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The High Court in Blantyre last week ordered Minister of Gender, Women and Children Affairs Kate Kainja-Kaluluma to pay NBS Bank about K2.3 million—an outstanding loan she got from the bank 16 years ago.
The order came after the two parties—Kainja-Kaluluma and NBS Bank—agreed on the repayment of the loan and means bankruptcy proceedings which were threatened last month will not go ahead.
Court records show that Kainja-Kaluluma on June 30, 1990 took a K95,000 loan from the bank which she agreed to repay by equal monthly instalments, both principal and interest: then pegged at 16.75 percent.
The bank dragged the minister to court in March this year after she only repaid K1,600,000 out of the loan balance of K3,521,746.96 as of 13th January, 2006.
“The defendant has not paid the balance of the said loan amounting to K1,176,089.20 or any interest thereon and the same remains due and owing by her to the plaintiff, and the plaintiff claims payment of the said sum, interest on the said sum, and K528,262.04 plus interest being legal collection costs,” read the statement claim file in March.
The court on 5th May, 2006 ordered Kainja-Kaluluma to pay the bank the outstanding balance. However, the minister failed to repay the money and last month the bank filed a bankruptcy notice against her.
This led to the two parties’ settlement agreement and a consent order issued by the High Court.
The order, obtained last week, reads in part: “By consent of the parties herein, it is hereby ordered as follows: the defendant will pay the plaintiff the sum of K1,000,000 by 30th September, 2006; the defendant will from the period commencing 1st October, 2006 pay the plaintiff the sum of K100,000 each month in addition to the monthly rental (K22,000) already being paid to the plaintiff until the defendant’s indebtedness to the plaintiff being K2,373,392. 63 as at the 11th day of September, 2006, is fully liquidated.”
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