LUSAKA Province minister Bowman Lusambo has laughed off allegations made by PF youths who have reported him to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
On Monday, six PF youths deposited a report at ACC’s office of the Director General accusing Lusambo of abrogating section 21(1) of the ACC Act.
The youths have also accused Lusambo of abuse of authority of office as well as donating assorted goods worth “millions of kwacha” to his constituency, beyond his income and financial means as a minister.
But when contacted for comment yesterday, Lusambo laughed at the PF allegations and said he would start talking about the matter next year.
The following is the verbatim of the phone conversation with the minister:
Reporter: Good afternoon, honourable.
Lusambo: I’m fine, thanks. How are you? What can I do for you?
Reporter: I am following up a story on some PF youths that have reported…
Lusambo starts laughing, before saying, “Imwe nalikwata ifyakucita ifingi naimwe, huh. (I have a lot of work to attend to…)
Reporter: Honourable, just give me your side [of the story].
Lusambo: Let’s talk about something else. What I am hoping to talk about, tell me. I don’t have what to say, I will speak in 2021. That’s when we can be talking about this. At the moment I don’t have what to say. I’m reserving my comments for 2021. I will manage that…
According to a report deposited at the ACC’s Office of the Director General, Celestin Rocky Mukandila, Rodgers Roy Mugala, Simon Mulenga Mwila, Bennett Musonda, Mpage Kachingwe and Geoffrey Mutale Mwila reported Lusambo for abuse of authority of office.
The youths stated that, “We also note with concern that the Honourable Lusambo has been donating assorted goods with millions of kwacha to his constituency beyond his income and financial means as a Minister and member of parliament, which donations have been in the public domain for more than a year now. Kindly investigate the same for possible abrogation of the anti-corruption commission Act”.
“We wish to make a formal complaint against the honourable Minister for Lusaka Province Mr Bowman C. Lusambo on several acts of abuse of authority of office,” read part of the report to the ACC DG. “First and foremost, we wish to make this complaint as Zambian citizens endowed with the responsibility to be patriotic to Zambia and promote its development and good image; as well as those who endeavour to acquire basic understanding of the Constitution and promote its ideals and objectives; as provided under Article 43(1)(a) and 43(2)(a) of the Constitution of Zambia(Amendment) number of 2016 respectively and finally as good governance and human rights advocates.”