Jail awaits, CAAC warns UPND
By Tony Nkhoma
POLITICAL power will one day diminish and many corrupt Government officials will be jailed, Community Action Against Corruption (CAAC) chief executive officer Brightone Tembo has warned.
And Tembo has wondered why former Kabushi member of Parliament (MP)Bowman Lusambo was slapped with a three-year jail sentence with hard labour while those who committed felonies with regard illegal mining of Sugilite in Luapula were only given five-month jail terms with an option of a fine.
In an interview with The Mast, CAAC chief executive officer Tembo warned that soon the law would catch up with government officials engaging in corruption.
“We wish to warn government officials and their affiliates who are getting involved in corruption and think that justice will never catch up with them due to the favours they are enjoying from the current political system, which has made the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC develop numbness towards corruption investigations,” he said.
Tembo said that the current political system had created and sent fear in all investigative wings, which include the ACC, Zambia Police, and DEC.
This intimidation, he said, made law enforcement agencies reluctant to investigate politically exposed persons.
Tembo warned that many government officials would be jailed for embracing corruption, just as their colleagues from the former regime were being sent to prison.
“Learn from the sentencing of Bowman Lusambo to three years imprisonment with hard labour that political power will not protect them forever and shield them from justice over corrupt activities,” Tembo said.
Tembo said Lusambo’s situation was a lesson to those who felt untouchable.
“There are so many in this government. We know them and their affiliation to the current regime, who are supposed to join Lusambo in prison. So they should not rejoice in the downfall of Lusambo or mock him. Their time is knocking on the door and justice will be served sooner than later. They are on the journey to prison, but thanks to the current selective corruption fight by the ACC and the DEC,” he said.
He said if ACC and DEC were serious and non-selective in the fight against corruption, many people connected to State House and the United Party for National Development (UPND) would have been in prison by now.
“We all know that the ACC developed cold feet, arresting ministers, individuals at the Attorney General’s chambers named in corrupt activities, people at State House, Ministry of Home Affairs, Defence, Local Government, Health, Agriculture, Community Development, and other ministries,” he said.
Tembo wondered where the ACC and DEC were when Lusambo was accumulating the wealth for which the courts had jailed him.
“ACC and DEC are two institutions that have contributed to the rise of corruption in Zambia, because they do not fight corruption when it is taking place, they ignore it until the perpetrators of corruption lose power,” he said.
Tembo said ACC and DEC were now busy dealing with corruption committed under the Patriotic Front (PF) regime while ignoring and shielding the current corruption.
Tembo said, investigative wings had created a perception that those in government were not corrupt and that there was no corruption taking place under the current administration.
Meanwhile, Tembo said CAAC was alarmed by the selective application of the law by the UPND government.
“We are also alarmed and failing to understand why Lusambo has been given three years imprisonment with hard labour, while those who committed a felony of illegally mining Sugilite in Luapula Province were only given five months jail terms with ordinary fines,” he said.
He said the action sent a strong message that the current corruption fight was targeted at those who served under PF.
