Maravi

Rupiah wants to protect his abuse of office

Rupiah wants to protect his abuse of office
By George Chellah
Fri 01 Oct. 2010, 04:01 CAT

Patriotic Front secretary general Wynter Kabimba yesterday said President Rupiah Banda's administration is so abstinent about removing abuse of office from the ACC Act because there are rampant acts of the offence currently going on in government.

Commenting on the government's removal of the abuse of office offence from the revised Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Act, Kabimba - a lawyer said everybody should be disappointed about this amendment to the ACC Act, which was intended to remove the offence of abuse of office.

This is because from the time when this matter came up into the public domain, the MMD government has been denying the fact that they want to amend the Act to remove the offence of abuse of office for those that hold public offices.

Even against such a public pronouncement from ministers including the Vice-President, the government has proceeded to introduce the Bill to parliament ignoring completely the public outcry that such an amendment is tantamount to reversing the fight against corruption, Kabimba said.

The question therefore is why is the MMD government so abstinent about removing this offence from the ACC Act? The answer for any reasonable person can only be that there are rampant acts of abuse of office going on in the MMD government today, which means it is the intention of the President and his cabinet to protect those public officers at whatever level engaged in such abuses of public office to the detriment of the economic development of this country.

Kabimba said only a fool would fail to learn lessons from the acts of another wrongdoer. Former president Frederick Chiluba is a clear example to this country and world over of a head of state that had engaged himself together with his cronies in rampant acts of abuse of office, Kabimba said.

And he stands today in the eyes of the Zambian people as guilty and as iniquitous as any inmate serving a prison sentence in our prisons even as he purportedly pretends to be a free man under the MMD government.

The same people of Zambia that rose against Chiluba over his abuse of office activities will again rise with the same spirit and resolve to demand punishment and retribution against those serving in the current regime who are engaged in abuse of offices entrusted to them by the people.

Kabimba said it did not matter how long the people's demand for punishment and retribution against the culprits would take. The world knows that in the case of NAZI criminals, it took as long as 30 to 40 years for some of them who had been on the run to be brought to justice. Likewise, those that are involved in these abuses in Zambia should not dupe themselves into thinking that the offences which they commit today will be righted by time, Kabimba said.

We therefore demand as PF that this obnoxious amendment should be withdrawn immediately and that if it is not withdrawn we expect those honourable members of parliament including those in the MMD to vote against this unjust amendment which has been introduced by the government in bad faith.

According to the National Assembly Bill number 41 of 2010 presented to Parliament last Friday for first reading by acting leader of government business Mkhondo Lungu, section 37 which catered for the offence had now been replaced by concealment of offence. The bill states that a person commits an offence if they intend to defraud or to conceal the commission of an offence under this part or to obstruct an officer in the investigation of any offence.

Labels: ACC, PF, RUPIAH BANDA, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 6:28 AM