28/02/2025
Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu writes;
Fellow Zambians both at home and abroad,
Today, I woke up to screaming headlines in Zambia that my brother, President Hakainde Hichilema, has directed Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to work quietly because publicizing cases damages investor confidence. This grabbed my attention because President Hichilema wants the LEAs to be mute and trash the principles of transparency and accountability.
This is very disturbing and worrisome because it undermines the tenets of good governance and political integrity under Article 8 of our Republican Constitution. During my administration, we allowed LEAs and the Financial Intelligence Centre, commonly known as FIC, to publicise the cases they were working on. Our reasoning was simple: we believed the public had the right to know how their resources were being utilized or abused in order to combat corruption. This is a standard practice in all functional elective democracies across the world.
Under my leadership, our transparency with information from LEAs and FIC is what helped my brother, as an opposition leader then, civil society organizations and all Zambians to routinely criticize my administration. We didn't mind this criticism because it allowed us to make amends where necessary in the spirit of political integrity, accountability and credible governance.
Today, it is shocking that President Hichilema is concerned about investor confidence and wants LEAs and FIC to sweep information from their investigations under the carpet. I am now wondering whether or not my brother cared about investor confidence back then, or he was just more interested in looking for what could work against us and win him votes for political power?
The truth, however, is that my brother is not worried about the investor confidence. It is the ever rising cases of corruption and suscipicious transactions in his administration under his watch that he is worried about and want to conceal. Therefore, it is his new approach of silencing LEAs and the FIC, and stopping investigations into high-profile cases that is going to worsen investor confidence and that of the international community, which he desperately needs.
So in the interest of transparency and accountability, I challenge my brother, President Hichilema, to explain to the Zambians what he has done about the US $3 billion illicit outflow of funds reported by FIC just in 2024. This is a lot of money for the President to remain mute about. We only got to know about these illicit funds after the US Ambassador to Zambia, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, raised the red flag.
By the way, we have not forgotten that in line with President Hichilemaβs directive to LEAs, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) HAS CONFIRMED investigations BUT REFUSED to name a number of ministers and other high profile individuals under probe βin order to protect their intergrityβ during the course of the investigations.
I recall that during my time in office, my brother was in the forefront not only in calling for the publication of such investigations but also demanded that such ministers under probe be suspended or even fired.
Interestingly, today, this same brother of mine is saying his ministers being investigated by the ACC and other LEAs must not be named because they have integrity to protect and also for his administration to secure investor confidence. These ministers have continued to work without him suspending them. Some of them he even cleared them of the corruption allegations. Remember the calendar and diary carrying minister?
In conclusion, I would like to urge President Hichilema to strengthen LEAs and FIC by making them more transparent, accountable, and responsive to the Zambian people, rather than silencing them. The President must support LEAs and FIC to expose and freely report corruption cases and suspicious transactions in the agriculture, mining, energy, defence, education and health sectors, among others.
This is what will rebuild the waning investor confidence in Zambia! Not the hush-hush approach on the LEAs and FIC.
Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu
Sixth President of the Republic of Zambia,
PF President and Tonse Alliance Chairman.
