By PETER SICHALI and JACKSON MAPAPAYI
IT will a betrayal of the Zambian people if Ministers in the UPND administration succumb to the temptation to steal public funds or engage in any other form of corruption, Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) has said.
TIZ Executive Director Maurice Nyambe said the organization was concerned with revelations by President Hichilema about some of his Ministers being taught how to steal public funds by a clique of people from the former regime.
Mr Nyambe urged President Hakainde Hichilema to find evidence of any of the ministers’ involvement in corruption and take visible and decisive action to send a strong message that he would not allow corruption.
He reminded the UPND that Zambians elected them into office on the basis of their promises to be different from previous regimes.
“It will therefore be a betrayal of the aspirations of the Zambian people if Ministers in the UPND administration succumb to the temptation to steal public funds or engage in any other form of corruption,” Mr Nyambe said.
And Veteran politician, George Mpombo advised President Hichilema to act if he had reports of corruption in government and stop the blame-game.
Dr Mpombo said that corruption in government cannot be blamed on a previous regime. He said that the so called “Clique of thieves” could only tutor willing individuals and as such these individuals in government must be sorted out by him.
He observed that there was no school for thieves and as such any corruption in the current government cannot be ascribed to tutolage by former government officials.
He charged that any corruption in government was as a result of persons who were already corrupt and only needed an opportunity to show what they were made of.
He insisted that in as much as the UPND had created a perception that the previous government was corrupt, it must be alive to the fact that the current government was not made of Angels. He said that the President must not shield his government officials, but act against any reports of corruption because the buck stops at his desk.
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