HH and Asset declarations

By Daily Revelation Editor

President Hakainde Hichilema’s fight against corruption is sounding more rhetorical the more he mentions the subject now, because of his failure to provide clear eyed policies and work towards turning the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and other investigating agencies into truly independent bodies able to fight corruption without appearing that there is a hand controlling them from behind.

It is actually folly for any Zambians to even give attention to claims that these investigating bodies are independent of State House in their operations. If anything they are often used as attack dogs by those in power against their perceived opponents. If the fight against corruption was truly genuine we would have seen the ACC and other investigating agencies, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and police going after the several reports of glaring corruption happening in broad daylight under the UPND administration.

The ACC themselves have announced to the public that there are several ministers and senior government officials they are investigating, but no progress has been reported on the same corrupt officials they have been investigating, and nothing tangible will actually come out of that because they are not truly independent. They are controlled from State House and they usually do State House’s bidding.

And we agree with Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) executive director Maurice Nyambe when he says that Hichilema’s speech to Parliament last Friday was underwhelming as it failed to give clear direction in terms of the fight against corruption. Yes, we applaud the fact that he announced recoveries amounting to over K100 million in assets and over $30 million in cash. But how much of those recoveries are connected to the thieving that is happening under his own government, since he always parrots the idea of fighting corruption, past, present and future? Is he saying that his government is a government of angels where no wrongdoing ever happens, when we all know that that is not the case?

Surely, for a President who claims to be so committed towards fighting corruption, the ACC would not be running heedlessly right no following the departure of their former director general and the decision by the President to dissolve a board that was composed of eminent personalities, who any leader who really has a heart to fight corruption would always want to have around.

Anyone who listened the Parliamentary speech last Friday will agree that there was nothing substantive the President addressed in terms of how he was going to enhance the fight against corruption, just like he failed to provide clear cut policies on how the nation would navigate this very crippling loadshedding period, which should have actually taken the bulk of his speech given the havoc it is causing on the Zambian society.

There is a famous saying that the test of the pudding is in the eating. If Hichilema is really interested in fighting corruption, why the hesitancy to allow for the speedy enactment of the Assets and Liabilities law, so that he can put his assets to public scrutiny for Zambians to know if he is getting advantage or not enjoying any of it from the many public interests?

We actually feel that anyone who really has a heart to fight corruption genuinely will go out of his or her way to put in place more progressive laws aimed at curbing the vice he or she claims to hate.

There is actually more to the fight against corruption that the President seems to understand. If those who served in the previous administration engaged in criminality, we support every endeavor to pursue them in order to make them accountable for their misdeeds. However, we want to see the same extended to those committing similar misdeeds under this administration so that Zambians can have the confidence that the President means his word.

If Hichilema’s administration is mastering non-conviction based assets recovery against those connected with the previous administration, Zambians demand to see the same happening to those committing similar crimes under the UPND administration.