so that they can face the global challenges such as discrimination, oppression, aggression and injustice in the social, economic and cultural in a well informed and understanding manner.
If Mr. Zimba is aware and knows of any person conducting illegal businesses, evading taxes or smuggling goods into this great nation, the honourable thing he should have done is to inform the law enforcement agencies so that appropriate action is taken unlike where he has continued issuing blanket statements portraying Muslims as bad people. Let him be specific and indicate who is evading tax and smuggling goods into this country. I strongly urge the former president of ISCZ to stop tarnishing the image of Islam by associating the ISCZ with issues to do with ZRA but instead start using his company’s corporate identity.
The issue of Mr. Zimba to account for all the resources that came his way during his term of office is a thorn in his flesh. His continued singing about smugglers and tax evaders is an indirect way of trying to gain sympathy so that he can be shielded by those in authority when that time comes for him to account for his activities.
Mr. Zimba has been doing a number of projects in the name of Islam which unfortunately are in his personal and other individuals’ names. He did not take up the position of Islamic supreme council of Zambia president as secondment to Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) so that he can be singing about alleged tax evasions and smuggling, (as that seems to be his main preoccupation) but to ensure that Muslims are well guided in unity and prosperity the million dollar question everyone should be asking now is: why did Mr. Suzyo Zimba keep such information to himself and why is he speaking out now after tendering in his resignation?
Are his allegations only going to have impact when he is out of office? Where is Kook College of International Studies, who are the board members, directors and what kind of studies does it provide? Is this institution personal or belongs to the Muslim community?
Who is shielding this man? Is it the Government or the Muslim community? Who has been exposed of mischievous activities between him and the people he is accusing of evading tax and smuggling?
My earnest appeal to the Muslim community is that as we approach the forthcoming elections of the ISCZ, let us be united, burry our differences and put into office credible leadership with exercised wisdom, sober minded and with proven Islamic background so that we can have an Islamic supreme council of Zambia in which we will all feel part of, in whose future we all have a stake.
In conclusion, I want to say that Mr. Suzyo Zimba is an embarrassment to the Muslim community both local and foreign and must not be allowed to continue denting the name of Islam in this nation and abroad.
Mr. Zimba stop dividing the Muslim community!