Who is GBM? Godfrey Bwalya Mwamba AKA GBM, born 15th March 1959, is the son of Northern Rhodesia’s first black Agriculture Minister Edison Mwamba. He comes from Mporokoso. He is the last born in a family of 10. Education He went to Lusaka Boys for his primary school; He then went to Chifwama School in Kasama. He finished his secondary school at a private school in Lusaka called Zecco High School. Family The family used to live in Rhodespark near Fairview. His mother was Grace Chileshe (of South African origin), who divorced with Edison Mwamba. She began to run a bakery in Kasama, and later a store in Kabwata, Lusaka. Mr. Edison Mwamba saved in Welensky’s and Kaunda’s government. He is a nephew to Valentine Shula, First Bank Governor who advised him not to start the business of running a bar (which GBM wanted to do), when he went into business. He is married to Chama daughter to Lameck Mwenso. She studied Secretarial studies at Evelyn Hone College. The two met in 1967. GBM has 6 children; Chilekwa the eldest son, 28years is a Co director in GBM Bus Company and runs the Livingstone Office. Sibongile, 26 years old and studied Hotel Management in South Africa. Then there is Thandiwe who lives in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Musama is also in Georgia USA and is studying Business Management. Muma is the youngest and is studying at Baobab in Makeni. Political GBM stood for parliamentary elections in Kabwata (although he lives in Kabulonga- Munali Constituency) in the 2006 Elections under the MMD but was beaten by PF’s Given Lubinda. Business GBM and his wife started a business in 1980 with a loan from GBM’s mother by buying fish and beans from Nakonde. They made a break- through when they supplied foodstuffs to Zambia National Service (ZNS) and earned a K3Million.They later began to supply maize to National Milling. GBM bought SAVOY HOTEL in Ndola in a Management Buy-Out (MBO) scheme but Zambia Privatisation Agency (ZPA) repossessed it for his failure to pay the Hotel Purchase Price. He bought a Milling Plant in Kasama. He realised that the milling plant had high quality equipment and a good brand from Switzerland. He chose to transfer the milling plant to Lusaka purporting that the equipment was too industrial for Kasama. He left a lot of disaffected workers without settling their severance packages and benefits. Residents were also left in frustration and they blamed GBM for shifting an industry and support services that were providing economic activities in the town. He runs the milling plant, a fleet of 28 Luxury buses worth USD5m (on lease), and an opaque beer plant. He is planning to buy another plant in Kitwe. He also owns GBM Trucking which has 6 X35 ton trucks. He also has a car hire that has 50 cars. All his firms employ about 400 workers.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:14:03 +0000
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