FAITH MUSONDA K65M, US$57PIN & K6M HOUSE WORTH, THE LAW AND JUSTICE!
MIXED reaction is what has greeted the recovery of the above properties found in the possession of and amnesty from prosecution granted to Faith Musonda respectively.
What is the policy of the new dawn government on corruption fight and is this policy/manifesto well understood by the majority Zambians?
From the reactions, the answer may be Nay and this calls for more policy/manifesto education among the citizens to appreciate why the ACC and sister state institutions have opted the approach applied on Faith Musonda.
Under page 16 of the UPND Manifesto, the UPND proposes a two-prolonged approach to the fight against corruption namely court appraoch through establishment of the fast-truck courts or tribunals and the Operation Recovery which is aimed at getting back the accumulated ill-gotten wealth esp from the previous regime/administration.
With these two approaches, it is envisaged that the reasons for fighting corruption which is that of deterrent, recovery of stolen wealth and justice will be attained.
The Faith Musonda case falls within the 2nd strategic approach by the UPND in the fight AGAINST CORRUPTION- the OPERATION RECOVERY (sec 80 of the Anti-corruption Act).
This may look like a clear case of selective justice since some people who are in prisons also lost the property to the State but they were still prosecuted and sent to prison e.g. The People v Liato is instructive on Forfeiture of Proceeds of Crime Act.
This is when people also see that here is one, Faith, who has been set free on account of section 80 of the AC Act and yet she was under investigation for having property suspected to be proceeds of crime under FPOCA, a distinct Act of Parliament.
Therefore, it will be construed by some people that applying Section 80 of the AC Act to Faith’s case is like having a member of PF party expelled from PF based on the PF constitution and being reinstated using provisions of the UPND constitution.
The dangers and beauty of Operation Recovery is that sec 80 will be applied to the maximum and since this is the law, no one would go to prison.
All one needs to do is once one knows that s/he is being followed, or has been questioned, by law enforcement agencies can calculate what s/he is comfortable to surrender, of the stolen money, to the State and the case is closed and the culprit is set free.
The plunderers are clearly in charge of our criminal justice system as they will get the outcomes they want from law enforcement wings and they get the court orders they want from the courts.
They have successfully driven the narrative of desisting from prosecution to save resources and we are all buying into that narrative.
However, the dangers of the court justice system is possibility of getting nothing from the plunderers but losing so much money, time in prosecution.
The case of FTJ Chiluba and the taskforce on the fight against corruption where govt and donors lost close to US$ 8m to pursue a sum of US$250, 000 is instructive. From this case neither the money was recovered nor Chiluba served a jail sentence.
In pursuit of the rule of a balanced Act, the Operation Recovery looks more lucrative and viable, less time and money consuming, unless otherwise, as shown in Faith Musonda’s case because in less than a month, the country has recovered K65m, US$57,000 and a house worth K6m and Faith’s blessers may be know by the law enforcement agencies for further investigations.
Had the second option of going to court been opted by the Law Enforcement agencies, none of the above recovered properties and monies would have been gotten by the state in the immediate the case of Katele Kalumba is still fresh.
State has gained in this Faith Musonda’s case handling from the recovery approach opted by ACC and sister state institutions.
What is key and expected are transparency and accountability from the state in the application and utilisation of the recovered funds and properties
To this end, those who will refuse to pay back the ill-acquired money or property and wealth must be subject to the court/tribunal justice.
I submit
McDonald Chipenzi