By Fanny Kalonda
PF ACTING president Given Lubinda says it is not fair for all former government officials to be labeled as corrupt.
Speaking when he featured on Camnet TV’s National matters programme, Lubinda said
if the new administration identified one or two suspects, they should bring them to book rather than label all officials as corrupt.
“We are not crybabies; we are just saying, ‘please follow the due process of the law’; that is what we are saying. I don’t think anyone is saying that don’t follow criminals, what we are saying is follow the due process of the law,’’ he explained.
‘’And to just go around and brandish people and paint them with the same brush is not fair. You can’t possibly say all the ministers under Edgar Chagwa Lungu are all thieves, you can’t say that. That statement is unfair. If there are one or two or three that you know, please follow them. You can’t just paint everyone black as a thief; that is not fair.’’
Lubinda who implicitly referred to President Hakainde Hichilema, said it was not fair for someone who had suffered unjustified arrets to do the same to others.
‘’It is worse for a person who felt the pain of being arrested to inflict pain on others knowingly. It is a bigger offence and a bigger sin because you have experienced it and know how it feels,” Lubinda said.
“They should not just make a statement and leave it just like that just to condemn a group of people. The statements by government officials should be backed by evidence as it is irresponsible for some to make claims when they are in a position of power. When a person in power makes such a statement, it should be backed by evidence.”
And Lubinda said the habit of Zambian leaders persecuting former leaders should come to an end.
He said the immunity of a President should only be removed after there is enough evidence for the crimes being presented.
“Quite a number of us have been in politics for 15 years, so we have known how it is to be in opposition and in the ruling party. And because of our experiences we did declare that we learnt how bad it is to have an opposition political party that is antagonistic; that rubbishes everything,’’ he said.
‘’An opposition political party that doesn’t acknowledge that there is a president in the country. A political party whose leaders do not recognise the sitting resident as His Excellency. We saw the difficulties that created in governance. We will not do it. We however acknowledge that there is a sitting President. We will offer the necessary checks and balances. We will be critical whenever he does something that is not to the interest of Zambians. We shall support the good policies.”
Meanwhile, Lubinda said the people that were against the political parties’ bill were now speaking the loudest on the importance of political parties to be funded by government.
He said it was hypocritical for people who were against the bill to start calling for it.
“I was driving the process of the political parties’ bill and I first did consultations among political parties. They said don’t change anything. And then I said we shall only concentrate on where you have not decided. Where you have decided we shall take it as such because it is a process that involves all of you political parties,’’ said Lubinda.
‘’When I was about to present the political party’s bill, they said no, so I said fine let’s shelve it. We were not arrogant. And the same thing happened with the public order Act bill. It was taken throughout the whole parliament and members of parliament came together. They said they did not want it until Bill 10 passed. All these people who were against the political parties’ bill are the same people that are loudest on the importance for political parties to be funded by government. All these issues would have been dealt with in the political party’s bill.”