ACC is exhibiting ignorance – Bowman
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
FORMER Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo says the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is exhibiting incompetence.
Commenting on his arrest on Friday for being in possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, Lusambo claimed that he was being arrested over a case that was already in court.
“I won the seizure from the subordinate courts and those guys appealed before the High Court, the case is active in the High Court. They are just trying to show their incompetence. It’s my going to Kabushi on Women’s Day which has brought all this. I was told, the system told me. The arrest it is not making sense,” he told The Mast in an interview. “They called me from Ndola. I told them ‘I have another one of your case in court’. And I told them I would only be available after court. So after court I went there (on Thursday). What they were telling me was not making sense. At first my house was valued at K22 million. Now they are saying they want to evaluate the property again. So I am going to court for an issue which is already in court. That is contempt of court. How are they going to prosecute? This side they are prosecuting and another side…”
He said he had gone to Kabushi to support and sympathise with the residents over the high cost of leaving.
“For me I went there to make sure that we show them that women can be anything. There was no one member of parliament for Ndola who was present at the function. They don’t have people, you know politics is not just by mouth. Politics is the connection which you have with the people. It is the message you give to the people,” Lusambo said. “Because people receive the message and they receive the message of hope. When they trust you, they will show that they are with you. When they don’t like you they will show that they don’t like you. People don’t like the UPND and they are showing it. They are not even hiding, that is the way Zambians behave. We want also to go and support the youths. We want the youths to turn up in numbers. This is the only day they can use to express their displeasure. They are waiting for us and we want them to turn out in numbers to go and express themselves. We want to show the government that the youths are not happy [that] they promised mountains and they have delivered nothing. The youths are complaining because all they are being told to do is form cooperatives. Why should the youth form cooperatives when we have a government in place to provide real empowerment to the youth?”
He said real empowerment is not cooperatives.
“These cooperatives have failed. These cooperatives are UPND cooperatives. In Kabushi the one who is making desks is a UPND IPS called Zimba. So this is a failed project. And let them not lie to the youths. There is nothing tangible which can come out of UPND. We are just waiting for 2026 for them to pack their bags and go,” said Lusambo.