Rupiah Banda should heed Mwanachingwala's advice

Rupiah Banda should heed Mwanachingwala's advice
By The Post
Mon 19 Dec. 2011, 13:58 CAT

CHIEF Mwanachingwala of Mazabuka says Rupiah Banda telephoned him last week, complaining that the Patriotic Front government wants to arrest him and send him to prison.

And Mwanachingwala says he advised Rupiah to cooperate with the new government. Truly, there is no sensible option for Rupiah other than to cooperate with officers from all our law enforcement agencies investigating his abuses and those of people who were around him.

And one cannot say these investigations are without basis, merit. From the way Rupiah conducted his personal affairs, the business of government and the activities of the MMD, there are many prima facie cases of corruption that arise.

Just a few weeks after Rupiah assumed office as President of the Republic, he paid about US $700,000 cash for a house along Lusaka's Leopards Hill Road.

Where did this money come from? A few weeks before that, Rupiah had declared his personal assets and there was no sign of him having that amount of cash or assets that could easily be converted into cash of that amount.

Even within those few weeks, there is no evidence of any legal transaction that Rupiah had entered into to realise US $700,000.

This is totally unearned income. And unearned income is prima facie evidence of corruption, of one living beyond one's means. Rupiah needs to explain where that money came from. If it was a gift from a well-wisher, who is that well-wisher and what motivated this gift to someone who had just become president and would be entitled to a lifelong pension, and a house constructed for him by the state? We would also like to know what business this well-wisher had with government.

Was this money a bribe received by Rupiah for government contracts and other business? From these simple questions we are asking, it is clear that Rupiah had involved himself in questionable transactions that need to be investigated and explained.

If the explanations are not satisfactory and if the investigations reveal some wrongdoing on Rupiah's part, his immunity should accordingly be removed to allow for him to be prosecuted.

Rupiah, as his good friend chief Mwanachingwala correctly observes, was at the head of a regime whose looting of public resources had reached alarming proportions. This being the case, Rupiah and his colleagues, again as Mwanachingwala has correctly pointed out, should not complain of harassment, retribution whenever they are summoned by investigative agencies "because Zambians knew the level of corruption and wealth most of the ministers had acquired within a short period of time after the death of president Levy Mwanawasa".

There should be no impunity allowed for people abusing public trust and office. People should not be allowed to steal public resources and then after that cry political harassment. There are many things Rupiah and his friends will need to explain.

For instance, what is wrong with asking Rupiah and his colleagues to explain where they got the money for that extravagant election campaign that the country had never seen before? If those who gave them the money had any business to do with government, the possibility of bribery will need to be investigated. And the bribers will also need to be brought to book because for a very long time, we have tolerated corrupt business people, local or foreign, to corrupt our politicians and destroy our democracy and good governance.

Without going for those who pay bribes, we will not be doing much in our fight against corruption.

Those who pay bribes are as corrupt, if not more, as those who receive bribes. And we should go for them. So all the companies and individuals that gave disproportionately huge amounts of money to Rupiah and the MMD for their election campaign need to be investigated to establish what business they were doing with government. That election campaign cannot go without being investigated. If the Zambian people were not alert, Rupiah would have been allowed to use corruptly obtained money to keep himself in power.

That is not the way the politics of our country should be conducted. The governance of Zambia should not be left to those with the deepest pockets. We are running a country and not a casino.

But as chief Mwanachingwala further observes, our "national leaders should take a leaf from what is happening to Banda, his relatives and former ministers that are now appearing in court or are being investigated by law enforcement agencies not to abuse office or steal from the poor". It seems our politicians don't learn. There were lessons that they could have learnt from what happened to Frederick Chiluba and his tandem of thieves.

Of course, Rupiah set himself out to wipe out that lesson from the history and memories of our people by ensuring that Chiluba got away with it by corruptly ensuring his acquittal and stopping legitimate appeals, with the help of the then Director of Public Prosecutions Chalwe Mchenga. After that Rupiah and his friends thought they had established a culture of impunity for those in power to loot public resources as they pleased and get away with it. They even went further to remove laws from our statute books that made it illegal for them to abuse public offices and resources.

They were just wasting their time. A way is still there to make them account for their abuses. And no amount of crying for sympathy, mercy or public political support will do. The best they can do if they want forgiveness is to simply hand back to the people of Zambia what they have stolen from them. Only thereafter can they qualify for forgiveness if they seek it.

There has to be an element of contrition before one could be forgiven. But instead of doing this, Rupiah and his friends are trying to paint black, to scandalise those who are trying to pursue their crimes and make them account for their wrongdoing.

There is nothing Michael Sata has done wrong in allowing law enforcement agencies to investigate the wrongdoing of trustees of the people. There is nothing wrong Michael has done in appointing commissions of inquiry to investigate the wrong that took place in various transactions that members of the Rupiah regime were involved in.

No one, including Rupiah himself, will be sent to jail without the due process of the law. After all, Rupiah should be happy that he will be before a judiciary that once danced to his tune, that once did as he pleased. It is a judiciary that Rupiah has so much faith in. If he is innocent, they will acquit him. After all, this is the same judiciary that he used to set his friend Chiluba free. Is he telling us something we don't know about how people are sent to or are saved from jail in this country?

How can Michael send him to jail? Is it Michael who sends people to jail or the judges who decide who should or should not be acquitted? There is something Rupiah is telling us, that we don't know, about our judiciary.