KBF hypocrisy over Hichilema exposed

IT is hypocritical for Kelvin Bwalya Fube to claim that there will be bloodshed if UPND president, Hakainde Hichilema is prosecuted over the fraudulent sale of Intercontinental Hotel in Livingstone because Zambia is governed through the law, Young African Leaders Initiative ( YALI) president Andrew Ntewewe has said.

Mr Ntewewe said Zambians know that criminality is prosecutable and that they would not stoop so low as to defend an individual who had broken the law.

He said Mr Fube, popularly known as KBF was only trying to protect his friend, Mr Hichilema from facing the law over his failure to declare interest during the sale of the hotel in Livingstone to himself and his friend, Senior Chief Mukuni.

Mr Ntewewe said Mr Fube’s manoeuvres were hypocritical because as a lawyer he knew that breaking the law was prosecutable.

“Mr Fube himself is even accepting that there is a case to answer in Mr Hichilema’s dealings during the privatisation of State- owned enterprises.

“Now why say that there will be chaos if Mr Hichilema is prosecuted? Does he want Mr Hichilema to be treated as a sacred cow?” he questioned.

Mr Ntewewe said a commission of inquiry must be instituted on the privatisation of state-owned enterprises so that if any wrong doing was proved, culprits could be prosecuted.

Meanwhile, former UPND presidential advisor Richard Kachingwe said there was need for President Edgar Lungu to set up a commission of inquiry on privatisation.

He said those who illegally benefitted from privatisation must be held accountable for the sufferings many Zambians went through.

Major Kachingwe said people perished because of the selfishness of those who were entrusted to handle privatisation on behalf of Government.

And Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP) has said it supports calls for a commission of inquiry to be instituted to look into the manner in which privatisation was handled.

PeP president Sean Tembo said that the terms of reference of such a commission of inquiry must include identifying all those who could have unduly benefitted from the privatisation process and establishing whether such undue benefit constituted a criminal offence or not.

Mr Tembo said the terms of reference should also include an identification of all policy mistakes that were made by the government at the time.