Pressure mounts on Solochi
…He must resign, ACC must probe his source of cash – Katele, Silumbe
By Adrian Mwanza and George Zulu
FORMER minister of home affairs Katele Kalumba says Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commander Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi is a danger to national security and must resign to return integrity to the security wing.
And Leadership Movement (LM) president Dr Richard Silumbe has urged the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate Lt Gen Solochi for possible corruption and abuse of office-related offences.
Dr Kalumba said Solochi had breached the law and was not worthy of a commander of a sensitive defence wing.
He was reacting to a recent video in which Lt Gen Solochi was seen dishing out cash to University of Zambia (UNZA) students last week during his tour following a protest by the students over poor sanitation and erratic water supply.
“As a former home affairs minister, [I’m saying] the action by the ZNS Commander is unacceptable and he is not worthy to be in charge,” Dr Kalumba said.
He wondered where Lt Gen Solochi got such amounts of money in form of cash from when his salary was known to majority Zambians.
In the video, Lt Gen Solochi, dressed in the trademark green ZNS combat uniform, could be seen walking around the campus while carrying a fat bundle of cash in bank notes in his hand, which he was randomly handing out to excited students.
Dr Kalumba said the conduct of Lt Gen Solochi was embarrassing to ZNS, warning that sooner or later, he would be made to answer for some of his controversial decisions and conduct while in office.
“ZNS is not supposed to take part in political matters. That is the job of politicians. That conduct is purely of a politician and not a military officer. One thing is clear: Zambia Army, the Zambia Air Force and ZNS are not supposed to take part in politics,” he said.
Dr Kalumba said Lt Gen Solochi was involving himself in [potentially] criminal activities, warning that his day of reckoning would come.
“If the money was coming from President Hakainde Hichilema, then it is unfortunate. This will put him in problems soon. I feel for him that things he wanted to do in the dark are now in the public domain. I wonder where this money is coming from, and if it is the President then it is unfortunate because he is not levelling the playing field,” he said.
Dr Kalumba challenged Lt Gen Solochi to resign from office because his actions were compromising national security.
“[Lt Gen] Solochi needs to step aside on principle because what he was doing was very wrong. Those activities are a clear indication that something is wrong,” he said.
And Leadership Movement (LM) president Dr Richard Silumbe has urged the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate Lt Gen Solochi for possible corruption and abuse of office-related offences.
“Interestingly, there is no decency in that conduct and, in fact, by now if we had a proper and well-organised ACC, [Lt Gen] Soloshi would have been summoned already for corruption and abuse of office investigations. But we have a government in place that condones corruption. It breathes corruption, eats corruption and talks corruption. Nothing can happen,” Dr Silumbe said.
He said Lt Gen Solochi was a candidate for prosecution “once Hichilema loses power in August”.
“That man will be prosecuted for abuse of office, money laundering and corruption. He should have consulted or picked lessons from former heads of the military who were jailed over similar conduct. The only thing Lt Gen Solochi can do to save face is to step aside. I want to challenge ACC, too. Why are they not interested in Solochi’s conduct? Are they scared to summon him? This is how compromised these institutions of governance have become,” Dr Silumbe said.
And former defence minister Richwell Siamunene, who is New Focus Party (NFP) president, has said the conduct of Lt Gen Solochi of publicly dishing out money to students at the university was unacceptable.
Siamunene said it was reckless to openly dish out money to students in a bid to corrupt them because they they wanted to protest over the death of their colleague and the filthy environment.
“I know the defence and other wings of government institutions conduct covert operations, but the manner in which he was doing it was what was wrong,” he said.
Lt Gen Solochi has come under wide condemnation for randomly handing out cash to the students for alleged political reasons amid tension over the university management’s failure to resolve the long-standing problem of erratic water supply and the offensive smell from old and new sewer effluent spilling from blocked tanks and piping in the campus.
Earlier, the students had marched on Great East Road to protest the unsanitary environment.
The problem led to the death of their fellow student, Emmanuel Bwalya, who drowned in an unfinished trench filled with sewer filth.
At the time Lt Gen Solochi and some senior government officials visited the institution, the students were planning to hold another protest in solidarity with their dead colleague.
Critics have accused the senior military officer of bribing the students with the cash so that they could not protest, which they have condemned as corruption for which Lt Gen Solochi must be held accountable in future.
Last week, Ministry of Defence permanent secretary Mambo Hamaundu defended Lt Gen Solochi saying he might have distributed the cash out of compassion.
