Heed Musa’s urge

By Daily Revelation Editor

Immediate past chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission Musa Mwenye argues that the ACC still has the ability to fight corruption in the country.

“Yes, it can deliver but we must insist that strong people are there, strong political will to deliver. Now, within the Anti-Corruption and I want to make this clear, there are a lot of good people that are doing the right thing. The same way we were inside as the board and we were doing the right thing, there are people within the Anti-Corruption Commission that are working under very different conditions and we must continue to encourage them. It’s not the whole ACC that is bad.” he said.

The former ACC board chairperson is offering very critical advice on how President Hakainde Hichilema can kick start the fight against corruption, if it ever needs kick starting at all. We all have to be honest that the fight against corruption has not lived up to the bellicose remarks from the President. However, this is not to say that the situation cannot be salvaged. Regardless, the merits or demerits in dissolving the former board and accepting the resignation of Thom Shamakamba from the position of ACC director general, the appointment of new office bearers should enable Hichilema to start the whole process afresh.

It is especially critical for the President that he gets the fight against corruption right, that he walks the talk, otherwise it is this key issue that will define his presidency. The President can draw lessons from his predecessors who learnt it the very hard way from the Zambian people when their administrations were perceived to be corrupt or entertaining of the vice. And there are many examples he can draw from. There is the late second Republican president Frederick Chiluba whose time in retirement turned into a living hell as he spent most of his time before the courts of law, which placed a lot of strain on his physical body.

Then there was fourth Republican president Rupiah Banda whose short stint in office of three years was rudely ended by the Zambian people in 2011, after his administration was perceived to be corrupt and that he too had warmed to the vice. Sixth Republican president Edgar Lungu became the latest casualty of Zambians wrath in 2021 over the same issues of corruption. We can safely say that the only president who lost office without the accusations of corruption being a prominent feature was Dr Kenneth Kaunda in 1991. He lost the popular vote simply because Zambians had gotten fed up with his long 27-year reign.

Therefore, there is still time for Hichilema to invest more energies in renewing the fight against corruption. And the starting point should be around the people he will appoint to a critical institution like the ACC, including the tools and leverage he will afford them to operate independently, so much so that they will finally go after the ministers and senior government officials the former management feared going after, including all the corruption that has been committed in the country, past, present and future.

The President should not make the mistake of appointing party lackeys or his sympathisers to such a critical institution because instead of fighting corruption, they will continue on the same path of focusing on the corruption of the past and not the present. It would take someone of impeccable moral standing to go after their fellow party members.  

Let the President heed Mwenye’s urge.