ACC POLITICAL CHICANERY

THE arrest of Charles Loyana and his wife over the 51 houses by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is pure politics.

It is a cynical political game that must be dismissed with the disgrace that it deserves.

For the last two years, the ACC has allowed to fester and indeed grow the notion that the houses belonged to former President Edgar Lungu’s daughter, Tasila.

This was a political ploy. They made no effort whatever to dispel the notion because it played into the political narrative that presented President Lungu as a corrupt and irresponsible leader.

All this time they we were fully aware as revealed by the Daily Nation investigation in 2018 that the houses really belonged to Loyana. The documentation and evidence were readily available and yet the ACC chose to look aside.

If anything, in the intervening period, a claim from a Tanzanian estate owner made its way into the courts of law where it may still preponderate.

The point however is that the ACC was fully aware that President Lungu had nothing to do with the 48 or rather 51 houses and yet chose to remain mum because that narrative played into the political mantra to paint the previous government as being corrupt, irresponsible and therefore vain.

This is a narrative that has continued to play out.

We find this as being irresponsible, dishonest and a cause for the disbanding of this otherwise honourable arm of Governance because there is no guarantee that the officers will not play to political dictates instead of performing their assigned responsibilities of guarding against graft.

Zambians are left to wonder about the selective manner in which cases of graft have been treated by the institution.

Seemingly, quick action was taken to accuse and arraign, sometimes rather belatedly, cases of crime against PF ministers such as Mr Ronald Chitotela, Dr Chitalu Chilufya and Dr Chishimba Kambwili.

Amidst these cases, other very serious matters of abuse of authority were left uninvestigated and to date Zambians are left to muse about them.

This selective and discriminatory approach has rendered the organisation as being dysfunctional and above all totally unreliable.

The only saving grace is that issues of corruption and abuse of office have no expiry period. Those who committed atrocities against humanity in the last World War are still being prosecuted many decades later because the egregious abuse of authority was an affront and grave injury to the sensibilities of humanity.

There should be no doubt that those manning the ACC today and indeed those responsible for the deliberate and politically inspired abuses of power will be brought to account at an appropriate time.

Those responsible for the creation of such institutions as the obnoxious Task Force against Corruption which persecuted former heads of State will at an appropriate time be brought to account for their folly which did not only cut the lifespans of individuals but indeed brought psychological pain and suffering to individuals who served this country with distinction.

We wish to reiterate that the arrest of Loyana and his wife is a cruel and cynical afterthought that cannot be countenanced by normal thinking Zambians who have watched in awe and disdain the growing negativity that threatens to plunge the country into sectarian intolerance.