Immediate past Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) board chairperson, Musa Mwenye, has charged that there are current serving government officials who must be investigated and prosecuted.
Mwenye has also disclosed that management sidelined and denied the board access to any information on ongoing investigations and prosecutions for a full year.
In a lengthy post of the social platform X, Mwenye who led the recently dissolved ACC board for two years, said despite serving under extremely difficult conditions, his board continued to mount pressure internally for the right thing to be done by the Director General and his team.
“Legally, the board of the ACC has no powers to arrest anyone, that power lies with the Director General. Equally, the board has no legal powers to hire and fire the Director General – that power lies elsewhere,” Mwenye stated.
He said corruption cannot be fought unless “we fight ALL corruption – past, present and future.”
Mwenye said those who committed corruption in the past regimes must be investigated and prosecuted. “Even current government officials who have betrayed the trust of the people of Zambia must also be investigated and prosecuted.”
“Almost three years down the line, we should have seen some government officials arrested and dismissed. This is a matter that was a constant source of friction between the board and those who refused to their job in this regard.”
He continued: “Instead, they elected to be selective in the discharge of their duties and responsibilities.”
Mwenye further called out successive governments for manipulating the ACC’s operations by appointing a strong board to give a veneer of respectability but appointing management that is ‘user friendly’.
Mwenye, a senior lawyer and State Counsel, also announced that he has voluntarily declared his assets upon leaving office despite the law not requiring him to do so. He had declared his assets when he assumed office two years ago.
“All of us who serve in public office must be transparent in our financial dealings and must all be willing to declare our assets and explain how we acquired what we have. And I encourage all those in public office today, who have not done so, to do that in the interest of transparency, integrity and accountability.”
Events have dramatically evolved at the ACC after one of its now former board members, O’brien Kaaba, wrote a scathing public exposé singling out the then Director Thom Shamakamba, who was consequently fired in a couched resignation, for corrupt practices. Kaaba essentially laid bare a corruption campaign that is not what it seems to be, alleging the collusion of the very government institutions that ought to wage and fight the war.
