By Kombe Chimpinde-Mataka
Tue 03 Dec. 2013, 14:01 CAT
ADD president Charles Milupi says President Michael Sata's fight against corruption will win him kudos during his tenure if it remains holistic.
Commenting on President Sata's statement that his government will ensure the efficient functioning of all anti-corruption structures and systems, including forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth and blacklisting of individuals involved in plundering of public resources, Milupi said the fight against corruption had to be transparent.
"It cannot be directed to State House. State House keeps the political will," he said.
"I think His Excellency the President of Malawi (Joyce Banda) has shown a very strong example. We have seen cabinet being dissolved because of allegations of corruption, we have seen certain actions against ministers being taken, accounts of government officials being frozen. That is the kind of action the President should take."
Milupi said there should not be sacred cows in the fight against a corruption.
"When he (President Sata) is seen to be dilly-dallying in terms of addressing issues pertaining to internal corruption within his government and then talks about plunderers and so on, that is not a holistic fight against corruption," he said.
"These are very senior ministers, top ministers, who are saying 'that other minister is corrupt and this one is corrupt' and when they are called by the Anti Corruption Commission, the President says 'don't call them until you clear it with me'. It shows the fight against corruption is no longer transparent."
Milupi reminded President Sata that plunderers could only be conclusively dealt with in the presence of serious political action.
"Now, when he talks about pursuing plunderers today and so on but when PF came into power, they had assured the country that individuals that were involved in corruption in the previous government would be prosecuted and we supported them but what we have seen is that these allegations which we also made, there is no case on which we have had progress. So these five years will pass with people going to court, with no will really to conclude these cases," Milupi said.
"For instance, when the former president's immunity was lifted, it was a big thing; by now we would have seen the conclusions on some cases.
Are we going to go through the process we went through during (Fredrick) Chiluba's prosecution? In the end, other than that judgment in London by a foreign court, do we have a judgment here in Zambia?"
He said the success of ensuring that the state recovers what had been plundered was in establishing the guilt of those that allegedly plundered resources.
"How are you going to blacklist them because the only way you can know someone is a plunderer is when they go to court and they are convicted? Before that, they are innocent," said Milupi.
Labels: ADD, CHARLES MILUPI, MICHAEL SATA
posted by MrK @ 5:21 PM
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