HARRY Kalaba says President Edgar Lungu has worked very hard to weaken institutions of governance and that he has managed.
On the Ministry of Health scandal, Kalaba said, “It is difficult for me to separate him (President Lungu) from this thing. I don’t want to believe that the firing of a minister is going to answer the issue of defective condoms, the [sub-standard] drugs that have been given to innocent people. The best person that should even step-down on this matter is the President himself.”
He also says Sunday’s firing of Dr Chitalu Chilufya as health minister came quite too late.
Kalaba, the Democratic Party (DP) president, was speaking on a Diamond TV programme dubbed COSTA, hosted by Costa Mwansa, on Sunday night.
“One thing that the President has managed to successfully do is that he has managed to weaken the institutions of governance,” Kalaba said.
“He has worked to weaken the institutions of governance. But that is working to his own detriment.”
On the dropping of Dr Chilufya, Kalaba explained that while the firing of anybody was not something that one would celebrate, “I can say with confidence that the action has come quite too late.”
“A lot of damage has been done in the Ministry of Health and the President chose silence. I can only speculate that it is Honeybee [that has made Dr Chilufya] to be fired. But there have been so many scandals in the Ministry of Health,” Kalaba said.
“Donor confidence has just plummeted in the Ministry of Health because the way they have been handling issues there has just been something else. He (President Lungu) has taken his time – it’s four months before Parliament dissolves. It’s a mockery – the firing.”
He recalled that last time Dr Chilufya was appearing in the courts of law the President refused to fire him, saying “‘I cannot fire somebody before he is found guilty’.”
“But I was surprised that the permanent secretary [for administration] in the Ministry of Health [Kakulubelwa Mulalelo], who was involved in the same Honeybee scandal, was relieved of her duties (suspended) before she was even taken to the ACC (Anto-Corruption Commission),” Kalaba noted. “So, where was the presumption of innocence there? So, they are playing double standards!”
Kalaba pointed out that if it was the issue of sub-standard drugs and defective condoms and gloves supplied by Honeybee Pharmacy that the President fired Dr Chilufya for, “then it is something that will be very interesting.”
“I don’t want to believe that the President himself is innocent of this thing. Look, expired drugs were sent on the market and some people probably have died, as a result of those expired drugs,” he noted. “Defective condoms sent on the market! Probably some people have contracted various infections as a result of that. That level of negligence amounts to genocide!”
He argued that President Lungu’s firing of Dr Chilufya could not even be said to be: “cracking the whip!”
“It is difficult for me to separate him (President Lungu) from this thing. I don’t want to believe that the firing of a minister is going to answer the issue of defective condoms, the [sub-standard] drugs that have been given to innocent people,” Kalaba said. “The best person that should even step-down on this matter is the President himself. The way he does things just baffles me!”
Before Dr Chilufya’s sacking, Kalaba told The Mast in an interview that he feared that corruption could now be allowed to directly affect people’s lives.
“You can’t have defective drugs on the market and the President elects silence. The permanent secretary, Kakulubelwa, could not have acted alone. If you remember, she was a director in that ministry and then promoted. Do you think she could be involved in this scandal alone?” Kalaba noted. “This government is full of jokes and the people of Zambia should see for themselves, just on this particular scandal. What about things we don’t know? What about the malaria drugs we are swallowing? How well do we know if these malaria drugs we are swallowing are defective or not?”
Kalaba pointed out that when he becomes President, “the auditors must brace themselves, the lawyers must brace themselves.”
“They have a lot of work to do after August! Ciliba calunsambu nsambu cikesa muli cino icalo (there will be a broad trap in this country), noushalimo akabamo muli ifi (even he who wasn’t part of this will be caught up) because we can’t allow people to be dying like flies in this country, simply because somebody is making money,” he said.
“Ministers cannot be touched by the President for reasons best known to himself (President Lungu)! Just tell me why! Not even a transfer [of Dr Chilufya]. We have been seeing scandal after scandal in that ministry.”
Meanwhile, on PF secretary general Davies Mwila’s announcement that some well-wishers (individuals and companies) of the ruling party have refunded the State, on behalf of illegal ministers and deputies who remained in office in May 2016, Kalaba responded that: “if that is not corruption, then what is it?”
“How can a company stand up and say we are going to pay for a serving minister? That is already conflict of interest! That company that is paying for you…There is nothing like free lunch,” Kalaba noted. “Again, as always, the President has permitted that because corruption in his government has become endemic. And I’m telling those companies [that paying on behalf of former and serving ministers] that not all days are Sundays. Things change! And we are taking stock of this behaviour.”
Kalaba asserted that: “corruption now is the new normal in the PF government.”
“They can even now announce on TV and say ‘some companies and some friends of the PF.’ Thank God [that] I have been removed from that sham arrangement of being paid for,” said Kalaba.
Mwila said Chishimba Kambwili and Kalaba were the only former ministers who had to pay back their debt.
He said the goodwill of PF’s well-wishers did not cater for the duo.
Kalaba already refunded the State K60,434.88 last year.
Kambwili is the president of another opposition political party, the National Democratic Party (NDC).