Maravi

Endless scheming

Endless scheming
Written by Editor

Things must be called by their right names. If someone engages in corruption, he should be called a corrupt person; if someone steals, he should be called a thief. This does not mean that we are speaking with hate, or harshly about anyone; or that we want to ‘kill’ someone, as Michael Mabenga is claiming.

We should analyse, censure, criticise seriously all these things. When we talk about Mabenga being corrupt, we have a strong basis for saying so. Mabenga was found to be corrupt by a High Court judgment in an election petition by Sikota Wina challenging his election as Mulobezi member of parliament in 2001.

Wina succeeded in his petition because Mabenga had engaged in corrupt activities to help him win. He lost that election. Mabenga appealed to the Supreme Court against that High Court judgment that had found him to be corrupt. And in the Supreme Court judgment, it was observed that Mabenga had put “undue pressure on the poor civil servant to withdraw the money [Constituency Development Fund] on December 3, 2001 with elections coming on December 27, 2001. This in fact amounts to theft of these funds”. This was the observation of the Supreme Court bench comprising chief justice Ernest Sakala, justices Dennis Chirwa, Lombe Chibesakunda, Ireen Mambilima and Sandson Silomba. These judges further added that: “On the use of Constituency Development Funds, this [judgment of the High Court] cannot be faulted, in fact with evidence before the court, the learned trial judge should have recommended to the Director of Public Prosecutions in terms of Section 29 of the Electoral Act. The smoke screen schemed by the appellant and his witnesses in the matter does not make any sense for if the money was meant for projects, there ought to have been invoices demanding payment and not keep the money because of the rumour of an election petition touching the same money.”
Clearly, even our Supreme Court judges found Mabenga to be a schemer of smoke screens. And if he thinks the same scheme that failed all the way to our Supreme Court will help him succeed in his libel claim against The Post, he is a joker who is wasting his time and indeed the court’s time.

It is not our intention to argue this case in the press, but what can we do when Mabenga decides to go to a radio station in Mazabuka to tell lies about us? Mabenga claims that we have been evasive each time the matter came up for hearing. When will Mabenga learn to tell the truth and respect truth? The court record is there for all to see. At no time throughout these proceedings did The Post ever cause an adjournment. Some of the adjournments were actually caused by Mabenga himself on grounds that he was attending to national duties. We challenge Mabenga to prove otherwise. When will this shameless liar ever learn that telling lies does not pay? Scheming will not take him anywhere because it is easy to see through it as the Supreme Court did.

We will not speak for other people Mabenga has sued for libel. But speaking for ourselves, Mabenga stands no chance of succeeding in his suit. And in saying this, we are not unnecessarily being stubborn. If in any way we were convinced that we have libeled Mabenga, we would have had no difficulties apologising to him and making amends. And this we have told Mabenga during the course of this matter. And we remind Mabenga that the judge who was dealing with this matter has observed that there were no contentious issues and referred it to mediation. We don’t know what Mabenga understood of this. During mediation, he was still making the same ridiculous demands he was making in court which had no basis in law. For that reason, we felt it was not necessary to proceed on mediation with a person who thought this was a chance for him to cash in even when there was no legal basis for that. This is how this matter went back to the High Court before the honourable justice Gertrude Chawatama, who unfortunately has taken an international appointment in Kenya. This means that the matter will have to be reallocated, like all the other cases judge Chawatama was handling, to another judge. Where is our evasiveness in all this? Anyway, probably we can excuse Mabenga’s dishonesty and ignorance. We say this because how can a man like Mabenga who lives on scheming survive without lies, without deceit, falsities, calumny and indeed schemes? He has to resort to all these negative things to survive. But one thing Mabenga should realise is that such schemes will not win him this case or indeed any other case. It failed him in his appeal against Wina in the Supreme Court. It will also fail him in this case against us.

We are very careful with what we do even if sometimes things don’t turn out that way, we get things wrong.

It cannot be denied that there are, in the body politic of our country, many grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or businessman, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. We hail as a benefactor every person who, with merciless severity, makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is one of use only if it is absolutely truthful. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander, he may be worse than most thieves. And this is what we strongly believe in, this is what guides our work. And it puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but very great harm. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.

Again, this is our standard in all the attacks and exposes we make against evil men, against the corrupt, the thieves and the plunderers of this country. It does not profit us or anyone to accuse any human being falsely of wrongdoing. When we say Frederick Chiluba is a thief, we have evidence to back it, we have all the justification in doing so.

Our plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust in the way Mabenga did by engaging in all sorts of corrupt schemes to falsify the will of the people of Mulobezi just to win a parliamentary election.

There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal. But in doing so, we should always remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself. This is the standard Mabenga should adopt in dealing with us. But of course, we know that this is too high a standard for Mabenga. However, there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil. But this war has to be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution. This is the only way we can let dignity and decorum, courage and manliness, spirit and honesty take the floor. Let exposure of crime, of corruption, of lies, dishonesty, deceit, manipulation and all other evils be a constant and be directed at all alike. We are referring to correct exposure and denunciation of corruption, deceit, lies, dishonesty and so on and so forth, well-founded, constructive exposure and denunciation at the right time and place and formulated in the right way.

This is the way Mabenga should approach his hopeless suit. What he is trying to do will not help him much. Mabenga cannot win this case against us on the basis of lies broadcast on a Mazabuka community radio station. This is extreme desperation on his part which will not do him any good.

Labels: MICHAEL MABENGA

posted by MrK @ 4:53 AM