Lusaka - Dangote Industries Zambia is suing the country’s labour minister, Fackson Shamenda, for
defamation after he claimed that a senior company official tried to bribe him, court documents showed
Monday.
The subsidiary of Nigeria’s Dangote Group — owned by Aliko Dangote who is ranked by Forbes magazine
as the richest man in Africa — is claiming unspecified damages for slander and libel as well as special
damages in the sum of 112,042.84 kwacha ($17,728), according to documents filed in the High Court.
On September 15, the Post Newspaper carried a story under the headline
“Dangote offers Shamenda a bribe” in which the minister claimed that a
Nigerian human resources manager from the company offered him a
bribe which he rejected.
“He told me that it was a tradition in their culture to give someone a
token of appreciation,” Shamenda was quoted as saying.
“May I take this opportunity to warn Dangote and all other investors in
the country to avoid enticing government officials with bribes — it hinders progress.”
Dangote Industries is setting up a multimillion dollar cement plant in Ndola, about 360 kilometres north of
the capital Lusaka.