VETERAN politician Sikota Wina says the country should not be frightened by accusations that the fight against corruption is being tied to tribes.

And Wina says the 2022 national budget is one of the best budgets the country has ever seen.

In an interview, Wina said it was illogical for anyone to argue that they were being persecuted because of their tribe.

“I do not think that corruption can go under any other name no matter what you give it, whether it is tribalism or whatever it is. Whether that comes from your own family or not. So there is no excuse at all for anybody to say ‘we are being persecuted because we are such a tribe’, no. Government does not move on things like that unless they have got evidence before them that the person before them is actually corrupt,” he said.

“So there should be no let down and we should not be frightened by these accusations at all. I do not think corruption can be covered under any name such as tribalism. So please the nation must face the facts that this is a disaster that must be avoided for any nation to move forward. We must get rid of corruption.”

And Wina said the 2022 national budget was one of the best budgets the country had ever seen.

“The 2022 national budget is one of the best budgets the country has ever seen and I am talking from long experience of budgets coming and going. This one is a very forthright budget which addresses a lot of lacunas and shortcomings in previous budgets. So we must give it all the support that Hakainde Hichilema requires to run this country,” said Wina.