Zambian government’s 1st year in office marked by anti-corruption fight

By James Kunda

LUSAKA, Zambia (AA) - Zambia's new government is marking a year in office Wednesday in which fighting corruption has featured prominently.

Opposition presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema’s United Party for National Development (UPND) scored a landslide victory in 2021 against incumbent President Edgar Lungu’s Patriotic Front (PF) on a strong campaign message of rebuilding the economy and fighting corruption among other electoral promises.

A year down the line, inflation is down from 24% to single digits, with the local currency, the Kwacha, among Africa’s best performing in this year’s third quarter.

On the corruption front, from his inaugural speech, Hichilema said his government would run on a path of integrity and transparency, fighting past, present and future corruption.

This, he said, would not involve a witch-hunt but an exercise to recover suspected looted state assets which rightfully belonged to the people.

At the end of December, the Home Affairs Ministry announced the formation of a Joint Investigations Team (JIT) comprising the police, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC).

This was followed by the establishment of a fast-track court on corruption.

Since its operation, the JIT has so far questioned former President Lungu’s son Dalitso on the ownership of vehicles under his private firm, while the DEC quizzed Lungu’s wife Esther over the ownership of 15 housing units.

The DEC is also probing Lungu’s daughter Tasila although none of the three matters has yet been determined.

The ACC has so far summoned or arrested a number of Lungu’s former aides, ministers and former party associates who have been connected to abuse of office queries.

Again, none of these cases have been concluded by courts of law.

Lungu himself still enjoys immunity against prosecution, and if he were to face any interrogation, the country’s parliament would have to pass a two-thirds majority motion to lift his immunity.

“I know it is me they are after in this sequence. It is like you are peeling an orange or an onion,” Lungu remarked to PF officials that went to show solidarity to Esther on her summoning.

Various PF members, including those summoned by the ACC, accuse the commission of carrying out a witch-hunt against them so as to settle political scores, an allegation the commission fervently denies.

Hichilema placed a new board of directors at the ACC, which has since shifted into a new gear in reasonable comparison to how the commission worked under Lungu.

Gilbert Phiri, the new director general, suspended his predecessor Silumesi Muchula and two other investigators in the commission’s rank and file in a move termed as an internal clean-up of the institution.

“In fact, the commission is aware of some questionable decisions made in the recent past that had caused concern among members of the public regarding the integrity of the corruption fight, and this is why we are saying we will vigorously tackle past, present and future corruption,” said new ACC board chairman Musa Mwenye during a recent breakfast meeting with the press in the capital, Lusaka.

Phiri said the commission will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that the commission clearly executes its mandate to the satisfaction of the Zambian public.

Transparency International’s Zambia chapter welcomes the strides scored by the new government in tackling corruption and wants cases to be thoroughly probed and the right form of justice dispensed.

In reaction to a recent forfeiture of 24 vehicles by the JIT to the state, chapter president Kalungu Sampa said traces of corruption were evidenced in most cases at the fore and those culpable must be brought to book.