Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:12:49 +0000
The goodwill that the PF government had enjoyed in the first 90 days in power has evaporated for it to marshall the necessary support for the lifting of President Rupiah Banda’s immunity says Nason Msoni.
Mr Msoni said evidently the PF had lost timing lifting immunity of the former leader because there were corruption allegations against senior cabinet ministers in President Sata’s administration.
He noted that it would be illogical to pursue President Banda before dealing with current allegations of corruption.
The former presidential aspirant in the MMD advised Mr Sata to learn from what happened when late President Chiluba’s immunity was lifted and how much government spent on the matter.
“The last time immunity of a former president was lifted involving former second Republican President Fredrick Chiluba it yielded nothing and all came to naught at great tax payer’s expense.
“It was estimated to have cost tax-payer’s a whopping K 62 billion (Kr 62 million) and in the end real beneficiaries of the whole thing were the task force lawyers who had pursued plunderers.
“To date the assets recovered are just empty shells. All in all a group specializing in plundering “plundered” assets recovered from former presidents has emerged in our midst. The Zambian public is aware of their machinations and maneuvers of calling for the removal of immunity of Mr Banda,” Msoni said.
He said the failure to implement policies by the PF government was a matter of immediate concern to the Zambian people rather than engaging in refighting the same old battles that would benefit selfish individuals with hidden motives.
“Zambians has already been down this road before and know exactly what is involved and possibly the aftermath. It was useless to spend colossal sums of money to obtain a judgment that could not be registered by our own court here locally.
“Therefore it is a waste of time and tax payers’ money to embark on another similar or identical expeditious legal and political witch-hunt instead of attending to the poor state of our hospitals, schools and crumbling infra-structures that requires the much needed state resources.
“This thing is a non -starter and there is an obvious danger that Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) maybe a lone voice in the wilderness,” he said.
Mr Msoni said it was in the interest of natural justice and fair play that the public should be availed the extent of the information of the allegations against Mr Banda.
He said it was incorrect to say and assume that at this stage the have already done their investigations and that it was prudent for the state to make public what it thought and believed Mr Banda had committed whilst serving as President.
