Africa-Press – Zambia. Any commission or institution that the new dawn administration may come up with to recover stolen properties will have to start from the 1990s privatization process and definitely the name Hakainde Hichilema will be mentioned in the process.
Starting from the middle, when the PF government came into power or choosing not to mention the name of the president in the process of recovering stolen properties will lead to questions.
It will mean that president Hakainde Hichilema administration has adopted the previous Patriotic Front (PF) administration plan of using the fight against corruption to fix opponents.
President Hakainde has promised that the corruption fights will not be vindictive or selective. It will be hard to prove that if the president chooses to focus on the previous administration.
“We will not use a political hand, no vengeance, no retribution but the right institutions will do it professionally,” he told Zambians living in North America during his trip to the UN.
“No effort will be spared to fight the vice and recover everything stolen from the people of Zambia” the president added.
Reflecting on that, Zambians are still living in the abyss on the 1990s privatization scandals. Don’t’ they deserve to get back what was stolen during the privatization process as well?
If they do, any recovery process that excuses the 1990s privatization process scandals is unacceptable. A fair recovery must include privatization process.
Zambians refused to allow the previous administration to use the fight against corruption to fix opponents and must do the same with the new HH administration.
Amnesty is the only fair approach to deal with the past corruption in the country. It will also facilitate unity in the fight against current and future corruption.
On the other hand, the recovery process may end up costing the country more than what is to be recovered. It may also end up costing the HH administration focus and time to fulfill promises.
In reality, the presidential term in Zambia can be divided into three categories: Honeymoon, action, and campaign. The first year of HH administration can be counted as a honeymoon and the last year as a campaign year. So, president Hakainde has only three years to fulfil his promises. Amnesty on past corruption could help him save time.
