By Patson Chilemba
It is up to Zambians to decide if they want to continue under this corrupt system, says ruling PF member Colonel Panji Kaunda.
And Col Panji said politicians in government become complacent and take people for granted once elected because Zambians go to sleep instead of remaining vigilant by providing effective checks and balances on the people elected.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Col Panji said it pained him to see that the same things he and those in PF campaigned heavily against during the MMD reign, were the same things rearing their ugly head under the PF administration of President Edgar Lungu.
He said PF was now defined by rampant corruption, violence, thuggery, pride and the impunity by party cadres to do as they wished, including where they took matters into their own hands at the courts, in the process making it impossible for Health minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya to take plea over the corruption charges against him.
Col Panji moaned that all the state institutions that were supposed to safeguard the country’s democracy had now collapsed, including the role of the police, who seemed to play complicit in failing to stop PF cadres unruliness.
“I feel sad that as a PF man who fought for this government to get in power, we ourselves are doing the very things we condemned. If you look at our manifesto we have failed to do what we promised,” Col Panji said. “It’s up to them (Zambians) to decide if they want to continue under the corrupt system. People themselves are on the receiving end. If they are happy they will retain the PF.”
Col Panji said the unruliness by PF cadres at the Magistrates Court for Dr Chilufya’s appearance was the very reason why it was not right for a minister, charged with serious offenses to remain in office, saying police were scared to do anything as it involved a minister who also had the support of the President.
“If those people (cadres) who were escorting the minister, if it was Kambwili and HH you could have seen machine guns all over,” Col Panji said, further saying calls for Dr Chilufya to step aside were moral and not legal.
And Col Panji said since Zambians could not determine beforehand what sort of people they elected would turn out to be once in leadership, the best they could do was to remain vigilant once they elected those same people into government. He cited the example of Malawi where the people forcefully spoke out against that country’s newly elected President Dr Lazarus Chakwera after he appointed relatives into government, barely a few days after the gave him a resounding victory over incumbent Dr Peter Mutharika.