I FEEL EXTREMELY BAD WHEN CITIZENS PROTECT THIEVES – HH
I REALLY feel bad when fellow citizens want to protect those who are stealing from the people; I feel extremely bad inside, says President Hakainde Hichilema.
And President Hichilema says he does many things but one thing he does not do is steal.
Further, President Hichilema says government is promoting asset recovery to ensure that resources that are stolen from citizens are recovered and returned to the rightful owners.
Speaking during the commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day in Lusaka, held under the theme “Uniting Youth Against Corruption: Shaping Tomorrow’s Integrity,” Tuesday, the Head of State said there was need for a national consensus to ensure that corrupt people were not supported.
“I really feel bad when fellow citizens want to protect those who are stealing from the people. I feel extremely bad inside, I don’t show it but I feel very, very bad. Yet, those relatives of ours can be what they want to be, can have the resources they want if they worked for those resources, they can access those resources. So, as a nation, we must be agreed that we do not support corruption and the corrupt. I think this is what I want to emphasise here today, as a nation, we must not celebrate corruption. This chairman [Evans Hamaundu] last week, in his presentation at InterContinental, says even donations, when people are donating things, let’s check, are they capable, where are they getting that money? Do they run businesses, do they generate income, [and] do they farm? How is it that they generate money to donate? There’s a connection. Otherwise, you’ll celebrate donations based on stolen money,” President Hichilema noted.
“We in public office, when we donate money, we should not pinch the people’s money from the left pocket then donate to an institution from the right, but we have actually taken money that belongs to the same people we are donating to, deception. How do you feel as a parent, your son is 28 years old, doesn’t work, he just drinks beer, one day he comes home driving a Mercedes Benz, daddy, mummy, I bought a car. As a father you say, you’ve bought a car, where has the money come from because you don’t work, you just sleep and drink, where has the money come from? People argue about selective fight against corruption, there’s nothing like that. Me, in opposition, I used to challenge people who were accusing me of things, I said, take me to court. I remember one lady accused me, may her soul rest in peace, of having stolen a house, [and] I said, I don’t steal. One thing I don’t do, I do many things but I don’t steal”.
President Hichilema highlighted that it was important to ensure that individuals who stole public resources not only served jail sentences but also returned the stolen resources to the citizens.
“We’ve taken a dual approach, and I know it was heavily criticised at the beginning; prosecutions approach, but also asset recovery, based on non-conviction best approaches, which are all legal. I know some of our colleagues in the diplomatic community were saying no, why are you doing this, it is important. I’ve always given an example, a guy steals $10 million, he uses one or two million dollars to buy the best lawyers and goes to court. Sometimes, no conviction, because two million dollars is a big legal fee, you get the best lawyers, but if they are convicted, they’ll only serve, and our laws need to be addressed here, when you say, a judge can sentence a guy like that up to five years, that’s what the law says, up to five years, we should amend these laws parliamentarians. We shouldn’t say up to five years because a judge will give three months, six months, one year, up to five years, isn’t it? It’s legal and you cannot contest that so [Daphne] Chabu there, [Nason] Banda there, will appeal that conviction but the judge is in the right space to do it. We need to start tackling these issues,” he explained.
“So, let’s assume they are convicted for a year, since it’s up to five years, and then there’s what we call remission, there are lawyers here, remission, and they may come out after six months, seven months, because of remission. I love my numbers, you should love numbers in this country, they help settle arguments, $10 million stolen through corruption, minus two million paid in legal fees, they serve [a] sentence for six, seven months, they come out, they access the $8 million and then tomorrow, after five years you forget, you call them businessmen, they’ve kept that money. Have you seen the point I’m making? So, in our approach now, we are saying, litigation, prosecution, but also asset recovery. We want that money. I want that money taken away from you if it’s not your money and then we send it to the rightful owners. I believe that this government has shown its teeth, we have sunk our teeth in the beef through prosecutions”.
The Head of State stressed that individuals who had stolen public resources should not be protected by anyone.
“When we fight corruption using the laws now, and the institutions we have set up, you’ll hear noises in the community, no, they are only targeting our people, what’s the meaning of that? Somebody has stolen, somebody has abused resources that they don’t own and when madam [Daphne] Chabu there or Mr [Nason] Banda here, who we have entrusted to perform these functions, perform their duly allocated functions, we start looking at them with squinty eyes, then we start labelling them, then we start alleging that they are targeting our people, who is your people? Ndeipusha (I’m asking), who are those? Who you want to take what is not theirs and personalise it, and take away meal allowances for my fellow monks and momas, because that’s what it means,” said President Hichilema.
“You take away public resources meant for meal allowances in colleges then you start saying, no, they are targeting our people, who are these your people? It means at a family level, at a community level, we have not reached the agreement that this is wrong and we should not support anyone who is doing this, which is wrong. I think that’s a strong way of fighting corruption. Society must abhor such wrongs and must not protect those who are found wanting. After all, when people take resources that belong to others, they don’t share with yourself, who you call our people, maybe they share with you, maybe, we don’t know, maybe they share with you. I choose to be direct when opportunities arise like this because I hear it. I throw it to you and your consciences, which people?”
Meanwhile, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Board Chairperson Evans Hamaundu challenged the youth to lead the fight against corruption because they made up the largest demographic of the country, were energetic, innovative and unafraid to question the status quo.
Hamaundu added that if empowered, protected and included, the youth could dismantle long-standing cultures of silence, apathy and fear that often enabled corruption to thrive.
And Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) Chapter president Priscilla Chansa said teaching values of fairness, accountability and responsibility from an early age would build a generation that refused to normalise corruption.
On the other hand, UN Resident Coordinator Beatrice Mutali said building a future free of corruption was a shared responsibility that demanded open dialogue, respect for diverse views and a collective commitment to strengthening trust and resilience.
News Diggers
If my people are locked up for thieving, so be it. If that selective fight against corruption causes my people to refrain from thieving, I will be the happiest man on earth. People must respect other people’s property. That is what it means to be human.
How can you have a head of state legalising corruption and outright theft of national resources by publicly declaring “uubomba mwibala alya mwibala”? PF was truly a disaster for Zambia and corrupted the national moral fabric. Thieves were treated with reverence (ba big buyer) and thieving became an accepted life style. It will take a whole generation to reconfigure the national psyche to treat thieves as outcasts.
Mr. President, one of the reasons I voted for you was to deal with the thieves that looted our national treasury with abandon. They must be held to account. On this score, I feel a lot of thieves have gotten away to enjoy their loot.
It’s the PF thieves that make noise, the beneficiaries of the heists. It’s unfortunate that most of our people in Zambia like stealing, it’s the reason they make noise. Change is not easy, hence the noise.
Our law enforcing department is rotting away with the same corrupt behaviour, one thing Mr president that needs a serious look is to stop hiring all senior officers children and relatives into defence, and all other security institutions. That is why the corruption in these institutions high, imagine a child growing hearing the father telling the mother that he ll buy meanie meal after setting a traffic road Block and then he becomes a traffic officers some day, he ll definitely apply the same tactic. It’s like a prostitute woman is likely to have prostitute daughters. Charity begins at home.
Thieving is in their DNA. They even steal from themselves if there is nothing belonging to someone else to steal. Even the tuma women have joined the ranks, reproducing thieves and raising thieves.
It’s who we are as Zambians.. Always defending Thieves.
We even continue protecting Privatisation Thieves…Those heartless Thieves who took Zambia to the Stone Age.
The 3 Musketeers with insatiable pockets. At it then, at it now.
Sniffing Dollars everywhere..The ” Holy ” Thieves.
The saddest part is the people defending these thieves are ignorant to the fact that these thieves are stealing from them and the whole country. What makes a monidter or anyone having a position feel entitled to just help themselves. People supporting criminals are of like mind.