Maravi

Good will triumph over evil

Good will triumph over evil
Written by Editor

When we were young, we were taught in our religious studies that there was a constant struggle between good and evil, and evil had to be punished.Well, we are not going to say we share that belief. We were taught that those who committed crimes and were responsible for injustice, evil, and all those other things that we are fighting against would be punished in hell.

We were also taught that there were struggles even in heaven, among the angels – and if there were struggles in heaven, how can we fail to understand that there may be struggles on earth?

What’s more, Jesus tells us we must love our enemies – he doesn’t say we must not have enemies – and there is no greater love for one who does wrong, one who commits crimes than to prevent him from continuing to do so.

We preached this message throughout the 10 years of Frederick Chiluba’s rule. We warned Chiluba and his friends that if they continued on that path, they would not avoid going to jail after leaving office. This can easily be found in our editorial comments during that period. When we said all this, Chiluba and his friends accused us of all sorts of things. They accused us of hatred for them.

They even concocted lies that we were attacking them because we were bitter that they had denied us jobs. And all sorts of opportunistic characters, foxes, jackals and hyenas took turns to denounce us. We had people going to State House to demonstrate to Chiluba against us. Even pastors went to State House to denounce us. We were not spared even in their sermons on Sundays.

Ordinary people could not get a permit to demonstrate but somehow, those who had something to demonstrate against us were always allowed into State House.

And this practice has continued to date. Those who want to demonstrate against us are given VIP treatment by Rupiah Banda, George Kunda and other members of this government. Even the state media puts them as lead news items even if these characters are nothing but scoundrels – mercenaries for hire. This is how things work in this country against those who try to stand up for what is good and against what is bad.

In the past few days, and even months now, we have seen attacks on Mutembo Nchito increasing. George, the Vice-President and Minister of Justice for this country, stood up in public and accused Mutembo, without any basis, of racketeering, money laundering and stealing. George has used his office to attack a citizen for reasons that are not too difficult to understand. George has never supported this fight against corruption. George has always been the defender of these corrupt elements. We say this because if George was serious, he would have raised these issues of theft a long time ago. But it is clear that this is part of his desperate strategy of frustrating, in whichever way he can, the fight against corruption.

Even now, George has been in the forefront of defending Dora Siliya against the accusations that even the Chief Justice has not found to be trivial and has accordingly appointed a tribunal that is currently sitting to probe the allegations against this minister. But this same George has found it very easy to do the opposite and orchestrate a campaign against Mutembo on a matter that is totally without basis. We say without basis because if there was basis, Investrust Bank, Intermarket Bank, Finance Bank and the Development Bank of Zambia would have reported the matter to the police or other law enforcement agencies. But to date, none of these banks from whom Zambian Airways had borrowed money has accused Mutembo of stealing. And George knows this very well. But George is not alone. He tried the tricks he is doing now under Levy Mwanawasa. George failed. It is clear that he now has the blessing of Rupiah to continue his strategy to destroy the fight against corruption and stop Mutembo from completing the cases in which their political friends and allies are involved.

We know that many of our people have been wondering why the viciousness of the attacks on Mutembo have increased and intensified in the last few days. The events of the last two days should offer some insight. Two lieutenant generals – Geojago Musengule and Sunday Kayumba – have gone to join their friend Lt Gen Christopher Singogo and former intelligence chief Xavier Chungu. If it wasn’t for ill-health, they would have also found former Zambia National Service commandant Lt Gen Wilford Funjika. This is in addition to former Zambia National Commercial Bank managing director Samuel Musonda, former health permanent secretary Kashiwa Bulaya, and just yesterday, Regina, Chiluba’s wife. All these people are, in one way or another, in jail as a result of Mutembo’s work. In the history of prosecutions in Zambia, who has done that much work other than Mutembo? And this is not work that was done in one day, it was not a quick fix or an instant coffee situation. It is a result of more than seven years of extremely hard work requiring maximum dedication and concentration amidst so many attacks from the corrupt elements themselves and their supporters and from the likes of George.

These characters know that Mutembo is incorruptible and that he leads a clean life. They also know that Mutembo is very much aware of the importance of incorruptibility as part of the essence of self-respect. And we can say this with confidence because for the last nine years, we have worked very closely with Mutembo as our lawyer and as a comrade in the fight against corruption. While appreciating opportunities to enjoy the good life, Mutembo has always refused to use his position to get himself, or those close or connected to him, anything that wasn’t his due. This is the record George cannot boast about. This is the record that George, in league with some shameless scoundrels, corrupt elements and their supporters, are trying to tarnish without shame or restraint. It won’t work. And to borrow a popular phrase of Levy’s, “it won’t do”.

We know that George knows that Mutembo is incorruptible. He knows that he is principled. George knows that the appointment of Mutembo as public prosecutor in these corruption cases did not come by accident. Mutembo was already working with the Anti Corruption Commission for free on corruption matters before Chiluba left government. The record is there for anyone to see. When these cases came up, those he had been working with felt it only logical to invite him because he was already on these cases with The Post. Mutembo was the first lawyer in this country to deal with matters concerning the corruption of Chiluba and his friends. He was the only lawyer in this country, at that time, who had invested time working with us to unearth the matrix of plunder by Chiluba and his friends. It is not something that Mutembo went into for money. It is something he joined on principle without any promise of financial reward. The fees came later when some donors offered to pay for the services of lawyers and other professionals who were involved in these cases. So it wasn’t about money, vanity, greed or anything of the sort. It was out of a belief that it is not possible for one to continue to live in a society that is rotten to the head, that is reeking with corruption in every pore; it was out of a belief that the individual does best in a strong and decent community of people with principles and standards and common aims and values. And not in a society where a president steals public money to go and buy himself designer shoes, designer suits, shirts, pajamas and to buy property and other things for concubines. This is what brought Mutembo into the job he is doing today. He never applied for it. And this is why George was stupidly insinuating that Mutembo did not tender to be prosecutor. Nobody tenders to join a struggle. And George can ask Kenneth Kaunda and his comrades if they had ever tendered to join the struggle for the liberation of our country and our region. He should also ask Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika, Mbita Chitala, Vernon Mwanga, and many others, if they had tendered to initiate or join the struggle to return our country to a multi-party political dispensation. In a struggle, you are not drafted the way George was recruited into government and politics by Levy. Anyway, George has not struggled for anything of value, of principle so he can’t understand some of these things. Even to become Vice-President, what did George do other than being nice to Rupiah?

George, knowing that Mutembo is incorruptible, is trying to malign him by suggesting that he stole. But George and his organised sycophants have not shown the country even one ngwee that Mutembo stole. They seem comfortable making generalised accusations because their goal is to cripple the fight against corruption. We say this because we know very well that George knows very well that there is no case of theft that can be reasonably, fairly and justifiably brought against Mutembo. All that he is dwelling on is politics. As we have already pointed out, if Mutembo had stolen one ngwee from any of these banks or even from National Airports Corporation, they would not even have been talking. Even George himself would have not called for investigations, he would have simply ordered the arrest and prosecution of Mutembo.

As for the pastors and other idiots they are using, these are elements that are for hire by useless people. Only desperate and corrupt people can rely on the support of such elements. And this speaks volumes about the calibre of George and his friends as top leaders of our country.

We are not surprised that there is this air of desperation. There has been a lot of propaganda about the ineffectiveness of the Task Force and the prosecution of the cases, mainly from the supporters of the corrupt, including George himself. But now that it is clear that these cases are not going away and that it is difficult to get acquitted when you have stolen or abused state resources, the likes of George are turning the attention on the leading prosecutor of these cases – Mutembo. They would like him neutralised to ensure that these cases stop. Anyway, this is what happens when people are desperate and shortsighted. They can’t see that this fight has moved beyond Mutembo, The Post or any of us. The Zambian people are saying no to corruption. Is it not true that some of these characters celebrated when Levy died because they thought that was the end of their cases? Where are they today? We used to tell them that these cases are not Levy’s cases but the people’s cases. Levy is gone but they are still going to prison today. They tried to blame everything on Levy and us. They accused Levy of all sorts of things over these cases. Can they still say so today?

Maybe we should tell them again that these are not Mutembo’s cases. Even if he is not there, our people, our courts have spoken. They don’t like corruption and this is how it should be. And this is the way it shall be.

And as to those pastors who have been demonstrating and saying all sorts of things in support of Chiluba and his corrupt friends, we advise them to think twice now that Chiluba’s wife has been jailed for receiving stolen money from this same man they want to exalt and honour. As for us, we are used to their baseness, calumny and lies. What haven’t they accused us of socially, politically and otherwise? If we had chicken hearts, we wouldn’t be here today.

The struggle between good and evil will continue and as long as we are able to breathe, we will be part of it. We will never support corruption, we will never be part of corruption. And every attempt to try to smear us with filth of corruption will backfire on those leading it. We tell George, Rupiah and their friends that we are not like them, and their attempts to malign us, to criminalise our actions will not do. Good will triumph over evil!

Labels: CHILUBA, CORRUPTION, THE POST

posted by MrK @ 8:40 PM