Give Levy the credit he deserves
Give Levy the credit he deservesBy Editor
Friday May 04, 2007 [18:00]
There is no doubt that Frederick Chiluba is truly a thief; he stole millions of dollars from the Zambian people and totally abused the office of President of the Republic of Zambia entrusted to him by his fellow countrymen and women. Chiluba tried all sorts of gymnastics to ensure that the truth over his thefts did not come out. He unsuccessfully challenged the English court’s jurisdiction over him and his tandem of thieves before the High Court and the Court of Appeal. He even tried to go as far as the House of Lords but his petition for leave to appeal was dismissed.
Here at home, in Zambia, Chiluba tried to politicise the proceedings in the English court, dismissing them as an imperialist plot against him for refusing to sell the country’s mines to a consortium they had favoured.
Chiluba tried to confuse Zambian politicians with chicken hearts and manipulated them to defend his crimes, his thefts. Political opportunists hoping to cash-in on the money he had stolen and the patronage that it could engender, were not ashamed to drink chibwantu with him in the hope that he could help increase their political fortunes.
Some to this very day still organise cadres to receive and dance for him at the airport whenever he comes from South Africa where he receives expensive medical treatment at the expense of the people he robbed.
It is clear from the judgment of the Chancery Division of the Royal Courts of England that Chiluba was a shameless thief who had no trouble taking millions of dollars from government coffers when the majority of our people were struggling to survive on less than a dollar a day. He has shown no remorse for taking more than a million dollars to Switzerland to buy his pathetic tailor-made suits and high-heeled shoes.
It is good, as the English judge has said, that every time Chiluba appears in public the people of Zambia will now know that he is wearing stolen clothes and he is walking tall on high-heeled shoes he acquired using stolen funds.
This judgment offers us an important opportunity to reflect on the way our country has been governed. It shows us the low level of accountability that has been present in our government. It also gives us an opportunity to review the way our government is run. No single person should be allowed to wield the kind of unbridled control over public resources that Chiluba seemed to enjoy and abuse. We should never rely on the discretion of one person to protect our public resources. Accountability must be clearly revisited. Our laws must be amended to address the clear flows that allowed Chiluba and his wicked friends to steal such colossal sums of money with impunity.
And let us not forget that the amounts that were the subject of proceedings in England are nothing but a tip of the iceberg. They represent a tiny fraction of what Chiliuba and his tandem of thieves stole.
There is still the ZCCM copper and cobalt scam. We also have the Chiluba connection to the Total oil importation scams.
Many Zambians may still remember Kwachamania. That was another scheme by Chiluba and his financial handlers – like Faustine Kabwe – to rob not only the Zambian people directly but also to extract unjustified concessions from the Zambian government. What about Chiluba’s presidential discretionary fund which had in-built mechanisms for abuse without being accountable?
We know that in the 1990s, the importation of fertiliser and maize was a game for vultures. The government-owned Medical Stores became a den of robbers – the importation of drugs was used to cover illicit transactions. We have not forgotten that Donald Chanda, Chiluba’s economic adviser, preferred to go to jail than to divulge what was happening at Medical Stores. And Kashiba Bulaya is in jail today because of theft involving money for medical drugs.
Today Chiluba still lives in a house – 12B Serval Road, Kabulonga in Lusaka - which even the English judge says was bought using stolen public money.
The Zambian people are very kind, are a very generous people; on top of all these abuses and thefts by Chiluba they are still thinking of building him a house worth billions of kwacha in addition to the other benefits he is enjoying from their taxes. This is certainly not right. The only time the taxpayers should be forced to look after someone who has stolen for them is when that person is put behind bars, he is in jail. It cannot be right for Chiluba to enjoy the liberties that he now enjoys using public resources, given the atrocities that he has committed.
It should not be forgotten that when Chiluba was enjoying wearing his stupid and ridiculous multi-coloured suits and shoes, many Zambians were dying from preventable diseases because they had no access to basic health care. Chiluba was plundering their money whilst denying them access to medicine. But today these same people he abused are paying heavily for his medical tourism in Johannesburg while they themselves have difficulties accessing even the cheapest malaria treatment. What type of kindness is this?
President Levy Mwanawasa must explain to the Zambian people why a thief who stole more than US$40m from the Zambian people should continue enjoying the facilities that he is now enjoying at the expense of the people he has robbed.
However, we should be proud as Zambians that such a difficult and emotive issue has been dealt with in this civilised way. Chiluba, for all the nonsense and crimes he committed against the Zambian people, has been afforded access to the proper due process of the law and treated in a very humane way. Let us not take this for granted because Chiluba himself never treated others humanely. We have not forgotten how he brutalised, humiliated and marginalised Dr Kenneth Kaunda, among others.
Chiluba denied Dr Kaunda all his dues – benefits he had worked for 27 years and yet there was no judgment that said our country’s first president had done any wrong or stolen anything from the Zambian people.
We must commend the Zambian people for their patience and respect for the rule of law. In the same regard we must give credit to Levy for the way he has handled this matter given the relationship he had with Chiluba. One does not need a lot of intelligence – if a little is all he has – to realise that this was not an easy undertaking for Levy; it was a very difficult one. It is only under extra-ordinary circumstances that a man can decide to surrender his mentor to law enforcement agencies.
We are also conscious that Levy has paid an extremely high price politically and socially for the position he has taken on Chiluba and his cohort of thieves. It would have been quite easy for Levy to u-turn and abandon this crusade. We do not forget that there has been a lot of contradictions from the government in the fight against corruption. And yet we must acknowledge that on the whole, Levy has delivered the decisive victory for the Zambian people. It doesn’t matter how active and pro-active as a free press, indeed it does not matter how pro-active and militant civil society might be, the victory that the Zambian people have scored could not have been scored without a willing government – Levy deserves a credit.
However, what this brings out is the fact that the press is just one force. And civil society on its own is just another force. The presidency in our country is a force but just one force. What our country needs is a combined force of all these forces. Let us not forget that at the beginning of all this there was one or two forces – the press and one or two politicians. And then came civil society, which helped to create a much bigger force with a much stronger voice demanding the removal of Chiluba’s presidential immunity so that he could be prosecuted. At this point a third force – the Presidency was required to join forces not only with the other forces we have already mentioned but with another force – that of parliamentarians – to remove Chiluba’s immunity and open him to prosecution. But still, Levy’s role was at the centre, it was pivotal and remained decisive. He was required to make tremendous political sacrifices and take unthinkable political risks to deliver this landmark victory for the Zambian people.
And for all our differences with Levy, and for all his shortcomings – which are many, we cannot and we will never deny him this credit. We say this because if for a moment we unfairly deny him this credit, we will not be able to defend our principles and be of value in helping our people and our country to fight the next stages of this battle, of this war against corruption and abuse of our people.
Every fair-minded Zambian should give Levy the credit he deserves. He has established a precedent that no one is above the law.
Labels: CHILUBA, EDITORIAL, MWANAWASA
posted by MrK @ 3:44 AM
5 Comments:
" We are also conscious that Levy has paid an extremely high price politically and socially for the position he has taken on Chiluba and his cohort of thieves. It would have been quite easy for Levy to u-turn and abandon this crusade. "
But didn't he also make Chiluba's ex-wife a deputy minister? With no apparant qualification other than her being Chiluba's ex-wife?
That doesn't sound like a difficult choice to me, it sounds like vindictiveness. :)
" Every fair-minded Zambian should give Levy the credit he deserves. He has established a precedent that no one is above the law. "
Or at least that no ex-president is above the law. Which might make all the difference.
However I will show some largesse, and admit that this is a good beginning in the fight against corruption, and that this fight cannot stop, until it reaches how and why these mining contracts were signed.
And why Zambia is not benefiting from it's mines. The constitution is pretty clear - the mines are vested in the president, on behalf of the Zambian people.
I think there is plenty of room for a willing and imaginative government to get Zambia to benefit from it's mines to the maximum degree again.
I am a little unclear on the consquences of the British Court finding Chiluba guilty.
Its obviously a civil case, but does Chiluba have any assets in the UK? Are the British going to try and locate his Swiss accounts?
Because from the British tax payer's point of view, this has probably been a waste of money if nothing actually happens to FTJ.
Levy doesn't deserve any credit at all. The Chiluba case has been going on for long and he too served under his administration and it was Chiluba that hand picked him and we do not know what deal was clinched in return for silence. Mwanawasa was put under pressure to prosecute Chiluba and once he too leaves the seat, the same cohorts he eats with will spill the beans and he too will be questioned to justify he sudden wealth. Zambians are not foolish and that day will come to pass.
slm
" Mwanawasa was put under pressure to prosecute Chiluba and once he too leaves the seat, the same cohorts he eats with will spill the beans and he too will be questioned to justify he sudden wealth. Zambians are not foolish and that day will come to pass. "
I agree, and it seems to be a vicious circle. The leader of today prosecutes the leader of yesterday.
The problem is that this makes leaders extremely reluctant to leave office. The fear of prosecution must also play a huge role in all these leaders who are looking the infamous 'third term' in office.
It is the problem of people who come to office to help themselves to the nation's resources illegally. Like a mafia don, they too can never get out, because getting out means stepping away from the blanket of legal immunity and power that a president has.
Well we are already seeing signs of a third term coming from Levy's camp. Despite his banning any campgaining for the MMD presidency he has not made an effort to silence Tetemashimba who is telling us that Levy deserves a third term.
I just hope everything will not come to halt now as they are many unanswered quetsions such as
- cobalt / copper scandal
- who were the people behind FTJ
- Mabenga et al
- UNZA land allocation
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