CORRUPTION: HICHILEMA CAN RUN BUT HE CAN’T HIDE
It is very very clear that Mr Hakainde Hichilema is presiding over a tremendously corrupt regime – the most corrupt regime in the history of this country.
We say this because there is no decent or clean president who can preside over such a very corrupt regime without being extremely corrupt himself or herself. It is very clear that Mr Hichilema is failing to resolutely deal with this corruption because it is his corruption – it is corruption coming from the works of his own hands. The corrupt people he is dealing with are people he trusts and has appointed himself. The just resigned Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Mr Tom Shamakamba was his appointee. Why did Mr Hichilema appoint such a highly compromised person? – a person so unfit to head a leading the anti-corruption institution of our country! This was a person who was reporting directly to Mr Hichilema.
Further, all the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) report to him. It is Mr Hichilema supervising the so-called fight against corruption, which has turned into the protection of the corrupt people that surround him and his league. We can’t have this level of corruption without the one who heads this regime being corrupt himself. The numerous business interests of Mr Hichilema that he has failed to publicly disclose and let the Zambian people be aware of are the source and incubator of all this corruption. Being in power has removed the virginity, purity that surrounded him. Zambians now know Mr Hichilema for who he truly is – a corrupt leader who can’t even disclose the dealings of his businesses with government or government connected institutions.
Mr Hichilema’s failure to disclose his business dealings and interests is a prima facie case for corruption. But its not difficult to understand why Mr Hichilema despite repeated appeals from his friends who include the US Ambassador to Zambia and the chairperson of the ACC board he has just dissolved to publicly declare his assets and business interests, Mr Hichilema has not done so to date. The reason for this is very clear: the day Mr Hichilema declares his assets and business interests, that would be the end of his presidency. The Zambian people will see him for what exactly he is, a corrupt element and bakamutamfya nga imbwa ilile amani. Zambians hate leaders with sticky fingers.
Mr Hichilema is actually in a catch-22: if he doesn’t disclose his assets and business interests, he is in big trouble. If he does so, that is the end of his presidency and the beginning of his journey to jail. So, which way should he take? Probably, he is better off at least for now, not to declare his assets and business interests, and delay his end, which will still come anyway. But for how long? It’s just a matter of time. Mr Hichilema can run, but he can’t hide. All the signs are clear that this is a vastly corrupt regime ni ba pompwe munshibila nsala, ba sendama nkwibile, ba mpelembe chibula matwi nangu mulande tabomfwa pantu ba senda ukwiba nge nchito, beba nakutulo!
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party
