WE ARE BEING GOVERNED BY THIEVES — DR. MUSUMALI
…says there is no Government Ministry today that is free from corruption
Lusaka… Thursday May 15, 2025 — Socialist Party (SP) General Secretary Dr. Cosmas Musumali says the revelations by American Embassy that there is systematic stealing of medicine shows that the country is being led by thieves.
Speaking at a media briefing in Lusaka this morning, Dr. Musumali said the UPND has deliberately switched off all institutions that are supposed to safeguard Zambians.
He said the UPND Government is surviving on the basis of stealing public resources.
Dr. Musumali adds that there is no government ministry or grant aided institution today that is free from corruption.
“We are being led by thieves. We have a Government surviving on the basis of stealing public resources. There is no Government Ministry today that is free from corruption. The American tax payer is saying no to this and it’s time the Zambian taxpayers said no to this stealing. They are busy boasting that the country is doing well, that is arrogance of the highest order,” Dr. Musumali said.
“Corruption has been weaponized targeting political opponents. Procurement has been mismanaged. Institutions that are supposed to safeguard Zambians have been switched off. This has created a vacuum were stealing becomes part of functions and systems. Systematic theft is possible when all institutions and functions have been switched off and this is by design. The UPND Government has failed this country and stealing is at a grand scale,” he said.
And Dr. Musumali said Zambia has a parasitic pharmaceutical system that is taking medicines meant for the public and selling them.
“We have a parasitic pharmaceutical system where every second, pharmaceutical outlets are parasitic on public resources. There is systematic stealing the, the entire health system has been invaded by thieves. It’s not a diplomatic language but the U.S Ambassador used that and the question that we should ask ourselves is, how does a diplomat come to that conclusion, that there was systematic theft of the U.S funded medicines,” Dr. Musumali said.
“Again, they conducted their own investigations for two years. From 2021 to 2023, they were conducting those investigations. They visited 2,000 pharmacy outlets and with those pharmacy outlets they came to a certain conclusion that actually, half the outlets were stealing. The report was given to the UPND Government who tried to shelve it, hence them coming to the public.”
I don’t know how some people get their doctorates because their reasoning is not upto that level. The people who steal the medicines are not politicians but mere civil servants in the ministry of health. I stand to be corrected but I’m yet to hear a politician cited for theft of medicines so instead of castigating the politicians, on this one we should instead be castigating the general citizenry because they are the ones involved in this criminal activity. Yes politicians are involved other corrupt activities but not on the theft of medicines.
Very true. Some of those drug thieves may even be Socialist party members or indeed ‘Dr’ Musumali’s relatives. This is what cheap politicking is about, it cannot get any better.
Musomali,surely how can you label as thieves,a UPND under HH which has found money to fund free education,social cash transfer,increased CDF,massive employment,main and feeder roads etc.Its a thieving PF/Tonse of which you are now part of that could not finance all these projects but instead, bankrupted the country
You can only blame government for not dealing decisively with red tape and inefficiencies in government agencies.Undue delays in taking responding and taking action has has bred suspicions of rampart corruption that the opposition is now taking advantage of by exaggerating with an eye on 2026
There are currently 4 former PF MPs serving prison sentences, on top of 5 fugitives on the run. Judge for yourselves who the real thieves are.
And Honey Bee scandal is soon back in court.
True, Dr. Musumali should know that governments change but Civil Servants remain and have continued with their stealing over time. The same Civil Servants worked in UNIP, MMD, PF and are now in UPND. These people include Nurses, Clinical Officers, Pharmacists and Doctors, they own private drug stores, Pharmacies and Surgeries. The cartel also involves all the other drug stakeholders like ZAMSA, MoH Procurement Unit etc. As already alluded to, drug thefts and pilfering is soothing that have been going on for years and UPND should be commended for un earthing the long outstanding scam. Although the government is always blamed for the shortage of drugs and medical supplies, health workers and all the stakeholders mentioned above are the ones who create the shortages in hospitals and not politicians. Politicians don’t work in hospitals, they just build them but they don’t work there. Those who work there are the ones responsible for all these thefts. Please let’s put things straight and stop blaming innocent people just for political mileage.
It is Civil Servants involved even during PF and that other Government, MMD and UNIP. Have correct and right ears positioned on the side of the head and not on the fore-head.
When a country’s most enlightened citizens start joining politics, we should expect political discourse to benefit from their participation. Unfortunately we’re not seeing this in Zambia. Cosmas Musumali makes his home in Lusaka. He knows how long the drugstores near the University Teaching Hospital where some of the stolen medicines we have been told end up. Who owns the drugstores? Does Cosmas Musumali know?
And you are the father of thieves, chikala cha wiso
Musumali who is led by a tax evader wants to call his peers theives when he is in “bed” with a man that caused three institutions to close and failed to take care of his employees at the post.
That is socialists for you. Sing the Animal farm song to seem self rightous.
Some so-called doctors we have in Zambia are just a set of ” embarrassment and waste investment entities.”