FORMER Attorney General Musa Mwenye State Counsel says corrupt politicians are simply pick pockets who steal from the people.

And Mwenye says he cannot remember a time when there were as many scandals as there had been since 2015.

In a Facebook post yesterday, Mwenye urged citizens not to dignify criminality by giving dishonourable people honour which they did not deserve.

“The expensive clothes they wear and the luxurious cars they drive do not take away the fact that corrupt politicians are simply pick pockets or ‘ba searcher pocket’ who steal from us. Never dignify this criminality by giving these dishonorable people, honour they do not deserve,” Mwenye wrote.

And responding to a press query, Mwenye lamented that instead of speaking for the poor, the PF government had been defending the corrupt thieves who had been stealing from the poor people.

“The performance of the government of His Excellency the President Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu in the fight against corruption has been below par. In fact, the attitude, statements and conduct of our leaders has been to protect and shield the corrupt rather than fight corruption. Corrupt people are thieves who steal from the poor. Instead of speaking for the poor, our Government which was initially supposed to be a pro poor Government, has been defending the corrupt thieves who have been stealing from the poor people of this country. I cannot remember a time when we have had as many scandals as we have had since 2015. When we condemn the corruption and the corrupt, our leaders who are supposed to give us medals for our patriotism fight us! They shout ‘Mfwiti Mfwiti’ at us,” Mwenye said.

“We recently condemned this Honeybee transaction! They did not listen. Even those technocrats who were supposed to protect us issued opinions shielding this transaction. Now look at where we are. People have been subjected to expired drugs and defective condoms. We do not know yet what the real damage of the Honeybee saga is. Before that, FIC reported that in just three years, there were corrupt transactions worth US$800 Million in this poor country. You can imagine how many schools, hospitals, clinics we could have built! How many students could we have sponsored with that money? How many poor farmers could have been supported?”

And Mwenye said it was now scandal after scandal in Zambia.

“The TIZ corruption perception index was at an all-time high of 38 in 2013 and 2014. I was Attorney General in 2014 and I remember that my colleagues and I worked hard to raise the TIZ corruption perception index under the leadership of late President Sata MHSRIP. But all our achievements have been reversed. It’s now scandal after scandal while our leaders are having parte after parte. Then we heard how one official was given 49 houses as a bribe! Before the saliva on our lips had dried we started hearing of 48 properties which some corrupt individual had just abandoned and vanished into thin air. If a person can just abandon such a number of properties, what else do they have,” said Mwenye.

“As if these scandals were not enough, there was the issue of the fire tenders which were bought at US$ 1 million each. US$42 Million was our loss as a nation in that transaction. Additionally, we also woke up to the fact that we bought ambulances at over US$250,000 each when we could have bought them at US$50,000. The list goes on and on and on.”