PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile says the dismissal of former Luapula Province Minister Derricky Chilundika and other top government officials is nothing to celebrate because they are just sacrificial lambs.
Recently, President Hakainde Hichilema said past, present and future corruption must all be fought, noting that he has fired a minister and permanent secretary whom he appointed to allow the law to take its course.
But in an interview, Mundubile said the PF has serious doubts about the current corruption fight.
He said the opposition party has highlighted many corruption issues under the UPND government but no action has been taken.
“On the position of fighting corruption, we have cast serious doubts on that fight because there are a number of issues that we’ve raised to do with corruption but there’s been no action. There were issues to do with the procurement of fertiliser soon after they came to power. There was a contract to do with the construction of health facilities costing $100 million. We saw a PS from there being fired but there have been no further investigations.
[There’s the issue of] the PS agriculture refusing to avail documents to the Auditor General when a number of issues had been raised and there was no action.
There’s an illegal mining operation at KCM and the matter has been brought to the House by MPs who had gone there for committee work. Questions were raised and there’s been no comment from government,” he said.
“So, that together with a number of other issues to do with corruption under the new dawn have gone without comment. So the PS and the former Luapula Province minister are just sacrificial lambs. There’s bigger corruption that has been going on and there’s been no action. We started talking about Sugilite as early as February. We saw that there were selective arrests while others have continued to be spared for God knows what reason. There was a report of a Minister coming out of a Chinese shop carrying a heavy bag. All those things went unattended to. I think that the statement attributed to the President saying that he’s fighting corruption is really far-fetched”.
Mundubile said the new dawn government was more focused on persecuting political opponents on flimsy grounds.
“There is nothing to celebrate, Zambians know well. The examples I have given you are just off the cuff. If we were to tabulate how many of such cases, if you look at Kasonde Mwenda, he delivered a dossier to the ACC of cases involving UPND officials. We haven’t seen any action from the Executive. So to say that they are fighting corruption, really is laughable. Not only is it too early, there’s nothing to celebrate because we can’t see the effort in the first place and there’s no political will to do that. Most of the people that are mentioned in these cases are top government officials. So for a man who campaigned to fight corruption decisively, we have seen that he’s focused on persecuting political opponents on flimsy grounds. When evidence is delivered to the Executive on the corruption under the current government, we have seen total silence,” he said.
And commenting on government’s congratulatory message to law enforcement agencies for effectively executing their duties and hitting criminals’ pockets, during a recent pass-out parade for
DEC officers, Mundubile said government should have used the opportunity to urge officers to continue acting within the law.
“It was a lost opportunity. What the acting minister (Silvia Masebo) should have emphasised on is that the officers should continue to act within the law. The acting home affairs minister knows that the conduct of police officers in effecting arrests, handling suspects has been totally against the law. I feel that should have been an opportunity for the acting minister to encourage police officers to continue acting professionally. Those that have graduated earlier who are implementing law enforcement have raised a number of concerns. The concerns are clear for all to see that suspects have been treated in a manner that is not in conformity with the provisions of the law,” he said.
“Suspects still enjoy their rights and torture is against the law, abductions of suspects that we have witnessed in the recent past. So if she is congratulating them for breaking the law, then we’re dealing with a government of lawlessness. So it’s unfortunate that the minister who should have taken that opportunity to tutor the young officers who were graduating to ensure that they adhere to the provisions of the law, she’s now congratulating them for what many citizens are seeing as total lawlessness. Police acting with impunity and outside the law”.
Meanwhile, on Drug Enforcement Commission Director General Nason Banda’s statement that DEC shall leave no stone unturned in the fight against illicit drugs and financial crimes, Mundubile said the Commission should have admitted that some of its actions in the recent past were against the law.
“As for DEC, they lost an opportunity to try and make a statement that some of the procedures that they’ve used in the recent past are totally against the law. We have seen that they’ve gone to the media for instance to announce seizure of property even without due process. So for them to say they are happy with that, to many Zambians it remains very clear that we are dealing with a government that is ready to go to lengths and continue acting outside the law just to try people in the courts of public opinion. To traumatise people and convict them in the media. So for me, I feel it’s a lost opportunity and it should be a source of concern and worry to all law abiding citizens to see that their leaders are actually priding themselves in actions that are totally against the law,” said Mundubile.
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