Thabo Kawana, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Media, has charged that the opposition is on a mission to taint the government’s image by projecting it as corrupt.
He said this is intended to coerce Zambians into withdrawing their trust in the current administration.
Speaking on Prime Television last night, Kawana stated that the government was not moved by the various issues relating to corruption and financial irregularities, claiming they had been instigated by the opposition to malign certain government officials and the entire New Dawn administration.
“Government remains unshaken because we stand on the truth. How can we be shaken when the ambassador of lies tells lies? He can enjoy his own lies but the truth remains,” Kawana said.
“What you are seeing is a relentless effort by the opposition and a few other stakeholders hell-bent on trying to create a perception that this regime or administration is extremely corrupt because they know that the
Zambian people abhor corruption. They want to find a way in their wild imagination to get the people of Zambia to be angered towards the government and probably go towards regime change in the next general elections.”
Weighing in on the issue of the recent Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) report indicating that the government had potentially lost K6.1 million in suspected illicit financial transactions and suggestions that the government was working against the FIC, Kawama stated otherwise.
“We are not fighting the FIC report, in fact we are very happy with FIC that as an institution it has a role and a mandate to ensure it flags suspicious transactions. Its information remains inconclusive and it is what you’d refer to, for lack of a better term, as raw data”.
“When they flag out this raw data, they give it out to the law enforcement agencies to conclude on it and determine whether there is a prima facie case or not, whether there is corruption, money laundering or not.”
Kawana said the government appreciates the special role the FIC has in its jurisdiction to blow the lid off corruption and financial irregularities. He reiterated the administration’s will to support the institution.
“FIC remains extremely important and this government is very happy. We will continue to work and support the institution, and we are in no way disappointed with what the FIC is doing,” he said.
