HH silence on grand corruption irks M’membe

HH silence on grand corruption irks M’membe

By George Zulu

IT’S unacceptable and shameful for President Hakainde Hichilema to continue with his silence on the high levels of corruption in his government while Zambians are wallowing in poverty, Socialist Party (SP) 2026 presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe has said.

Dr M’membe said Hichilema was presiding over a corrupt regime and Zambians were now feeling its negative impact.

He was speaking in Lusaka when he featured on Socialist hour on Hot FM Radio yesterday.

“This is a corrupt regime. It’s a corrupt government, a government in which its key leaders are failing to declare their assets. Why are they failing to declare their assets? Why they are failing to declare their assets is what is being shown in the FIC report. Fraudulent transactions, suspicious transactions and so on. This is corruption,” he said.

Dr M’membe said the latest Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) report had exposed deep-rooted corruption under Hichilema.

“If this is not corruption, what is corruption? And the FIC report is telling us this is by high public officials. It’s high public sector leadership that is involved in this. Since this report came out, Mr Hichilema is silent. He’s quiet. He’s not saying anything. He’s so eager to say something if it can be linked to his political opponents. But because it can’t be blamed on the PF now, he can’t talk about the PF in connection with this report. He’s quiet,” he said.

Dr M’membe said it was clear that the United Party for National Development (UPND) was involved in the corruption and embezzlement of money outside the country.

He challenged Hichilema to come out clean on the grand corruption in his government rather than keeping quiet when the people of Zambia were suffering.

“And it’s very clear; there’s no other leadership sector that is involved in this other than the UPND party leadership. And at the helm of that leadership is Hakainde himself. If there’s corruption in this regime, and those who are corrupt are not being dealt with, the buck stops at who? It stops at Hichilema himself. Let Hichilema come clean on this. Come and explain what has been found by the FIC report. Let him come and show us. But there are consequences for this. These are huge amounts of money, K6.1 billion is not a small amount of money. It’s a huge amount of money,” Dr M’membe said.

He said the UPND was a bad government which never cared for its people, hence the looting of public money in the manner they were doing.

Dr M’membe said what was stolen under Hichilema’s government, if used on social service delivery, would change the face of hospitals, roads and the general life of Zambians.

“That can stop the journeys or reduce the journeys to the cemeteries. That can reduce people dying. That can reduce people being admitted to hospitals. That can increase food production. That can increase jobs in the country. That can increase housing. That can increase health services, educational facilities,” he said.