Corruption in Zambia is sickening, says Fr Mukosa
By George Zulu
CATHOLIC Church priest Fr Andrew Mukosa says corruption in Zambia is sickening and stinking.
Fr Mukosa who is also director at Dignitatis Humanae, a faith based non-governmental organisation said the corruption and abuse of resources has serious consequences on the people of Zambia.
He said Zambians should wake up and reject any form of corruption in the police, ministries, Judiciary and even in schools.
“We have a lot of judicial corruption where we find that sometimes the Judiciary is influenced by the Executive and so forth. I think we are not learning from it,” Fr Mukosa said.
He was concerned about the uncaring nature of the people of Zambia over issues of corruption and governance.
Fr Mukosa said it was shocking that Zambians were not proactive to know why the United States (US) government had withdrawn over K1.4 billion meant for medication and medical supplies from government in order to pick lessons.
“I am here with concern over an issue that has sparked interest in our country, Zambia. We know that the USA government has withdrawn K1.4 billion worth of medical aid to Zambia,” he said.
“That’s a big impact and sometimes we don’t see how serious the situation is, but I’m here to highlight and also magnify the seriousness of that situation. Because what I have seen is that we are not taking it seriously and we are treating it lightly,” he said.
Fr Mukosa said the corruption highlighted was not about the top leadership but that which involved civil servants such as doctors, teachers, police officers and judicial officers, too.
He said it was time the people of Zambia demanded a change of mindset and look at corruption differently.
“You can take an example of the UTH. The doctors have drug stores outside there and they are selling medicine that is not supposed to be sold. It’s among the civil servants. It’s among the teachers’ civil servants when they talk about pay allowances, when they increase allowances that are not supposed to be there, when they hold seminars that are not necessary. It’s about all that. It is about theft,” he said.
Fr Mukosa said government needed help in the fight against graft at all levels of society.
Zambians should condemn the vice at all cost.
“I strongly condemn the vice of corruption because it is leading to so many implications that you will not imagine now, but they are going to happen to us. Implications such as it is hindering our development. When we lose such funding, we hinder our development. And when we hinder our development, what do we do as a country? Who is going to be responsible? Who is going to answer for it? How are we going to move forward? Again, there is also erosion of public trust. Who are we going to vote for so that we know that if we vote for this man or this woman, they can deliver? Because every time we have this trend repeating itself,” he said.
Fr Mukosa said efforts by government trying to address corruption was hindered by a civil service which was corrupt.
“Governments have been trying to curb certain corruption, but there are certain individuals, even in government itself, that are being corrupted now. Like I mentioned, traffic police in Zambia. They are corrupt and we are both seeing that they are corrupt. What we are waiting for to curb this vice?” he said.
