Should President Hakainde Hichilema be given more time to fight corruption? Corruption is not a politics-free issue in the country so expect biased answers to questions like this.
It doesn’t mean Zambians should stop asking questions like this. Because the question can potentially attract public debate, it is worth asking. Debate is key in dealing with complicated issues and corruption is no exception.
“You can’t root out corruption in two years eleven months because you find a fiber of people; a number of people who have grown up thinking that corruption is the way to go,” Hichilema told attendees at the Zambia National Service (ZNS) Officer Cadets commissioning parade in Kafue district on July 19, 2024.
Hichilema is known for using technical language to speak. On this, it is easy to tell his direction. Hichilema is lobbying for more time to fight corruption in the country. That is what drives the above question. Should he be given more time?
Hichilema is right. Corruption in the country is too deep-rooted to be rooted out in three years. However, giving the United Party for National Development (UPND) administration more time to fight the vice wastes time and resources.
On Friday, August 19, 2022, during a live interaction with the public on Hot FM radio at State House in Lusaka, Hichilema revealed he still maintains interest in his businesses. This implies that Hichilema has clients and obvious business partners, which means he is not free from conflict of interest. Hichilema may be clean, but obviously, not all his clients and business partners are.
Punishment is inevitable in the fight against corruption. For a successful fight, all corrupt acts must be punished. Because Hichilema is not free from conflict of interest, he can’t punish every corruption act. This is evident in the way the president is struggling to handle some corruption scandals in the country.
Meanwhile, Hichilema has fired the interred board of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) following Dr. O’Brien Kaaba’s allegation that the ACC is corrupt. Dr. Kaaba is a constitutional law professor at the University of Zambia and also a senior research fellow at Saipar. He is a former ACC Board member.
He had advised Hichilema to get rid of the now-dissolved ACC board in the article Three Things That Have Gone Wrong with the UPND Government’s Fight against Corruption and What the President Must Do.
It is the first time Hichilema has listened to advice in the fight against corruption. To some, it implies the president is getting tough on corruption. He should be given more time to fight the vice. To me, and definitely to many others corruption has mutated to an advanced and sophisticated level. Hichilema should step down for the right person to come and fight the vice. Someone free from conflict of interest. One who is capable of declaring assets and liabilities annually for others to follow.
Politicians in Zambia beat other groups when it comes to corruption scandals. It implies they believe they cannot make it in politics without corruption. To win the fight against the vice this kind of mindset needs to be changed.
There is a need to instill a culture of integrity, transparency, and accountability into politicians. It starts with encouraging them to willingly publicly declare assets and liabilities annually. Not once, not twice, but several times people have advised Hichilema to publicly declare assets and liabilities. The president has refused to do so hence hindering the very purpose.
It doesn’t mean Hichilema doesn’t know the importance of publicly declaring assets in the fight against corruption. He is not free from conflict of interest, which makes refusing to publicly declare assets and liabilities the best choice for him. Unfortunately, it makes Hichilema appear to be trying to hide something. It makes him a corruption suspect. and because of that he doesn’t deserve more time to fight the vice.
What do you think? Should President Hakainde Hichilema be given more time to fight corruption in Zambia?
By Venus N Msyani
First, the author is ignorant; HH has fully complied with the law on asset declaration. If you are not happy with the current law, agitate with your MPs to change it.
Second, HH doesn’t need more time to fight corruption. He should have cared to hit the ground running on this from the get-go. In any event, the culprits are his friends and relatives, which ties his hands back 🙁
Shares in ZAMBEEF….
SHARES in the new KCM
He owns shares in MOPANI
He is in the new Mobile provider ….
He owns SHOPPING MALLS .
He is in hotels and tourism resorts
He is FQM
He is in all road contracts.
He is in fuel supply and Fertiliser supply.
He is in every thing.
Should President Hakainde Hichilema be given more time to fight corruption?
But he is not fighting corruption. He is corruptly using all the criminal tools he inherited from Lungu. Like Lungu he prefers to move thieving unperforming ministers from one portfolio to another. Thats called sweeping the dirt under the carpet. When a tribesmate fails to perform, he looks the other way. And we thought this would be a new dawn! Very good conclusion by the author.
What is this man thinking. Many scams have come to surface and mainly among his closest allies…. to the extent of his Deputy telling the nation that the ACC is investigating these people privately… how and where on earth do such things happen.
Please if you are trying to catch his eye, see him privately.
HH has ignored the calls to declare his property… Why? Answer is simple…he doesn’t want what has happened to Esther Lungu to happen to his family and his suspected property in Dubai…he will simply say I WAS RICH BEFORE I BECAME PRESIDENT… and to property in Dubai ( yet to be confirmed) being a cunning business man he will simply produce records of his allowance and fudged receipts of his purches.
The Answer is no you don’t give a conman more time to root out corruption
MORE TIME NO NO NO
He has shown very little interest in this topic
As long as you keep on fighting government then you will die poor because its our responsibility to keep produce valuable products and services not government. Money hide in people, and so for the people to give you money then you must have a valuable product/service, that is why GRZ has empowered its citizen in skill development. Do not waist your time on earth politicking spend more time identifying problems facing the community and then provide solutions. I can assure all the bloggers that money will follow you not what writer of this article shall article is saying.
MORE ON THE ZAMBEEF DEAL PLEASE
And on Africa Life (ex MTN offices, Addis Ababa roundabout) sold to ZNBS.
THE CORRUPT CANNOT FIGHT CORRUPTION.
Fighting corruption must not be centered on one man or woman. It should be the responsibility of the Bureau of Investigations to get it be done which should be reporting to the Upper House.
We must introduce another House, a Upper House that will consist of Chiefs and three elected individuals from each province of Zambia as Provincial Leaders as 1, 2 and 3 according to how they got the votes. These elected officials will stay in office for seven years and there elections will be in the middle of the Presidential term to allow continuities.
Well, well, well. Change from Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to Bureau for Abuse of Office Control and Prevention (BOAC) might help. Consultants can make a difference
Mubutu Wanzanga Sesseko looted the Congo with help from the USA even going to the extent of killing Lumumba the prime minister. He equalled himself to the Almighty God but time came, people rose against him. USA failed to quench the uprising, mubutu fled the country only die in Morocco and be interred in a nondescript hole of a grave. HH take note, you are not God, you have been given a chance to have what you fought for almost twenty years. America temunobe.
Yayi His adopted name was Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga
@ Mwale thanks for the correct addition.
He is a missed call. How much time do you give to a perpetual failure? The only graft viewable is in PF and not the log in his own eyes. He is busy working out means to consolidate a longer stay in power. And he knows that corruption is an easy way to fund his self-preservation course.
How can a thief catch his goons??????
It takes a thief to catch a thief???
HH is the man most able to fight corruption.PF haters had 10 years to shake heaven and earth to find at least some dirt of corruption that would have definitely had him put away for a very long time. Alas, nothing!!So all they have is demand declaration of assets that have already been declared, and some incoherent innuendo about his wrongdoing.
Provide the evidence “mother Fs”
Look here: The So-called NO VISION ECL in 7 Years Fuel was K17, Mealie Meal K120, Dollar @K22 highest.
The So-Called Visionary HH in 2 Years Fuel @K35, Mealie Meal @K415, Dollar@ K27. You figure it out for yourself. Who is the Chimbwi here????
Ati we shall increase to reduce: 2X x 2y =-100… please solve the equation.
OK I see but Zambians please please please please please please please please please dont bring back Lazy Lungu!
All of you who are downvoting me take note. I for one dont want any more fire engines in Zambia. The ones we have are enough; they just need maintenance so first ladies rushing to collect more from the US on my tax are not welcome.
Presidential trips to Swaziland to pay off fishy contractors who havent even seen the Ndola-Mufulira Road are not welcome. Daughters of the president who think because their father is in State House they can fence of state forests and make them theirs are unwelcome.
First ladies who hinder dedollarisation by sneaking in dollars that they pass for safe-keeping to relatives should know that Zambia uses Kwacha. Anything else is counter-revolutionary. Its corruption. Nasila for now. But I insist we shouldnt be replacing thieves with thieves
Yes, he should be given more time to fight corruption.
But not beyond 2026.
Who does that picture remind you of? Lungu, meeting one of his servile appointees. Indeed we just replaced one tyrant with another.
No he has no political will to fight corruption so regardless of the time nothing substantial will come out
Corruption is like any crime, house breaking, car jacking, aggravated robbery, etc. Every week people are arrested for these crimes from time immemorial but the crimes still exist. They can never be completely eradicated but there’s a chance of reducing occurrence by making our houses more secure and applying crime preventing measures. Right now, this government has weakened the ACC and Police by making them appear like tools for fighting personal grudges targeted individuals. The more people lose trust in crime prevention units, the less effective the fight against crime becomes.
We tired of this talk of corruption. The laws are enough to fight corruption. The president need time to fix the economy. This is what should occupy our minds. The economy is not good. Kwacha is underperforming. This corruption thing dosent not add value to most of the people. Only getting satisfied that my enemy are in trouble
It is UPND which is the only and only sensible political Party so far that will have more time. Altering the constitution is out of question. We are going just to be campaigning just like any other Political Party in Zambia. Zambia is a democratic State of value and not of manipulations as we remember 1991 and for ever will be remembered. People of Zambia are very sensible individuals, and they do not close their ears to sensible and objective reasons we are going through. We have the job to keep on explaining and when the goodness comes out, the people of Zambia will say; We did it!
Together we move objectively and collectively as a one Zambia, one Nation. Together we can achieve a lot.
We couldn’t accept that Zambia will industrialize in 3yrs or that famous PF lie of “more money in your pocket in 90 days”.
Let’s be real here , even HH can’t be judged by different standards yet corruption has continuously bedeviled Zambia since 1964.