The News editor, NewsDiggers
Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has noted with dismay President Edgar Lungu’s comments regarding the fight against corruption in Zambia, as reported in the NewsDiggers of Monday 3rd May 2021. According to the Head of State, one of the things making the fight against corruption difficult is that “some players in the fight are corrupt themselves and do not mean well.”
TI-Z finds it very difficult to understand or even agree with the President’s assertion because it makes a mockery of the serious problem of corruption that is affecting us as a country. One of the biggest hinderances to fighting corruption in Zambia today is that senior government officials have largely given lip service to the fight, coupled by rhetorical verbal commitments meant to give a semblance of seriousness in fighting corruption, while in truth doing very little to tackle the scourge effectively. Our concern as TI-Z is that whenever presented with the chance to demonstrate commitment to fight corruption, the Head of State has regularly not taken advantage of such opportunities. For instance, he has to date said and done nothing about the reckless remarks made by the Chief Government Spokesperson several months ago to the effect that the fight against corruption has become a boring song which should not be sang every day. In the same vein, when the same senior government official was caught on video teaching village headmen in Eastern province how to defraud her own government through the social cash transfer programme, the President’s silence was again defeaning and continues to this day.
In this same context, we are also intrigued by the implications of Mr. Chishimba Kambwili’s return to the Patriotic Front (PF). In 2016, the President informed the nation that some of his Cabinet Ministers were involved in corruption and were acting with gross impunity. He said some ministers were receiving huge daily bank deposits and were additionally involved in illegally acquiring land and property. Coincidentally, the only Minister subsequently dismissed from Cabinet on the back of that statement was Mr. Kambwili, who has now been welcomed back to the PF with open arms. We are wondering what citizens should read from this. Does the President stand by his statement of 2016 and if so, what should we read from this act of bringing back to the fold one of the persons he accused of corruption? Should we take it that the seriousness of the corruption allegations has now been overtaken by the exigencies of retaining power? Should we trust the President the next time he makes similar statements on corruption? TI-Z is of the considered view that these are questions that need answering in order for citizens to appreciate the President’s take on these matters.
From TI-Z’s point of view, the fight against corruption requires the Head of State to be consistent even in his statements about corruption. Given the seriousness of the scourge as shown, among other factors, by the continued poor performance of Zambia on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the need to adopt a robust and serious approach to fighting corruption cannot be overemphasized, and President Lungu himself has an obligation to provide real leadership to this fight through not just what he does, but even what he says. Beyond this, we also wish to point out that the President is the Head of State and Head of Government and the buck therefore stops with him. The success and failure of the fight against corruption starts and ends with him. Given this, it is unacceptable that President Lungu would like to abdicate the responsibility for developing and enforcing a robust fight against corruption to other persons whether corrupt or non-corrupt.
The PF is coming to the end of its five-year mandate and President Lungu would do well to give an account of what his government has done to address the problem of corruption. He has had six years in office to address this problem and we find it strange that he now appears to be giving excuses for his government’s failure to curb corruption. TI-Z has consistently pointed out the inadequacies of the fight against corruption and today it appears we are vindicated by this pedestrian statement from the Head of State and Government.
