{"id":9731,"date":"2021-11-14T16:32:26","date_gmt":"2021-11-14T16:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents"},"modified":"2021-11-15T16:58:14","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T16:58:14","slug":"stop-harassing-former-presidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents","title":{"rendered":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressive. There is a pattern that has emerged where new Presidents engage in trashing the legacy of their predecessors, accuse them of massive acts of corruption, prosecute them while seeking to consolidate their new power gained.<\/p>\n

For any students of history, you immediately recognise that this is a well-trodden path \u2013 burn and destroy the legacy of your predecessor and rise on their ashes!<\/p>\n

We have seen this tendency in the sub-region where former Presidents have been targeted, nations have been divided, supporters pitted against each other in the name of fighting corruption.<\/p>\n

What this does is to scare leaders to leave office when their terms come to an end. We have seen in Africa where Presidents begin to engage in processes intended to unconstitutionally extend their terms, fearing what would happen if they left office.<\/p>\n

Offcourse my strong take has always been that leaders, whilst in office, must use the time to promote national development and stay away from pilfering or plundering national resources.<\/p>\n

However, pursing them after they have left office is a sheer waste of valuable time, valuable time that should be used on implementing policies that promote national development and national unity.<\/p>\n

While cooperating partners may cheer us on, and even deploy resources in the so-called fight against corruption, they never do this in their own countries, never arrest their former Presidents or Prime Ministers for perceived crimes done while they held office.<\/p>\n

Coming to Zambia, we saw this with; Frederick Chiluba pursuing Kenneth Kaunda, Levy Mwanawasa pursuing Frederick Chiluba, even Michael Chilufya Sata pursuing Rupiah Bwezani Banda.<\/p>\n

These so-called anti-Corruption exercises ended up in utter failure because they were implemented in a targeted manner, were selective and were done for purely political expediency to promote parochial, narrow and political interests.<\/p>\n

If we are serious about fighting corruption, let us strengthen anti-corruption institutions, deploy preventive mechanisms, plug leaks of public resources, implement annual recommendations of the Auditor General and Public Account Committee, review the procurement laws and regulations, and strengthen oversight institutions.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t concentrate on one single aspect of fighting corruption-prosecution only- to secure public resources. It has to be a comprehensive approach. It is in this light that the manufactured calls to have the constitutional immunity of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu must be rejected as they will do nothing to advance the cause of national development, national unity and the very fight against corruption.<\/p>\n

The approach is designed to punish the former President for political purposes only. As we have seen in the region, this approach has not yielded anticipated results but divided public perceptions about the true intention of pursing former Presidents.<\/p>\n

We have walked this path before. In the past we wasted precious public resources and destroyed institutions instead of building them. We had officers travel to USA, England, Switzerland, Dubai, Belgium, and other countries pursuing \u201cstolen public resources.<\/p>\n

To recover stolen resources, we engaged FBI, Scotland Yard and others, and these yielded acres of news articles but no resources were ever recovered. Infact what happens is the corruption occurring during this period, is let to pass and measures to secure current public resources are abandoned.<\/p>\n

We are walking the same path. I am not saying let\u2019s not fight corruption. I am saying let\u2019s fight corruption in the correct way, and in a comprehensive manner including prosecution. Fighting corruption must not start and end with prosecutions.<\/p>\n

My appeal to the new government in Zambia and to His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema is to focus on pursuing national development, creating employment, dismantling the debt burden, resolve bottle-necks hindering rapid economic growth and promote national unity.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressive. There is a pattern that has emerged where new Presidents engage in trashing the legacy of their predecessors, accuse them of massive acts of corruption, prosecute them while seeking to consolidate their new power […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12,16],"tags":[234,235,4264,3599,233],"class_list":["post-9731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-anti-corruption-exercises","tag-auditor-general","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nStop Harassing Former Presidents - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stop Harassing Former Presidents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"530\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Stop Harassing Former Presidents\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\"},\"wordCount\":637,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"anti-Corruption exercises\",\"Auditor General\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\",\"name\":\"Stop Harassing Former Presidents - Zambia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":530,\"caption\":\"Stop Harassing Former Presidents\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stop Harassing Former Presidents\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/\",\"name\":\"Zambia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents - Zambia","description":"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents","og_description":"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents","og_site_name":"Zambia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":530,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents","datePublished":"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents"},"wordCount":637,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Zambia","anti-Corruption exercises","Auditor General","Zambia"],"articleSection":["all news","homepage-english","policy","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents","name":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents - Zambia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg","datePublished":"2021-11-14T16:32:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-15T16:58:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The tendency by new ruling parties or new Presidents in Africa to persecute their predecessors is extremely retrogressiv ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2021\/11\/img-6192917a9e84d.jpg","width":800,"height":530,"caption":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/stop-harassing-former-presidents#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stop Harassing Former Presidents"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/","name":"Zambia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}