Africa-Press – Zambia. Lubinda should stay away from active politics, reflect – Changala CIVIL rights activist Brebner Changala says members of the PF are agitated about the enactment of the economic and financial crimes fast track court because they spearheaded the ransacking of public resources.
He says it is unwise for former minister of justice Given Lubinda and his team to act like champions of democracy when they were the architects and foundation of institutionalised anarchy witnessed in the PF regime.
“The PF have become crybabies. The creation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Fast-track Court is created for every citizen that is domiciled in Zambia. The PF are crying foul because they know very well that they were at the forefront cannibalising the treasury. Stealing money for medicine, free education, and meal allowances,” Changala said in an interview. “That institution (Economic and Financial Crimes Fast-track Court) is being created to help the people of Zambia recover the stolen resources at the quickest pace of time. And this is to remove the encumbrances of matters taking too long in the courts of law when the urgency for recovering the resources is eminent and cannot be delayed any further.”He said it was nobody’s desire to jail people who never participated in the plunder.
Changala however said most of the PF members would be caught in the web during the exercise. “That court will only see faces that had their hand in the cookie jar and nobody must blame the other but themselves,” he said. Changala advised Lubinda to hold his tongue and introspect on his failures to uphold the rule of law as a minister of justice.
“Given Lubinda who is now acting president of PF must take a back seat and reflect on his time in government as minister of justice. Many challenges that they are facing today that involve abuse of office, financial misappropriation and total breakdown in the rule of law was because he failed to perform his functional duty as minister of justice,” he said. “One of the failures that he must accept and lies squarely on his shoulders is the failure to enact an enabling legislation to parliament to operationalise the Office of the Public Protector. If the Office of the Public Protector had been enabled, all the chaos that the PF engaged themselves in would have been checked by an independent body. The responsibility to enact that legislation lay on the shoulders of Given Lubinda who is now crying foul that they are being targeted, and yet they created the environment that they find themselves in. It is folly for certain individuals to act like champions of democracy when they were the architects and foundation of institutionalised anarchy which we witnessed in the PF.”
Changala said the PF administration had no any arm of government that could check their shortcomings, correct their misconduct, and manage their abuse of office.
He asked Lubinda to hang his political gloves as he cannot advocate good governance when he participated in the misrule which was promoted by the PF regime.
“One of the things Lubinda and his colleagues must do is to sit down, stay away from active politics and reflect as to whether they are the right people to pledge checks and balances on the new dawn administration when they themselves had the same powers in the recent past, and yet they decided to abuse their offices and dismantle the Constitution and bring State-sponsored breakdown in the rule of law,” said Changala. “Given Lubinda and the gang of PF leadership must take a back sit and reflect very seriously as to whether they have the moral compass to talk about the rule of law.”
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