Maravi

Levy’s legacy of corruption fight has also died - Kazabu

Levy’s legacy of corruption fight has also died - Kazabu
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Thu 19 Aug. 2010, 04:01 CAT

LUXON Kazabu has observed that late president Levy Mwanawasa’s crusade against corruption is resting with him at Embassy Park in Lusaka. And an Anglican priest in Kitwe has charged that Vice-President George Kunda and other ministers who served under Mwanawasa are insincere people who are just interested in amassing wealth and not serving the country.

Commenting on the second memorial of Mwanawasa which falls today, Kazabu, who is former Kitwe mayor, said President Rupiah Banda deceived the nation when he campaigned on the legacy of the late president under the notion “building on the promise” but dumped what Mwanawasa stood for the day he entered State House.

Kazabu said it was clear that the country was being run by insincere people who were busy wining and dining with thieves.

“We will remember Mwanawasa as a leader who had values, who knew what was right for Zambians. He dedicated his leadership to the rule of law and not of men. He stepped up the fight against corruption and we saw many crooks being prosecuted for stealing national resources,” Kazabu said.

“We are not seeing these things today because we gave power to their fellow crooks and they are looting national resources that’s why they have abandoned the fight against corruption and its resting with Mwanawasa at Embassy Park in Lusaka.”

He said if Mwanawasa were to come back from the dead, he would be disappointed to find that his closest friends whom he trusted betrayed him and allowed individuals like former president Frederick Chiluba to go scott-free despite having abused resources belonging to the Zambian people.

Kazabu said when Mwanawasa took over power in 2001, people had hopes because the country started showing signs of prosperity but things drastically changed when President Banda took over the government.

He said it was shameful to note that under President Banda the Judiciary, which had high integrity had been terribly compromised.

He said Zambians could clearly see that there were double standards in the dispensation of justice.

Kazabu said posterity would judge everyone who worked with Mwanawasa in the fight against corruption but later abandoned his ideas after his demise.

And Fr Richard Luonde said it was impossible for Zambians to trust leaders like Vice-President Kunda because they had proved that they were just interested in amassing wealth than serving the country.

Fr Luonde said the legacy of Mwanawasa could not be felt today because the people he worked with betrayed him and abandoned what he stood for.

“If one is a pretender, he will remain a pretender for the rest of their lives. This is what we are seeing in people who worked with Mwanawasa. They are just interested in eating and nothing else,” Fr Luonde said.

“They are double-tongued people who can change at any time. But time will tell; one day they will be out of power and people will remember them for their deception.”

He said the pages of prosperity were being reversed by the MMD government that was encouraging corruption and abuse of power contrary to what Mwanawasa believed in.

Fr Luonde said Mwanawasa’s body turned in his grave with disappointment looking at the way the people he trusted like President Banda were running the affairs of the nation and mistreating the people he respected like former finance minister Ng’andu Magande and his defence counterpart George Mpombo.

Mwanawasa died on August 19, 2008 at Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France.

Labels: GEORGE KUNDA, LEVY MWANAWASA, LUXON KAZABU

posted by MrK @ 4:37 PM