MWEETWA IS TRYING TO INTIMIDATE ACC INTO CLEARING MINISTERS UNDER PROBE – MUNDUBILE

MWEETWA IS TRYING TO INTIMIDATE ACC INTO CLEARING MINISTERS UNDER PROBE – MUNDUBILE

MPOROKOSO PF MP Brian Mundubile says Chief Government Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa’s challenge to the ACC to name ministers under investigation is meant to intimidate the Commission into stating that there are no ministers under investigation.

Mundubile adds that not only should the names of the ministers under investigation be revealed, but they must also be prosecuted as they have sound cases.

He argues that if the cases were not solid, the ministers would have been cleared by now.

In an interview, Wednesday, Mundubile wondered how the Chief Government Spokesperson could express ignorance about ministers being under investigation when the ACC had confirmed the same.

“To start with, before the dissolution of the board of ACC sometime last year, we were informed by ACC that there were some ministers under investigation. If my memory serves me right, we have between 8 and 10 ministers under investigation.

The Solicitor General, some Permanent Secretaries and a number of top cabinet officials as it were. As parliamentarians, we started pressing for the names of those people. And shortly afterwards, the board was dissolved when they tried to move in to interrogate those particular individuals. So it remains a fact that there are ministers under investigation at the ACC,” he said.

“This was further confirmed by the new board chairperson, who said yes they are there, but their names could not be disclosed. How can a cabinet minister, a government spokesperson, later come and say there are no such ministers and start challenging the ACC? It’s a correct thing for the ACC to reveal. But when you see two government officials having two different positions, like we have seen between the ACC and the minister, it just points to the confusion that is in that government. We are dealing with a government that is full of confusion”.

Mundubile said Mweetwa and government are trying to intimidate the ACC into stating that there are no ministers under investigation because they know Zambians will start pressuring them for the release of names.

“They are trying to clean and launder the names of those who are at the ACC, knowing that the Zambians will soon start putting pressure for the release of those names. Now, they are trying to intimidate the ACC chairperson, or the ACC Director General into coming up with a statement that as a matter of fact, there is no one under investigation. It’s very sad. We know that there are ministers that are under investigation.

We continue to demand that their names must be published. So, the difference in statements by the two only points to the confusion that reigns within the UPND government. And also, it shows how there has been an executive overreach, how much pressure the executive has been putting on institutions of governance. They have collapsed the JCC, they have collapsed the ECZ, they continue to put pressure on ACC. So, really, this is a collapse of government institutions,” he said.

Mundubile said President Hakainde Hichilema has demonstrated that he cannot fire anyone for corruption, especially high-ranking officials.

“Do you remember the argument between Professor Kaaba and Marshal Muchende the Solicitor General? It was in public domain because Professor Kaaba was a commissioner at ACC. He brought out the corruption at the Solicitor General’s office, was anybody fired? So what is Cornelius Mweetwa talking about? This President, President Hakainde Hichilema, cannot fire anyone for corruption. He has demonstrated that he can’t fire anyone for corruption. What they are trying to do now is to ensure that they cover up the names of these people that are under anti-corruption by coercing ACC into saying, as a matter of fact, we have verified there are no ministers appearing at anti-corruption.

This story has been there for the past one year plus,” said Mundubile.

“The former DG and the officials at ACC confirmed that there were ministers that were reported before ACC. The only minister who was reported to have been cleared was Stanley Kakubo. The rest of them have still been going. What we want is not only their names to be published, we demand that they be prosecuted because we know for certain that if they were cleared, by now they would have been cleared. The only reason why they have not been cleared is that the allegations are sound and they should be prosecuted.

Look, we are not talking about small fish. I don’t have that time to talk about small fish. The real corruption, as the American ambassador put it, with the fight against corruption, we will only see it when we see big fish being fired. So, to repeat my statement, President Hakainde Hichilema cannot fire any big fish for corruption. He has demonstrated that he can’t”.

CREDIT: News Diggers