HARRY Kalaba is right.
The UPND government cannot continue blaming the former president, Mr Edgar Lungu in perpetuity when they should be righting some of the wrongs committed in the past.
Mr Kalaba says if indeed the new dawn administration knows where former President Lungu has stashed his money – if it was stolen – they should go and get it.
Zambians, we are sure are tired of hearing the same stories of Mr Lungu being corrupt and hiding money somewhere abroad.
They are better off being presented with the evidence that indeed, stashed money has been recovered.
Mr Kalaba said if indeed former President Lungu has a lot of money stashed in Dubai, the easiest thing the UPND government can do is go and get it instead of abusing, defaming and characterising him as corrupt without any form of evidence.
Mr Kalaba, the president of Citizens First said the UPND government had been scandalising and demonising the former President as corrupt from the first day they assumed governance of the country and yet there had never been any time when they had presented any evidence of corruption against him apart from harassing his close friends, family and children.
Early this week, Information and Media Minister Cornelius Mweetwa, claimed that Mr Lungu had a lot of money stashed in Dubai which he was planning to use for his political comeback.
It is such talk, bereft of facts, that has made the public lose confidence in the government’s anti-corruption crusade.
The fight against corruption, as pointed out by Mr Kalaba, is one which the UPND government and its entire leadership had been hallucinating about former leaders in the Patriotic Front government of having stolen but had failed to secure even a single conviction from the time they started haranguing the selected citizens.
Mr Kalaba said had the UPND government truly known of any amount of money belonging to former President Lungu being stashed in offshore accounts, they would never have hesitated to follow the money and confiscating before even removing his immunity.
“The UPND has been threatening to remove the immunity of former President Lungu so that he could have his day in court but had never taken any step to start the process even after the former head of State had informed them of his readiness and willingness to have his immunity from prosecution lifted.
If they have nothing against the former President, let them stop hallucinating and making baseless accusations,” Mr Kalaba said.
Zambians are just fed up about the blame game for the failures of the UPND government which was voted into office on the basis of change, the rule of law and good governance.
Former President Lungu is no longer President for goodness sake. Just deliver and let Zambians see the Hakainde Hichilema administration fight corruption including the grand corruption taking place now,” Mr Kalaba said.
What is clear now is that the new dawn administration has lost the goodwill that propelled it into government having spent more time on rhetoric than getting the job done.
As Mr Kalaba says, actions speak louder than words. Let the UPND government produce results and cut down on rhetoric.
