UPND not corrupt, says Defence Minister Lufuma

DEFENCE Minister Ambrose Lufuma has rubbished assertions that the recruitment of officers in the Defence Forces has been characterized by corruption and has advised Zambians to ignore the propaganda of graft in the new dawn administration.

And Mr Lufuma has charged that the Patriotic Front (PF) shall never appreciate and the UPND government for all the good things the government was doing because the ruling party is still bitter and jealousy that President Hakainde Hichilema had performed to the expectations of Zambians.

Mr Lufuma said the UPND government was not corrupt and shall never be corrupt, claiming that such vices had gone with the Patriotic Front (PF) which he accused of having been corrupt.

Mr Lufuma said the UPND administration under President Hichilema was trying to be as transparent and accountable to Zambians in all its undertaking and that those criticizing government were only doing so out of sour grapes.

He told the daily Nation that government was doing everything possible to ensure that the recruitment process in the Defence Forces was as transparent as possible and devoid of any form of corruption or nepotism.

Mr Lufuma explained that the recruitment exercise in the Defence Forces had been postponed because government had realized that the training of the recruits would not go well because of foreseen challenges.

He said the recruitment exercise in the Defence Forces was going to be conducted with utmost transparency as it was during the recruitment of teachers and medical personnel.

“We are trying to be as transparent and accountable to Zambians as possible but some people, especially the opposition. They (PF) think that what they were doing is what the UPND is doing. And we are not going to stop them from cooking lies and fake stories. The new danw administration under President Hichilema wants to make the recruitment process in the Defence Forces as transparent as possible. The UPND is not corrupt and we shall never be corrupt,” Mr Lufuma said.

Mr Lufuma said had it been the PF, the recruitment exercise would have gone ahead irrespective of the complaints from the general public because the former ruling party did not respect the views of citizens.

And Mr Lufuma says the PF shall never appreciate or commend the UPND government because the former ruling party was bitter and jealousy of the achievement of President Hichilema with his new dawn administration.

Mr Lufuma said the PF was working hard to scandalize the new dawn administration because according to him, the government had scored a lot of success in the short period of time the UPND had been in government.

“They (PF) will criticize everything we are going to do…no matter how good we are going to perform. It is expected that they will continue to scandalize the UPND government because of jealousy…it is sour grapes. Just like the homosexuality debate, the UPND and President Hichilema have always been against from the opposition but they want to turn and blame us for it. Anything good we do, the PF is going to rubbish. That is not how you play politics,” Mr Lufuma said.