LIFTING ECL’S IMMUNITY WILL NOT SOLVE ZAMBIA’S CORRUPTION ISSUES
… step one to dealing with corruption is start cleaning your own house, Socialist Party urge UPND
Lusaka…. Friday, October 28, 2022 (Smart Eagles)
The Socialist Party (SP) has argued that the removal of former president Edgar Lungu’s immunity will not solve the corruption issues the country is faced with.
Party General Secretary Dr Cosmas Musumali has charged that there is a lot of corruption that is currently taking place in the New Dawn Administration.
Dr Musumali said there is more to government than focusing on one person. He was speaking when he featured on Radio Phoenix’s “Let the People Talk” program today.
“There is more to governance than just working on an individual. There is more to the fight against corruption than the corruption of the then siting president. There are a lot of laws, there are a lot of changes that ought to be made in this country,” he said.
“The issue of the president and lifting his immunity will not solve the corruption issues. Corruption is taking place even within the UPND. If that is the way of dealing with corruption, then we are lost.”
Dr Musumali said step one to dealing with corruption is “start cleaning your own house.”
“You can’t deal with corruption countrywide when you own house is dirty…. we have a corrupt judicial system and no one doubted that. We have the civil service that is one of the most corrupt on the continent…any aspect of government is corrupt.”
Meanwhile, Dr Musumali explained that the party’s stance to side with Hon Bowman Lusambo and Hon Joe Malanji does not mean that the party is working with the PF.
He refuted the claims saying the SP is not a surrogate of any party.
“We did not see the ideology difference between the PF and the UPND… and that hasn’t changed really. So today, us being closer to the PF it’s because we are seeing people from the PF coming and joining us. But we also see people from the UPND coming and joining us. Maybe not with the same numbers but we have members of the UPND that have joined us,” he said.
“The majority of the people joining the Socialist party are neither the UPND or PF. These are younger people. So we cannot be a surrogate of any other political party. What we stand for is the issue of justice, the issue of principles, and even if we don’t like you, even if we differ with you, even if it happened to a UPND person, we will support that person.”