Katele was part of MMD corruption, says Mabenga

Katele was part of MMD corruption, says Mabenga
By Ernest Chanda
Sun 04 Mar. 2012, 11:59 CAT

MICHAEL Mabenga says former MMD national secretary Katele Kalumba apologised to the nation because he was part of the corruption that existed then. Commenting on Dr Kalumba's advice to the party leadership to apologise for the corruption and many other vices MMD perpetuated during its 20-year rule, Mabenga said he and the current leadership were not part of that corruption.

"Now, Dr Kalumba was national secretary of this party. What I'm saying is, Katele Kalumba said he was part of government and he apologised. And because he apologised for the wrongs he did when he was in government, he was part of it corruption. And his apology I think goes further than personal level. So, if he feels that he himself, of course he's in the problem; of course he appealed against his conviction, against this matter and all that," Mabenga said.

"He was minister of finance, he was minister of foreign affairs and he apologised for the wrongs that he did. Now, some of us were not involved in those things, so how do you apologise? You can't. He apologised because he saw that he was involved in these things. He was in government at the time, so he was inside. And so when he apologised himself he was apologising for the things that he knew he was part of that were committed unfortunately by some of our members of the MMD."

Asked if there was no corruption in the MMD government after Dr Kalumba left, Mabenga expressed ignorance.

"Well, you will have to tell me if there was anything like that, because all I see is people being called by the police, by the investigative agencies. And they are pursuing them, and they're investigating and interrogating them; that's what I see," said Mabenga.

Last week, Dr Kalumba asked the MMD leadership to publicly apologise for the unbridled corruption.

He also asked Zambians to forgive him for supporting former president Frederick Chiluba's bid for a third term in office.

Dr Kalumba said Zambians were still upset about corruption and other wrongdoings of the MMD.

"We have no excuse but to say sorry; we betrayed the people of Zambia. We could have made them understand that people were upset about corruption. People were upset about rigging. People were upset about wrangling in the party. It appears the current MMD leadership don't want to change anything. We have failed the membership. In fact, we did not collectively read the mood of the Zambian people, to listen first to the Zambian people. Second, to all membership of the party," said Dr Kalumba who was last year convicted for corruption but has appealed against the conviction.