Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has been made aware of a story that ran on some social media platforms yesterday (6th July 2021) purporting that Mr. Rueben Lifuka, Transparency International Vice Chairperson and TI-Z’s immediate past Chapter President, endorsed the candidature of President Edgar Lungu and commended his fight against corruption.
While we have noted that Mr. Lifuka has put the record straight and clarified that at no point has he ever endorsed any presidential candidate nor commended President Lungu’s fight against corruption, we would further like to categorically state TI-Z’s position on the contents of the fabricated story.
First, TI-Z’s mandate is to be an anti-corruption and good governance activist at different levels of society. It is therefore not in the remit of our mandate to endorse, either directly or indirectly, any political candidates at any level. We are a key stakeholder in the electoral process with a focus on issues to do with electoral corruption in general, and the notion that we would therefore endorse any candidate should be dismissed with the contempt it deserves.
Secondly, we are on record as having raised serious concerns over Zambia’s current fight against corruption, and highlighted as much in our 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which we launched at the beginning of this year. The 2020 CPI results showed a downward trend for Zambia where we have become worse in terms of corruption in each of the last five years since 2016 when our score has been regressing. These are concerns that we have been consistently raising, and it would therefore be very contradictory and highly illogical for the vice Chair of Transparency International to then commend a corruption fight that has been non-existent and showed no real political will at the highest echelons of power.
We therefore would like to reiterate TI Vice Chair’s clarification of the fabricated statement that was attributed to him, and to also reiterate that TI-Z has not and will not endorse any candidate in this year’s elections. Lastly, TI-Z continues to call for real political will in the fight against corruption in Zambia. Fabricating statements in a bid to give credence to a corruption fight that has been faltering over the last five years or so will not see us make the real progress we need to make as a country in fighting this scourge.
Sampa J. Kalungu
TI-Z Chapter President
