By Richard Waga
The political discourse in the past few days has been dominated by the debate of whether the President’s reference to a clique of thieves running our country in the past, was appropriate or not. The reaction to these comments can be categories into two. There are those from the opposition who want this to be politically damaging to HH as a direct insult to the former presidents. And there are those who see the comments as brutal honesty that needs to be confronted.
Just as much as we want a beautiful heritage for our country, we should also confront the negative legacies that exist to this day. The problems of corruption, theft, tribalism and nepotisms are problems we have been grappling with even before independence (i.e. refer to the reasons that prompted the Choma declaration one of them being tribal factions). We have proof, like wide inequalities, abject poverty and unemployment which cannot be explained by lack of resources but only by theft and corruption.
Zambia has always been a rich country which has only required to build capacities and educate its people to own and control its national wealth. From state-controlled economy to mixed economy Zambia has always had opportunities for its people. This was despite KK losing power due to a severe economic depression that caused food riots and receded his popularity. Or FTJ having to sale companies he could not recapitalise. LPM also pursued a painful HIPC process to achieve debts relief, an opportunity RB exploited to achieve economic stability. Corruption existed through and through, because we were still a country with plenty of resources but few opportunities despite the progress.
In 2011, RB effectively became the first president to hand over a stable and thriving economy to a successor. Unfortunately from that time, all hell broke loose and our economy took a nose dive. It is not a coincident that the economic nose dive came with the heightening of nepotism, tribalism, thieving and corruption by PF. After 2011 we saw tribal supremacy of the pre-independence times beginning to take root in the governance system. We saw nepotism that almost created a dynasty in 2015 when five members of Sata’s family contested the PF presidency. We saw RB’s corrupt elements bounce back when they joined PF, as Lungu embraced regional voting and overlooked the mandate of the PF supporters who still hated MMD. All this was able orchestrated by veterans from the 1964.
While MMD handed over a growing and stable economy to PF, PF handed over a nightmare to UPND. Luckily, we have a leader who has the character, soberness and clear mandate to address this difficulty. PF left nepotisms networks throughout the civil services, even branch level cadres had the influence to have their relatives hired before deserving candidates. PF left PSs, boards and management with people coming from the same regions. PF left thousands of unprosecuted illicit transaction, according to the FIC. The PF left thousands of unresolved audit queries according to the Auditor General. They also left hundreds of incomplete projects started without funding while some were paid for but not completed. PF left billions of dollars in debt, some of which was never approved by parliament or accounted for by treasury. Should we overlook this haunting reality because of word games about what HH meant?
The biggest threat to our economic recovery is how we treat this grand corruption responsible for the disaster of the last 10 years. If we pardon thieves, there will be a new legacy of free stealing. If we punish them, we have to ensure the poor appreciate that action as a priority. If the poor don’t realise the benefits of fighting corruption, they will forever continue to praise thieves. It is clear the culprits do not want the law to take its course. They want emotions and politics to overshadow the operation of the law. They will use their nepotistic connections to evade the law. They will claim tribal persecution to evoke emotions and gain political sympathy.
Zambian should remember that for every thief we let loose, many more will be inspired.