The Trouble With the Fight Against Corruption
By Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba
When he was sworn-in on 2nd January 2002, he said his preoccupation would be to unite the country and help build the economy.
It was a close call.
Levy Mwanawasa had just won the 2001 elections by a measly 29.15% with his party the MMD grabbing 69 parliamentary seats, while his closest rival, Anderson Mazoka polled 27.20% with UPND winning 49 seats.
Others were Gen. Christon Tembo who polled 13.17% with the FDD picking 14 seats and Tilyenji Kaunda at 10.12% with UNIP picking 13 seats and Heritage President Geoffrey Miyanda, 8.09% with 4 seats.
B. Y. Mwila’s party – Zambia Republican Party and Micheal Sata’s Patriotic Front party each obtained a seat ( Chongwe and Lupososhi constituencies).
The results were disputed and the legitimacy of Mwanawasa as President was cast in doubt.
Mwanawasa needed a quick fix.
The criminal case of “Chiluba is a Thief” case had gone sour and selected details of a secret intelligence account, the ZAMTROP, were made public.
First, Mwanawasa said he was not going to pursue his predecessor, Frederick Chiluba. He said the media reports of corruption linking his predecessor will be fought in a professional way using law enforcement agencies…
It wasn’t!
Before long, Mwanawasa was leading the fight and screaming “plunderers” everywhere! At airports, at press conferences, in official speeches, at every event, the story of “plunderers” became a mantra.
With the narrative against “plunderers” established, Chiluba’s close associates; Katele Kalumba (Former Finance Minister), Donald Chanda (State House Economic Advisor and INDENI Board Chairperson), Samuel Musonda (ZNCB-MD) and Richard Sakala( Press Aide and PHI Board Chairperson) suffered the brunt of an urgent need to punish someone, to satiate and satisfy the public calling for the blood of “plunderers”!
But sooner or later, it would be Chiluba himself.
The trouble was that Chiluba was among those that founded the MMD in 1990. He had picked Mwanawasa from relative obscurity to the position of Vice President.
Even after his resignation in July 1994 as Republican Vice President and when Mwanawasa went into retirement after the 1996 failed attempt to unseat Chiluba, he was the one that was hand-picked as the successor to Chiluba in the 2001 election.
Besides, Chiluba had laid the advantages of incumbency, resources and infrastructure to ensure that Mwanawasa’s election was successful.
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION GOES SOUTH
With the public whipped into hostility against Chiluba and his “tandem of thieves,” Mwanawasa however, grew increasingly impatient with lack of political successes in the corruption cases.
He moved to lift the Constitutional Immunity of his predecessor and laid sensational charges before Parliament, cataloguing cases of the alleged “plunder of national resources”.
Shortly after Parliament lifted the immunity from prosecution of Chiluba, his lawyers were at Court obtaining a court order injucting the action, seeking judicial and questioning the constitutionality of Parliament’s decision.
When the Police turned up at Chiluba’s residence to search and probably arrest him, they were met and stopped by a Court Order.
Following this development, lackeys and surrogates of Mwanawasa accused Chiluba of controlling or buying the Judiciary!
Finally, when the cases against Chiluba came before court, they bore no resemblance to the sensational charges on which Chiluba’s immunity was lifted.
Mwanawasa formed “The Taskforce On Corruption” to speed up the legal process against Chiluba and former government officials.
He also selected a few Magistrates to speedily handle the cases.
This had ramifications within the Judiciary.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mukelebai Mukelebai was the first victim of these illegalities and he was forced out of office after what appeared to be a sham of a Tribunal in 2004.
The Tribunal cleared Mukelebai who was defended by former Legal Affairs Minister and renowned lawyer, Vincent Malambo SC, of all charges of wrong doing. However, the Tribunal recommended for Mukelebai’s retirement as the relationship with the Executive ( Mwanawasa) had allegedly broken down irretrievably.
And while Mwanawasa hung his political fortunes on the fight against corruption, his political base was being eaten away.
In 2002, Chiluba had joined forces with Michael Sata.
The Patriotic Front was growing out of every MMD section, branch, constituency and Provincial structures.
Mwanawasa’s 2001 political stronghold was systematically being swept away from him.
While Mwanawasa took glory with glowing and repeated reports on ZNBC, and while his growing heroism graced newspapers, the voters from his base held another view….
When the election was conducted in 2006, Mwanawasa however won the election with a vote of 42.9% by obtaining new political base and support from Eastern, North-Western, Central and Western Provinces.
The Patriotic Front became the largest Opposition party with Michael Sata polling 29.3% and taking urban areas in Lusaka, Copoerbelt, and Luapula and Northern provinces. The PF displaced the UPND as the largest Opposition party.
By 2008, after the demise of Mwanawasa, realizing the perils of “the fight against corruption”, Rupiah Banda embarked on a process to reconcile Chiluba back to the MMD and to a place of a Statesman.
The Taskforce on Corruption was disbanded.
This new relationship of Chiluba with Rupiah Banda unsettled Sata, who had benefited immensely from the political relationship with Chiluba.
Sata fought back and turned the guns on both Rupiah Banda and Chiluba. He became the face of the fight against corruption, constantly warning the country of the emerging alliance of the corrupt!
Although Banda restored the economic fortunes of the country, the development appeared not to be good enough to win him the 2011 elections.
Despite the environment favouring Rupiah Banda, the exchange rate being stable, inflation rate at a single-digit, economic growth occuring at unprecedented levels, foreign reserves standing at $4.5billion, food prices and cost of living being fair, the Opposition leader found a niche in his campaign-“the fight against corruption”.
Sata also exploited the fatigue that had risen against the twenty-year rule of the MMD.
Sata won the 2011 Elections. The good state of the economy was not enough to save Banda.
The double-edged sword of the fight against corruption played a key role!