By G.Mtonga
In Zambia corruption is a problem and worst of all we have no system to hold elected officials accountable for the rape of our country. Our system and our constitution do not give the general public a glimpse into the nature of our government or the institution that govern us!!
How does ZRA work with the Ministry Of Finance? How do we decide and who decides how money is allocated ? How do our pension schemes work? Why does it take a long time for a person’s family to get their money from pension schemes? How does the Ministry Of Education pay teachers; and what role does the government have with the military? How much does the president of Zambia make in a year? How much do ministers make in a year?Do our politicians have businesses other than their political careers? Where do politicians get the money they use for campaigns?
The above is a small paragraph of the many questions that can’t readily be answered by the Zambian people; the general public is as oblivious to the function of the Zambian government as a hunted animal is to its hunter!! The masses do not even know what their politicians are supposed to do for them, few people can walk into the office of a Member of Parliament from their constituency and demand answers!!! Politicians will continue to treat Zambia like their pocket book until the Zambian people advance structural elements that will reduce corruption and gain accountability:and it starts with our Media!![pullquote]The separation of power in Zambia is as separate as conjoined twins[/pullquote]
Corruption is a disease whose remedy is merely the punishment resulting from commiting the crime! If we set up legal as well as financial consequence for corruption, we can deter official members from committing these crimes against their nations; corruption is in gravity and destruction to a nation the same as committing TREASON!! Corruption can be addressed both as a legal matter and an administrative issue; by creating a “ Watch Dog” and at the same time creating aggressive laws with zero tolerance that will address corruption by government employees and government officials!!
Our media outlets should commit to journalistic integrity and report fragrant violations of power with the expediency and tenacity of other media outlets in the world. In New York City, The New York Times reported on John Edwards the man who was a contender for the presidency of the United States as having affairs and using state resources to coverup his affairs; the law was applied and he is facing trial in the court system and all his hopes of becoming president went down the drain.Even failure to pay taxes or report income from investments is enough to get an elected official in hot water as was the case for Congressman Charles Rangle ( D-NY)
Zambians however will say ” But Nimuzambia.. Infintu tafyakachinje!!”–“Its Zambia Things Will Never Change!” Things can change if we ourselves stop participating in a system riddled with nepotism, unethical practices, and mistreatment of government workers!! Government employees will steal because our government does not treat them right!! Our administrative system offers more incentives to steal than to work and young graduates are getting into the system with hopes of changing it but find that it is far much more logical and beneficial to participate in the corrupt system than to go against its massive machinery! Corruption then starts from the grassroots and goes all the way to our ministers and govt officials; ALL AT THE EXPENSE OF THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE AND THE FUTURE OF THE NATION!
We can address corruption by creating an independent watchdog to watch and audit the “The Zambian government” and the politicians that campaign to be effective leaders. Who exactly can ask the government to show their books; other than themselves? The separation of power in Zambia is as separate as conjoined twins; it is virtually non-existent!! If we created a watchdog we can audit budgetary issues, perform audits of ministries, and provide dialogue on a state level as to where money from donors goes in addition to the money earned by the Zambia Revenue Authority ( ZRA) through taxation. We can have one member of all the political parties registered in Zambia on the board of the organization and it should have its own separate budget to retain its independence!! All ministries would be subject to audits and the Office of the President would also be subject to financial and administrative audits! The organization would be given power to disclose the finances of each member of government who is “paid through our tax money” and the information can be published for the Zambian people to readily have access to it!! This of course is an ideal case!!
Of course its easy for me to write about what to do and how to solve corruption! However, we can practice what we preach! Why don’t all the Media Outlets, who are already entrenched in Zambia’s media networks form this organization?If media outlets led the fight against corruption by using their footprints in unison to address corruption we would move forward!!
The point is that something is being done!! Most companies fail because of mismanagement; rarely is it a result of liquidity problems, or aggressive competition by their competitors!!! They fail because the management was as intelligent as a frog trying to eat an animal 10times its size!!! Zambia is failing because of mismanagement; which obviously is the perfect breeding ground for corruption!! The Zambian government needs entities to oversee its practices and its governance; not just the international community but established organizations that are on the ground in Zambia. Transparency, Accountability and Communication; these government virtues will allow our political system to slowly clean its system of corrupt men and women who are getting rich while the average Zambian suffers in his/ her own country!!
good article
It’s true the major problem we have in Zambia is leadership. When they tar the road in your area, they make you feel so indebted to them ask you to vote for them on that basis. In USA you don’t use infrastructure development as basis to be voted back into office, but rather its policy frameworks that work. RB has made us feel that he has done us great favor for the roads done so far. Rubbish!
These are fundamental questions, its a pity that your Voice can`t be heard in parliament.
What do you expect from a dysfunctional national leadership? The Zambian governemnt is simply dysfunctional!
There are too many assumptions. First of all define corruption. To many Zambians, only politicians and senior govt officials are corrupt but the case goes as far as call boys, kabovas, marketteers all the way up to doctors, nurses and the President. We are ALL guilty of corruption in Zambia. Zambians in the diaspora use two passports. That is illegal. Zambians in the diaspora import goods which they do not declare when they visit Zambia. So, stop pointing one finger at others when 3 are pointing at Yourself!
But you do agree that it is a HUGE problem in our country, right?
The saint, even though three fingers are pointing at me, the ONE finger is still pointing at someone and for that fact we need to talk!! Thank you for the comment and your points!! LETS TALK, LETS DISCUSS; WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SYSTEM AND IF WE NEED TO ADDRESS IT WE NEED TO BE AGGRESSIVE.. EVEN IF WHENEVER ONE PERSON POINTS AT SOMETHING THREE FINGERS WILL BE POINTING AT THEM.
its true corruption in zambia is a very big problem. i totally agree with u my dear brother on the observations u have made.The only problem with us zambians is that we talk so well but we fail to take any action to solve the issue at hand.so pliz be the first one to say NO..NO to corrupt activities wherever u are ,whatever u are doing ,in which office u work ,which department or organisation u are working for so that pipo can admire your thinking ..which i doubt very much.Everyone today is looking forward to making quick and huge sums of kwacha including u man
no 5 is correct dont just accuse government workers or politicians 4 corruption alot of pipo when importing will try at all cost to undervalue or smuggle thereby depriving the nation of the much needed revenue.so lets reflect on our self
President Banda was asked by the international community why he removed Max Nkole from Task Force….he simply said “he is not loyal to me” now if one is honesty in his dealings one would look forward to such people to prove them that he is not corrupt…. First citizen is corrupt or is it “collapt” what do you expect, and yet people still want to vote for MMD… USA has showed dislike at the levels of high corruption and Banda simply say if elected he will change….lol
But what do we expect if after 47years of self mis-rule we what our Grand parents to solve Zambias problems. We deserve what we have Period. 1st we had KK for 27yrs, then we had a Grade 7 Kaponya for 10yrs, next we got a cabbage, now we have Grandpa & next will be worst.
Lets stop complaining, how do we expect different results from our choices?
Mr Mtonga could you narrow down your issues with a bit of research. It would be unrealistic to suggest there are no institutions of governance. Zambia has got necessary framework for governance. The problem then is not absence of these institutions but weaknesses in the governance of these institutions. There is complete negligence in the way the country is governed. We elect people who bribe us during election and so that’s what we get instead of development projects. We elect corrupt people and then begin to think they will be saints in government that would never happen
Lucy: this is an editorial piece not a thesis. The point is to make a commentary; and provide discussions! People should and will have a different thought on it.. but that is what I want: dialogue. We are now discussing these issues intelligently. We need dialogue on all fronts.
The issue of pension is simply that of miss match between assets and liabilities. On the liabilities side pension boards are indebted with pensioners on the asset side there are wholly dependent on government funding which is usually unpredictable. If government injected capital in these institutions this will not solve the problem because the money will be diverted into improved condition of service for top executives and not investment into viable assets to generate money to cover pension payments. Due to lack of governance this problem will persist.
Lucy: Even though anyone with a finance degree and economics degree will understand what you say; i doubt beyond that group of people you will find an audience.. the point as you still make is: ” due to lack of governance this problem will persist” and for this reason im certain you understand we do have a problem!! At least with time we find that we can talk about these problems and the chaos we might find something worth implementing.
Well,I would say that institutions are there.we’ve the ACC,Auditor Generals Office,Media,the Police and the Judiciary.We do have these institutions in place but the problem we’ve found ourselves in is the politicization of all important institutions.The fact that all heads of these institution are appointed by the president it becomes difficult for these people to work without been intimidation by the appointing authority.For Zambia to fight the scourge,we need a better constitution.everything anchors on a good constitution.for the questions the author raised,a freedom of information bill must be allowed.secondly.we need professional bodies like LAZ,ZICA,MISA,PAZA needs to strengthen their code of conducts and breach of ethical norms should be a serious offense.
very good article……its time that we hv a big change in zambia…..
Very good article. Lets work on the major prevailing issues promoting corruption and lets involve alot of people from media, ACC, private sector, police, educationists etc.. We should not only blame the current government under MMD of being corrupt when even us in the opposition are even more corrupt. We are stopping our MPs to discuss important national issues on TV saying ZNBC is biased. We can only fight this scourge if we worked together as one Zambia one nation. No finger poiting.
There is more on Rupiah Banda and corruption in an article published this morning. Just log on to UK Zambian Newsletter and see for yourselves how we embrace corrupt practices in Zambia.
#2 Mwantendekafye, Your posting sums up so intelligently and clearly shows how the president has taken Zambians for fools. He is using our wealth and resources to hold us to ransom to satisfy his selfishness and greed.
Interesting article on UK Zambian!! Thanx for that!!
LT, i like your articles;but in most cases,the background of the authors is missing. kindly give us the background of the officers.
LT, i like your articles;but in most cases,the background of the authors is missing. kindly give us the background of the authors.
Iwe shushushu, ninshi ulefwaya? What do you want to do with the authors? Bootlickers never want to hear anything negative about their failed President and the system, to them every critisism is bad. Leave the authors alone!
The media institutions are failing us Zambians by failing to portray the true picture of corruption in this country! They actively take sides and fail to point out the real issues; because they are beneficiaries of the corrupt practices!
People should be ashamed when they are caught and not treated as heroes!
I am amused with the names of these authors who call themselves variously as Grey Soko, A Zyambo, G Mtonga. They are actually from Mpika using fake names, typical PF tactics which don’t work.
My name is : George Nshindano Mtonga. Iam the one who wrote this article. Iam not ” PF and im not MMD.” Im from Masala compound in Ndola, Copperbelt. and im currently the CEO of an investment firm in New York City, USA.
Katie Good, You actually even missed the purpose of the article: to discuss about what i wrote. You went directly to doing something that I didnt expect: its like posting 1+ 1= 2 on a website where they discuss English literature.
Bravo George for the courage to address what is at stake! Katie Good you sound like you feed off leaking boots for ministers. Your days are almost over buddy. Reality will soon set in where the liabilities will need to be flushed out and retain responsible citizens to run the country of Zambia.
For any system of government to work, it must have checks and balances. In Zambia we have the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, supposedly independent of each other. The problem is that they are anything but independent. Most problematic is the Judiciary which is reportedly more prone to corruption and control by the Executive. Until such checks and balances are in place, which are independent of each other, people will continue to commit crimes such as corruption because they know that there is a way to evade the consequences of those crimes! The Executive must not be allowed to muzzle the Judiciary.. that should be a NO, NO! Otherwise, will continue to break the law with impunity.
For any system of government to work, it must have checks and balances. In Zambia we have the Executive, the Legislative and the Judiciary, supposedly independent of each other. The problem is that they are anything but independent. Most problematic is the Judiciary which is reportedly more prone to corruption and control by the Executive. Until such checks and balances are in place, which are independent of each other, people will continue to commit crimes such as corruption because they know that there is a way to evade the consequences of those crimes! The Executive must not be allowed to muzzle the Judiciary. That should be a NO, NO! Otherwise, people with a propensity to commit crime will continue to break the law with impunity.
Rb is the father of corruption in Zambia. Remember, he was fired by KK. Coz of long fingers.
arent there any younger candidates who can stand for election? rb and sata should step aside and pave the way for other intelligent lads.
I appreciate your comments and i will answer all of them individually. This is good because we are now talking. Im aware that the institutions are there; but we dont talk about them; the people in these institutions are still zambians. I can find alot of research explain all these problems; but how many reports have we done in zambia– health, education, economics? ALOT!! We have to be more critical for the sake of discussion.. and attempt micro-criticism; looking underneath the skin to see whats wrong!! The point is that all of us Zambians are participating in the corrupt system! We can explain why Customs are corrupt, why importers undervalue their goods, why government workers do side deals, why the president wants those who like him in power.. we can even explain pension
systems in the form of assets and liabilities.. my point is not explaining ” why corruption exists” or pointing fingers: THE POINT IS THAT ZAMBIANS ARE PARTICIPATING IN A CORRUPT SOCIETY WHERE FOR UNKNOWN REASONS ” DONCHU KUBEBA” has become sought of a political ideal. Understand one thing, even though we can disagree on alot of things here… the fact is that we will not get the car moving if the mechanics keep on taking out parts from it! I dont care why they are doing it.. but if our intention is to get the car moving i suggest we meet the mechanical requirements to get the car on the road and to start moving!! Please feel free to come back again to the Lusaka Times for my next article!
Totally agree with the author when he says that part of the problem is the almost fatalistic acceptance of our situation. It is common in Zambia for people to just say that is how it is, has been and always will be. Amen. Take for instance the lot at ZRA, especially at Livingstone, who am bitterly disappointed with at the moment. Both the Agents and Officials are conniving to inflate, artificially, custom charges and then come back to you and say, if you can bribe them, they can reduce the charges because that’s how they are. Why can’t we just have a transparent and open system? That lot at ZRA Livingstone is a typical example of an institution in existence but rotten to the core. Agents and Official behaving with impunity just because they have a title. Disgusting.
I have always maintained the view that corruption exists in every jurisdiction. The thing that we call corruption in Zambia does not come anywhere near the corruption that has existed for many years in all the western countries and spheres of authority. The biggest example is the so called 9/11 bombing, where we have a big government that is meant to be the beacon of democracy, staging through the influence of its secret service a mass murder of its citizens. We have a big church at Rome, pretending to be there for the purposes of the worship of the Creator whereas the real reason it exists is in order to continue the Roman Empire, threatening the sovereignty of every nation, including our Zambia where we have its representatives regularly undermining our government by unnecessarily taking
Certainly. But we have to discuss Zambia and refrain from comparative politics because we will then forgo discussing Zambia and her domestic politics; the presence of corruption in other areas of the government does not mean we should not discuss it. The point is that it is a detriment to the creation of a vision. Thats my argument and i think we need to work on that.. we need to address corruption period!!
Certainly indeed.. I am forced to go down the comparative root, because it has been predominant in our culture to make out that western politics and society is the most perfect and that they are saints with no corruption inherent there. At times we hear this even from the highest and most prominent in our society. Well, they are not, and if anything they have their agents in our system promoting this same corruption. If the majority of government income hails from western donor agencies and not from the citizen, of course the politician won’t be answerable to a mere Zambian. Lets strengthen our tax system and make these politicians truly answerable to us, Zambians.
The point is that the level of corruption in Zambia is so minimal when you compare it to the levels that exist in the U.S and the E.U. Its a distraction from the real issues. And as Zambians its time we stopped with this corruption noise, and got down to real action that contributes to economic growth. Lets switch the national debate, to what activities or moves will cause economic growth.
Majority of zambians are corrupt.Do not point at the president only, there is corruption everywhere in zambia. Even the write of this article is corrupt
Infact the president is not corrupt because I just hear allegations of corruption but nobody has proved it.We want proof and evidence not peddling rumours like the post and Sata
ZAMBIAN 29 & 30, you missed the point, not that the article is accusing the president, these are facts on the ground. Don’t know when you last went home, you would realize how corrupt our Country has become. Worse of it all is that all Government workers, police and even ZRA staff are so much corrupt.
Basically, there is no respect for citizens and looks like it is normal to ask for bribes. We need a leader that can be seen to be in touch with what is Happening; we need our country to move forward not as is the case.
Why should MMD bring the so call developments now? They are a failed Government who stand to be challenges as they have done little than just encourage corruption by buying votes.
Its quite interesting reading some of these responses to the article that Mr. George Mtonga wrote. To think that people can easily lose a point of such a powerful article amazes me, to think we can come here and say we are educated individuals and respond to such an article with accusing the author of being a PF or MMD goes to show how some people can be so narrow minded. The author is not blaming the President! He is making points as to how corrupt the government is Not the PRESIDENT. The last time i checked just because someone is the president does not make him the government as a whole he is just that A PRESIDENT! So lets focus on either pointing out the critical points of the article and not criticizing the author but find ways you feel or know he is wrong and see what…
Gentlemen and Ladies consider this: If we are on a ship and i say ” we are sinking” because people have been shooting bullets in the ship and others are tilting the ship close to the areas where we have the holes. What would that make me? I think that would be me telling you whats going on. You have to understand here im not saying that this person or that person is corrupt; my point is that the aggregated corruption in our country is leading us in the wrong direction. How we address that problem is UP TO US.. as the people of Zambia. As Zambian citizens. If i say the ship is sinking its up to the people on that ship to figure out what to do and get things moving for survival. Our politics about corruption is like saying ” No.. ine nnaibile fye $20 00 but ba sata baibile $ 5000″
It misses the point.. the argument is not that PF is stealing, its not that MMD are thieves.. NO.. the point is that we have a moral shortage of honesty in our country from ZRA to teachers to the very citizens our country serves.. and the reasons are obvious.. Zambians understand one thing.. like it or not.. the state of our country is our creation and we will eventually suffer for that.. this is the time we need to look at whats wrong with our country and atually make attempts to fix it.. what we address will be the benefit of our future generation; imagine a time in the future when Zambians will worry more about allocation of state wealth than corruption? If we address these issues now future generations may address something else.
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