TRANSPARENCY International Zambia (TI-Z) chapter president Sampa Kalungu says the leaked audio involving immediate past Anti-Corruption Commission acting director general Rosemary Khuzwayo shows that she was not fit for the position.
Commenting on the leaked audio in which Khuzwayo was heard directing investigators to arrest former health minister Dr Chilufya without conducting the necessary investigations, Kalungu said individuals who wanted to go against the law were not fit to hold such offices.
“If the audio and all that is attributed to the former acting ACC director is true, that is a very sad development. First of all, what we want to believe as Transparency International Zambia is that we want to separate individuals from the institution. We understand because we are very close to the Anti-Corruption Commission. We understand its mandate which is basically to make people aware of the dangers of corruption, to investigate cases, to prosecute cases and so on. So, if that is any truth to go by, that the former acting director for ACC, we really want to separate the individuals from the institutions because the mandate of the institutions is different from what was propagated in that audio,” he said.
“Therefore, we want to say that individuals like that are indeed not fit to head such institutions. Individuals who want to go against the very tenets of the laws that we want to protect, that is a law enforcement organisation and you want circumvent the law, which does not even help a country, does not help an institution in achieving anything, then we understand that those are people who wrongly occupied the seat.”
He applauded the officer in the audio who tried to discourage Khuzwayo from going ahead with the directive.
“We want in this sense to applaud the officer who constantly tried to bring the former acting director general in line with what the institution is made for. That is why we are saying the institution is bigger than an individual. One individual erred but the junior officer should be commended for the good job that he did, where he constantly tried to bring the acting general in good line of what the institution is mandated,” Kalungu said.
He also called on citizens to have faith in ACC despite certain individuals attempting to dent the institution’s image.
“We want to say that even with those happenings, we still have trust in the Anti-Corruption Commission. That it is a good institution, it has done good and recommendable work and it is still yet to bring much more for the country in terms of meeting the pandemic where corruption is concerned. Like we said, people must still have belief in it and especially with the new pronouncements that are being made by President Hakainde Hichilema. We think ACC is going to provide and to perform largely to the expected mandate that it has,” said Kalungu.
“We continue calling upon government to have more trust in the Anti-Corruption Commission. We want also the citizens despite individuals trying to dent the institutions, to have faith in the Anti- Corruption Commission. We also want the government to give it a lot of support, financial, political so that it can perform. This is again an unfortunate act of an individual within an institution but it is not the institution behaving badly. So, we still want to plead with the people, let us keep faith in the institution.”
