Sat, 06 Jan 2018 11:53:06 +0000
By NATION REPORTER
Harry Kalaba, has been challenged to name the corrupt individuals in government and reveal their corruption so that relevant investigative wings can take action.
The challenge comes from Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader, Edith Nawakwi, who has asked Mr Kalaba to give details of the corruption that he referred to when he resigned as Foreign Affairs minister.
Ms Nawakwi has been quoted by the media as demanding that Mr Kalaba should make good on his allegations by revealing the individuals in government that he knew were corrupt.
In reaction to Mr Kalaba’s resignation last week, Ms Nawakwi said she was tired of waking up to corruption allegations from former ministers.
“Honestly speaking, you can’t comment if he makes a blanket statement. He should be specific. If Harry Kalaba says ‘this government is corrupt’, corruption is a very big word. He should point the finger. But to just walk around and say this government is corrupt, how do we know? He is PF and he has been PF from the beginning. Has he just woken up and seen corruption?” Nawakwi asked.
“So when I have people running around ‘corruption, corruption’, they are just hiding something which we don’t know. Let Mr Kalaba be very open. My dear brother be very open and say ‘it is that sister, it is that brother, it is that Vice-President or the President whom I am running away from because they did 1, 2, 3, 4 things’, Ms Nawakwi told the media.
She said Kalaba should tell where the corruption is in government, whether Ministry of Home Affairs, Cabinet Office, or State House.
“Where is the looting going? Is it at State House? Come out, don’t just walk out and say ‘there is corruption’. How do we know maybe he has differed with his employer and therefore it is vogue to say corruption?” she said.
Ms Nawakwi also took jabs at expelled PF Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili and UPND vice-president Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba.
“You know, this word [corruption], [Chishimba] Kambwili comes out and says this government is corrupt, and we were talking about the fact that Kambwili, in Luanshya had road contracts of roads which were not completed, you remember?
Ms Nawakwi revealed that the FDD had made attempts to question what Roan member of parliament, Chishimba Kambwili was doing in Luanshya but could not succeed because he was in cabinet.
She said it was therefore strange and ridiculous that the same people could today turn around and start shouting about corruption when he had issues also.
“We told them that some ministers of defence whom we may not name in the party, but those days we were very specific, ‘they are selling timber to Zesco, they are selling mealie meal to the army’, we were very specific those days. Why are people hiding in the word corruption? Why? Why are they cowards? That’s cowardice. Come out man! We support you, come out!”
She said it was important to be specific, as she was, on issues of corruption.
Nawakwi suggested that those who made corruption allegations be arrested and compelled to reveal more.
“And people who go out and say there is corruption, they must be arrested immediately and be instructed to tell us the truth as a people,” she said.
