Reflect on criticism of graft fight, UPND urged
By Charles Musonda
IF THE United Party for National Development (UPND) government is truthful and sincere it must take international criticism of its fight against corruption as a wake-up call for it to change course, says constitutional lawyer Jonas Zimba.
In an interview with The Mast at the weekend, Zimba said the UPND government’s fight against corruption could not even be rated bad or poor because it was not genuine.
“In fact, there’s no fight against corruption, there’s a fight against people perceived as opponents. The fight against corruption must be without blemish. The fight against corruption must not be selective,” Zimba said.
He said creation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Court was just an example of the UPND’s selective approach to the fight against corruption because the court was targeted at fixing perceived opponents.
“Even when you look at how matters have been handled, what has been coming out of there, it is all wrong, all problematic. So, there is no fight against corruption but there is a launched attack against opponents,” Zimba said.
He said because of its arrogance, the UPND government did not want to listen to genuine and popular advice.
The UPND government had exhibited the same arrogance on the way it handled the Bill 7 issue.
Zimba said because of the same arrogance, the UPND government had come up with 74 bills that would be passed in Parliament within two weeks without scrutinising them.
He accused the UPND government of intending to remove standing order number 23 which allows for a bill to go through all the stages.
“It is just a problem, so arrogance is that which is working. They don’t want to listen to anything but people must speak because one day we must be able to say ‘this is what we said and they never listened’,” Zimba said.
Last week outgoing United States (US) Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales rubbished the fight against corruption saying the UPND has been targeting only its political opponents.
Gonzales also condemned the hasty amendments to the Constitution in defiance of the judgment of the Constitutional Court which declared Bill 7 that birthed them as unconstitutional.
