Arrest and prosecute us!

Arrest and prosecute us!
Written by Editor

Lies are very easy to tell. But they are very difficult to sustain. It was very easy for Rupiah Banda and his friends to falsely accuse us that we have stolen US $30 million from state institutions but it is now proving very difficult for them to sustain their lies. Their options now are very few. They have exhausted their propaganda on us. What people now want to see is a solid case of our alleged theft.

People now want to see where and how we had stolen US $30 million from state institutions. And since Rupiah had promised that he will make sure that this money is recovered from us, they also want to witness that recovery.

It is clear now to every honest person that contrary to their claims, we have not stolen any money. And those they had tasked to validate their claims against us have found nothing wrong in the way the affairs of Zambian Airways were conducted.

As we have indicated before, we will be the first ones to admit that not every decision that was made at Zambian Airways was the best or turned out perfect. Mistakes were made, but none of those mistakes can be said to be fraud or to have been motivated by anyone’s desire to cheat, to steal.

So many lies have been told. Now is the time for the truth to come out. We don’t think Rupiah today can have the courage to repeat his accusations that we have stolen US $30 million from state institutions. We say this because it is now clear to everybody that he lied about us. And he now knows that the Zambian people know that he lied. Rupiah’s lie is no longer sustainable and any attempt to sustain it will only lead to more humiliation. They started an investigation whose findings they today have difficulties to face and accept: that there is nothing wrong we did at Zambian Airways. It is increasingly becoming too costly for them politically and otherwise to sustain this lie. And this leaves them with only two options: to admit that they falsely accused us of theft and apologise, or to take us to court on any charge no matter how ridiculous it may be, hoping miracles can happen there.

In our view, there is only one sensible option for them and that it is to admit that they were wrong. Of course if they admit that they were wrong, their political opponents, and even ourselves, will go for them. They will be harangued. But there will be a limit to how much political capital one will be able to extract out of it because their lie would have disappeared, it would have been replaced by an honest statement. But if this lie continues, then there will be no end to their being pounded. In the end, those who refuse to accept their mistakes, their errors, are going to be forced to self-correct, but in another way; they are going to be smeared with their own offal.

The option of taking us to court on the accusations of having stolen over US $1.7 million from National Airports Corporation may buy them a few more days, weeks but it won’t be long before they face their Armageddon. They will be seriously humiliated in court because they don’t have any case against us. Courts don’t deal with propaganda, they deal with evidence. They will have to show the court, with evidence, that we stole and how we had stolen. It will not be like the propaganda they have been peddling at State House rallies and in the state-owned and government-controlled ZNBC television and radio and the Times of Zambia and Daily Mail and Dickson Jere’s Executive Issues and the myriad of anonymous circulars they have been circulating on the internet. Actually, for us, what we would love most, at this stage, is for the matter to go to court. This is the only place where the truth will be fully disclosed to all our people. If this matter is not taken to court, our people will not have the opportunity to know the extent of Rupiah’s lies and what motivated them. It is for this reason that we are begging them to effect arrests so that we proceed to court. If there was a way to arrest ourselves and take ourselves to court, we would have done so a long time. It’s only them who control the law enforcement agencies and administer the judicial process who can do so.

They have really put themselves in an awkward position and they don’t have humble people around them who can find a dignified exit for them. Their lies have come back to haunt them; nobody is believing their propaganda anymore – and even that propaganda has now dried out and they are contradicting themselves every day.

However, there is a danger to the law enforcement agencies that they have engaged in their criminal schemes against us. It takes many years to build public trust and confidence in institutions like the Drug Enforcement Commission and the Anti-Corruption Commission. But it doesn’t take that long to destroy their integrity. Engaging these institutions in the political battles of Rupiah is corruption and recklessness of the highest order. If they don’t exit now, and in a dignified manner, their credibility will be badly dented. These are institutions that survive and prosper on the basis of public trust and support. And if that trust and support is lost, then they become useless.

This is what happens in a nation when political leaders become blinded by hatred, vengeance, malice and all sorts of vices. As a result of this, Rupiah and his friends started to believe their own lies and propaganda. We think they may still have problems accepting reports from the officers they have engaged that absolve us of any wrongdoing. But there is no other way. This is a matter of fact: it’s either we have stolen something or we haven’t. They have to live with this reality.

And this is the difference between us and them. They have tried so much to convince our people that whatever we have written about their wrongdoings is not true, it’s malice, lies. But at every turn, we have been able to prove every story or article about their wrongdoing that we have published. Whatever accusation we have made against Rupiah, we have evidence to back it. When we accused Rupiah of tribalism, we had a recording of his speech in Chipata. And when we accused him of electoral corruption in Petauke, we had pictures and a recording of his speech. When we accused him of bribing James Lukuku and his friends, we were able to produce a 1991 Times of Zambia story showing him doing the same thing. There is no accusation that we have made against Rupiah that we have failed to prove. Even recently, everything that we had published about Dora Siliya’s dealings with Selex and RP Capital, we were able to provide the complainant with documentary evidence to back our stories. We don’t just accuse people without evidence, without proof and out of malice or hatred. Unlike them, we put our names or identity to every accusation we make against anyone. For them, its innuendos. They can’t say so-and-so has done this easily and take responsibility for their accusations. This is why even George Kunda can go to Parliament and make false accusations in the form of innuendos. This is what malicious people do. This is how liars conduct their affairs.

It’s easy for them to tell lies and publicise them because they have got the entire ZNBC, Times of Zambia and Daily Mail and Dickson’s Executive Issues at their disposal. But having a media to use for lies is one thing, proving one’s claim with facts, with evidence is another. Eventually, their lies catch up with them, they become unsustainable like is becoming the case now.

Whatever we have done against them has never been motivated by malice, hatred, vengeance or any other negative trait in a human being. Vengeance, hatred, malice can find no place in our hearts. You can fight with all the determination and strength of will in the world, but you can’t sustain it for long, for 18 years out of hate, vengeance or malice. We made our minds a long time ago that in this battle against vices, there will be no quarter given anyone, we are going to call a spade a spade, and we are going to appeal to the honour of every citizen of goodwill. And one thing we are sure of: In every human being, there is a high sense of shame. And every good citizen’s first duty is to be extremely harsh with himself. We only hope Rupiah and his friends will have the courage to accept their mistakes, their errors and take corrective action. Lies are not sustainable.

All said, we again beg them to arrest us so that we go and settle this matter once and for all in court. For us to be accused of theft is not a small thing, it’s not something that we can simply ignore, especially if such accusations are coming from the President of our country. Rupiah accused us of theft, let him show us the proof of that; let him back his charge with evidence.