Dear Editor,
IT is embarrassing to see the entire republican president using absolute an authoritarian hand to avoid probing questions from the media on the Milingo Lungu saga to defend a seemingly incompetent selection of his legal and his other aides.
From his statement during the press conference, it is clear that the president and his team met Milingo Lungu and offered the immunity from prosecution. What is important also to note about our President, Mr Hakainde Hichilema is that he contradicts himself over the operations of the institutions of integrity such as DEC, ACC, and Auditor General’s office.
He claims that he does not interfere with their operations but the truth is that he does. We have not forgotten that it was him who announced the forfeiture of Faith Musonda’s money on his Facebook page, that a few days into office, he had scored by recovering the said money way before any Zambian could imagine the possibility of Faith Musonda letting go of that money, in a similar trick, him and his team used it Milingo Lungu.
It seems this is the only way his legal advisor Counsel Christopher Mundia knows. This is not a good tactic but a mafia way of damaging some citizen’s reputation.
In my opinion, these professionals fear him, they can’t voice their opinions on legal matters brought before the head of State, they want to agree with the opinion of a business expert on legal issues.
It is clear that during HH rule, the government will spend huge funds on compensation of wrongful prosecutions. The appetite to fix former government officials preoccupies his mind 75 percent of the day.
I hate yes Bwanas, they are retrogressive. Milingo Lungu should have learnt from Faith Musonda who was tricked in letting go of the money in exchange for freedom from prosecution and she was later re-arrested.
I pity Ms Mary Chirwa, the director general of the DEC who is using emotions to fix people who disagreed with her way of dealing with serious matters in the previous Government. It would help her to go through facts of the matter before rushing to the media.
She must realise that her office is not a talk show. It is difficult to differentiate between a UPND spokesperson and Ms Chirwa, they sound the same on serious government matters. It is the same with the Zambia police command, because the minister tells them to move quickly in the case of Pamela Chisupa, the abducted Airtel mobile money agent, the following day the Police spokesperson goes to the media and reports that they had found a dumped sim card on a rubbish pit.
Why alerting the abductors, why can’t they do investigation quietly and save our sister?
Where is the trained Police Service of the former IG Francis Musonda? We know that under his leadership most police officers received professional training.
It is a misnomer to have a seasoned legal brain as Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister in Jack Mwiimbu and at the same time have an IG who seems not sure whether he is IG or police spokesperson.
We have seen police officers advising UPND cadres and officials to go and report PF officials to particular police officers at various police station s who are bitter with the former ruling party so that the issue of law doesn’t come into play, it just becomes a political fight handled by police cadres.
Today, a trained police officer can be ordered to go and arrest the legal counsel of the suspect by a layman complainant and the officer follows orders of a said complainant. Lol.
The Police Service under UPND leaves much to be desired. Mr Hichilema, your government has an opportunity to correct the ills of the previous Governments in as far as the institutions of integrity are concerned.
You have upright and principled ministers like Jack Mwiimbu, Gary Nkombo, Douglas Syakalima, Doreen Mwamba, Elvis Nkandu, and Felix Mutati.
These despite the fact that they are not in the media daily, they can help in instilling sanity in your government.
In addition, in the other arm of Government the judiciary, you have levelheaded legal brains. The Chief Justice, the Attorney General, Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions are all principled officers of the court. Give them space to work.
I understand how difficult their work is because they will have to handle poorly investigated cases from the Police as well as other investigative agencies. They are not serious, they play to the gallery too much.
Mr President, deal with your handlers, don’t threaten the media with state media regulations. Just don’t be shy to disappoint your appointees even two hours in the job. Don’t tolerate incompetence and patronage by your appointees. Put your house in order.
ENOCK CHULU.
Author
