No friendship, no political patronage

No friendship, no political patronage
Written by Editor

The time has come for crimes against the state, against the people, to be investigated thoroughly. When crimes are committed it does not matter who has committed them. It even doesn’t matter what the record of public service of those who have raped the people is.

We say this because it is easy to have been good in the past, to be good today and to end up being bad tomorrow. Yes, we know that in life, past good record is usually used as a mitigation. But we have not come to that stage yet where people should offer mitigations. The stage we are at is one of unearthing all the wrongs that have been committed against our people, all the stealing of public resources that has taken place.

And in this regard, as the Lozis would say, “…akuna mwana amoola, nebayena moola kasibili.” What the Lozis are saying is that when it comes to wrongdoing, there is no favourite person who should be protected; even the favourite person himself or herself should be made to face the temerity of his or her actions.

This is why when we have been accused of wrongdoing over the affairs of Zambian Airways, our response has been “no one is above the law, not even ourselves. If we have done something wrong, we should be arrested and be prosecuted like everyone else”.

This is the standard we believe should apply to everyone whether friend or foe of those in power, or even of ours. The only issue that should never be lost sight of is of fairness, of equitable application of the law. We also believe this applies to us in our coverage of wrongdoing. No person should think they will be protected from exposure, from denunciation or harangue on account of them being our friends. It is not wrong for them to be our friends but it is wrong for them to commit crimes against the people, to steal or abuse public resources.

And in this regard, loyalty and commitment to the people and their interests should always take precedence over obligations to an individual, to a friend.

Reading Dr Simon Miti’s letter to Rupiah Banda makes us feel that the man is seeking political protection. Why? What makes him believe this protection can be extended to him? What makes him think pleading his innocence to Rupiah and reminding him of all sorts of things is enough to get him off the hook?

We know, and many Zambians know, that the Ministry of Health has been the citadel of political and financial abuses of public resources in this country for a very long time. In 2001, the Ministry of Health was used by Frederick Chiluba, Kashiwa Bulaya and others to get Levy Mwanawasa elected.

Millions of taxpayers’ money was siphoned off from the Ministry of Health to fund Levy’s campaign. Even automobiles, some of them probably even donated by donors, were removed from the Ministry of Health and used in Levy’s campaign. We exposed this. We denounced this.

Later, when the time came for accounting, for prosecuting the wrongdoings of Bulaya, Levy and George Kunda tried to give political protection to Bulaya because of the favours he did for them, including testifying for them in the presidential petition that followed those corrupt elections.

We will not be surprised to hear that Dr Miti thinks Rupiah and George can try to do for him what Levy and this same George tried to do for Bulaya – but failed miserably.

Protection of friends who have done wrong things is a very serious crime and should be considered a very immoral act. If a friend is doing wrong against the people and we are aware of it, we should be the first ones to report him or her to the police. In decent societies, you cannot run to your family for protection, to hide after you have committed a crime - they will hand you over very quickly to the police. This is what used to happen in this country before our families, our communities, our nation lost their values, their standards, their principles and started to defend and protect wrongdoing and wrongdoers.

This is why today people like Chiluba and his convicted wife still continue to enjoy special reservation at state functions. This is why today, they continue to be defended by pastors of all sorts of churches. This is why today even ministers of government like Benny Tetamashimba, Ronnie Shikapwasha and Mike Mulongoti are defending Chiluba’s crimes in all sorts of ways.

After many battles or differences, we came to enjoy what can be said to be a good relationship with Levy but never did we on any occasion shy away from exposing or denouncing wrong decisions, wrong actions from him or his government. We denounced Levy heavily over the Bulaya issue. And who was going round defending him and calling us names? Don’t be surprised! It was the same Mike Mulongoti who is today defending Chiluba!

Friendship or loyalty should never extend to defence of wrongdoing. None of us has the duty of defending a friend who engages in wrong things. We can be civil towards them, we can extend personal favours but the public should be protected from wrongdoers, whoever they might be.

It was in this vein that we called for the arrest and prosecution of Mutembo Nchito if he had done anything wrong at Zambian Airways. But these same people started going round saying or insinuating that we had differed with Mutembo. In their own judgement, no one should ever call for the arrest or prosecution of a friend who has done wrong unless the friendship has soured or has been repudiated.

Of course, we made that call knowing very well that Mutembo had done nothing wrong, and we could even vouch for his innocence, but still more we refused to put this very dear brother of ours above the law. This is as it should be. The law should apply to all of us equally and also equally protect us.

We did not even spare ourselves from the scrutiny of the law. This is because we have spent a lot of time exposing wrongdoing. When accusations are brought against us, we should have no problem letting them be investigated in full. This does not deprive us, like everyone else, of our right to defend ourselves. We will do so with all the vigour that we can master.

We are saying this because we believe that it is important for our people to understand that the law is for all of us. It is for the good of our nation, it would be wrong for an impression to be created, or even a practice to develop where those who occupy important positions in our society are never held to account. They use all sorts of immunities to run away from being made to account or to explain their decisions and actions.

Last week, Tetamashimba, in a letter copied to us, challenged Sylvia Masebo to account for her role in various transactions at her former ministry - the Ministry of Local Government and Housing. Masebo’s response was to request Rupiah to allow her to talk.

While we respect Masebo’s approach as rational and professional, we believe that her integrity has been called into question. Waiting for Rupiah who may be involved in some of the issues that she has to comment about to permit her to talk is naïve. It doesn’t make sense because Rupiah will never authorise her to speak freely and truthfully on what she knows.

Rupiah is at the centre of the corruption of his government. And to borrow Abraham Lincoln’s phrase, the buck in all these issues stops here - at Rupiah. It is Rupiah’s integrity that is in question. In all these transactions, if this approach stands, it is Rupiah who is being investigated because the buck stops at him.

We need to move beyond the kind of patronage that we see in Dr Miti’s letter. Rupiah and his friends need to understand that our people expect more from them than what they are doing. Finger-pointing and political mud-slinging should not divert our law enforcement agencies from the real issues. Monies have been stolen, funds have been misappropriated. All those who are found wanting should be held to account. No friendship, no political patronage. This is what will purify our country and build it into a strong nation of decent and upright leaders and citizens.

If we have any role to play in this, it is that: we will not defend wrongdoing from anyone regardless of their friendship with us, their past record of public service or good doing.

We will also not shy away from denouncing wrong because some of Rupiah’s people are saying we are trying to deflect attention from ourselves over the Zambian Airways issue. It is not us investigating the Zambian Airways issue; it is them and the policemen under their control who are doing it. Let them gather all the evidence they need, arrest us and take us to court. We have said this before, and we say it again, no wrongdoing from anyone, including ourselves should be tolerated. If we have done anything wrong, arrest us and prosecute us. Let our law enforcement officers deal with all crimes regardless of who is behind them or when the crimes were committed.