Bowmans firm in Zambian 'search and seize' mix-up

Four Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) officers last month travelled to SA in an attempt to seize Bowman’s Office Park in Sandton after they received false information that the building belonged to former Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo, it has emerged. Acting on a tip-off, the officers embarked on the trip to seize it as part of investigations into Lusambo’s properties suspected to be proceeds of crime. One of the officers who were part of the ‘search and seize’ operation in SA has revealed that the episode has embarrassed the ACC, reports the Lusaka Times. The officers later found out that Lusambo had no links to the building which hosts the head office for law firm Bowman Gilfillan. Bowmans last year opened a new office in Zambia, registered as B&M Legal Practitioners with two partners: managing partner Mabvuto Sakala and Bwalya Chilufya-Musonda. The ACC officer said the SA trip was one of the many futile attempts that they have made to find something incriminating on Lusambo. ‘We have been under pressure to find something on Bowman. We went to South Africa after an informant told us that he owns that big building in Sandton called Bowman. We went there and conducted an operation but we drew a blank,’ the source said. He also revealed that the ACC has so far undertaken 15 trips to Ndola hoping to find something there during the period Lusambo served as Copperbelt Minister.

Full Lusaka Times report