Maravi

Let these thieves go in

Let these thieves go in
By Editor
Thursday August 14, 2008 [04:00]

In our first edition, our launch edition of The Weekly Post, as The Post was then called, we accused Francis Kaunda, who was at the time chairman and chief executive of the state-owned Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (ZCCM) company, of dishonesty in the way he was conducting the affairs of ZCCM. And yesterday, over seventeen years later, our courts of law found this same Francis Kaunda guilty of criminal conduct, of conspiring to defraud ZCCM.

Francis Kaunda’s lawyers can today legally argue that this man is a first offender who deserved leniency. However, given his history of corruption, of abuse of office, we don’t believe that Francis Kaunda is truly a first offender. If he is a first offender, it is simply by way of default, by way of impunity arising from the fact that he was not arrested and prosecuted for his crimes.

If Francis Kaunda was an honest person, he would have stopped crooked dealings after surviving prosecution in his earlier misdeeds. But this man seems to be an unrepentant crook masked in that innocent face – a wolf in sheep’s skin.

As for Faustin Kabwe, this is just the beginning of his problems. The man has been at the centre of all this plunder. Faustin has been the kingpin, the mastermind of the raping of this country that characterised the Chiluba regime.

We, therefore, feel that these two men don’t deserve any further leniency because the sentences that have been handed out to them are more than lenient. In saying this we are not being insensitive, hateful, cruel or vengeful. We don’t believe in such attitudes. Vengeance or hatefulness can find no place in an honest person’s heart.

You can fight with all the determination and strength of will in the world, but you can’t do it out of hate or vengefulness. We don’t preach hatred. But this doesn’t mean that we have a friendly feeling towards those who steal from their poor country, those who rob their poor people of their limited resources.

We have struggled very hard against the vices of these men and their friends and we have suffered all sorts of wrongs as a result of our work, yet we don’t hate them. What we hate and repudiate is their crime, their criminal behaviour. It is not a matter of hating them as individuals but of hating their iniquitous conduct.

In our religious studies, we were taught that there was a constant struggle between good and evil, and evil had to be punished. We were also taught that those who committed crimes and were responsible for injustice, evil would be punished in hell. And that can’t be interpreted as an expression of hatred.

Francis Kaunda’s lawyer says he doesn’t deserve to go to jail because he is a man of distinction. What distinction? Distinction in theft, dishonesty? A man of distinction cannot do what Francis Kaunda did. It is only a man without distinction who can be dishonest in the way Francis Kaunda was.

Moreover, we have learnt from other people, from the Americans and Europeans that even outstanding citizens, rich individuals are sent to jail when they become dishonest and commit crimes. Jeffrey Archer was sent to prison for dishonesty and the British system did nothing to save him from justice. We have many examples in America, Russia and even Cuba.

There has to be equality before the law. Equality before the law is fundamental to any just and democratic society. Whether rich or poor, political ally of the state or opponent – all should be equal before the law.

The state should be required to deal evenly and equally with all its people – whether poor or rich. Moreover, now that we know that all that these characters have came from crookedness, why should we continue to respect and treat them as rich people?

They are not rich. They are simply thieves who have not conducted any meaningful business other than stealing. It is time we stopped glorifying thieves because of their loot.

And there is no need to feel sorry for Francis Kaunda and Faustin Kabwe. Nobody feels sorry for a snake charmer or wild animal tamer who gets bitten. If one does no wrong, no wrong will ever come to them. Do not plough the ground to plant seeds of injustice; you may reap a bigger harvest than you expect. It doesn’t pay to rely on dishonest wealth; it will do you no good on that day of disaster.

All along, Francis Kaunda, Faustin Kabwe and their corrupt friends have been crying that they were being persecuted – not prosecuted – for political reasons. What politics is there in these prosecutions?

There is only crime in these cases.
We know that they have been celebrating over President Levy Mwanawasa’s illness in the hope and belief that a new regime, which is more accommodating to corruption and corrupt elements, may be ushered in.

Some are even hoping that their fellow accused Katele Kalumba could become president of the Republic of Zambia and stop these prosecutions and quash their convictions or pardon them. This is possible but if it happens, it will be the worst crime the Zambian people will commit against themselves.

Zambians should never again allow crooked characters, thieves and dishonest elements of all hues to rule over them.

The experience over the Chiluba regime is enough for them to never, in any way, put in office such criminals. We know that they have started campaigning heavily and plotting for the presidential bye-election that they think is just a few months away.

But let us make this a waste of time on their part and ensure that if Levy is to be succeeded now, only an honest person should be allowed to take over from him. Whatever the other merits of these criminals, their criminal attitudes and conduct should totally disqualify them for that high office.

We have learnt enough about what power can do. Power is power! The most difficult, most important fight that anyone with power faces is the fight against himself, the struggle for self-control. That may be one of the toughest ones – against corruption and even against the abuse of one’s prerogatives.

One has to have a very well-trained, strong conscience, a great deal of awareness, because we have seen people become full of themselves, become extremely selfish and greedy and full of vanity and use power in the wrong way: the tendency towards the use of power in the wrong way is something that one has to be in constant watch for. Here we are talking about an honest person.

We are not talking of a dishonest person, a corrupt person because he is totally incapable of avoiding these dangers in any way. It is like what once Hakainde Hichilema said that you can’t put a monkey in a maize field because it is incapable of avoiding eating all the maize.

It is true that these corruption cases have taken a bit longer to conclude than expected. But yesterday’s convictions are a clear proof that although the wheels of justice grind very slowly, they eventually arrive.

Let us be patient and support the work of the Task Force, its investigators and prosecutors and give no political room or otherwise to the plunderers for escape. Let us ensure that all of them go in, are nailed to the cross. We know they have got money and they will appeal and be given bail while pending appeal which our poor people normally don’t get.

But again, we shouldn’t be discouraged by this because in the final analysis, they will go in, the appeal process will be exhausted, will come to an end and they will have to go in.

Labels: CORRUPTION, FAUSTIN KABWE, FRANCIS KAUNDA, ZCCM-IH

posted by MrK @ 6:02 AM