Some people have gone back to PF, parading themselves as if slave trade is back, says Rainbow Party general secretary Wynter Kabimba.
And Kabimba says it is impossible to take Vice-President Inonge Wina’s assurance that government will deal with those cited in the Auditor General’s report seriously when her boss seems oblivious to the findings.
Speaking when he featured on Hot FM’s Hot Seat programme yesterday, Kabimba mocked those who had gone back to the PF because of hunger.
“It is not out of principle that some of our colleagues have gone back to rejoin PF, it is actually out of hunger and they think that now they can go and eat but I hope Edgar will see them for who they are. I have seen people that have gone back to PF with the hope that they are to get something out of it but they have gotten nothing up to now. We know them because they are our friends, they have gone back to PF and sometimes parading themselves as if slave trade is back. Big men and women parading themselves and trying to be very close to Edgar wherever he is. These are people who when are in opposition claim they have no money but when they go back to PF and they hear Edgar is in Solwezi, they will borrow money to drive all the way to Solwezi and try to be in the camera with Edgar. So we have seen people that have gone back and they have ended very disappointed [because] they have not been given any job, they have not been given any tender, not even half a kilo meter of a road to do,” Kabimba said.
And Kabimba said Vice-President Wina’s sentiments on the Auditor General’s report were not to be taken seriously because she was only trying to show her relevance.
“You know some of these statements we must have a sense of shame when we make them and we must also have respect for other citizens. This not the first time we are hearing this and if the President made that statement a year ago and nothing has happened, who is Inonge Wina to move anybody? She is just in a job also, who is she and who can listen to her? So she is just making a statement to sound like she is working. The judgment over the issue of the Auditor general’s report should come from the people of Zambia and that is what we did in 2010-2011 when we were in opposition as PF, it was to canvas this issue with the Zambian people that this a band of criminals, the fellows that are in the MMD and the people got it loud and clear,” Kabimba said.
“The latest Auditor General’s report tells us that the theft of government resources has gone up ten times in one year and these are same fellows that go to the donors and say ‘we are poor, we have no money give us money’ and yet they are stealing even the money that is given by the donors but you see the donors are happy because even if you steal the money which you borrowed from them you will still pay back anyway. So in Nyanja [those people cited in the AG’s report] niba kawalala and in Bemba nimba pompwe (they are thieves), these are pompwes that’s what they are. Edgar Lungu gave instructions last year and he said to the law enforcements agencies ‘I want you to follow up everybody that has been cited in the Auditor General’s report for their thieving, follow them up and bring them to book’ but nothing has happened.”
Meanwhile, Kabimba hailed the British Council for exposing corruption involving some local civil society organisations under the Zambia Accountability Project.
“I like that report because some of the Civil Society Organisations cited in there make so much noise like they can change this country. They talk about corruption when even themselves are corrupt, they can’t even be trusted with a bit of donor money, that is the hypocrisy of Africa. And Jesus warns that ‘not all those that say father, father are children of God’ that’s what Jesus says. So be very careful about these men and women in CSOs that pretend not to be corrupt and that its only the politicians who are corrupt but just give them a bit of money to tempt them and see how corrupt they will become and that’s what has happened. I have seen all of them trying to exonerate themselves but this is coming from the people who have given you money, so how can you argue with the people who have given you money, they have audited you and you have not accounted for the money,” said Kabimba.