ACC must arrest Kambwili – FDD

FDD says information minister Chishimba Kambwili’s statement that there is nothing wrong with him asking Road Transport and Safety Agency to employ PF youths shows that he is a wrong person to be in government.

And the FDD says it is embarrassing that President Edgar Lungu can be held hostage by PF secretary general Davies Chama, whose record is in disrepute. Party spokesperson Antonio Mwanza yesterday said Kambwili’s instruction to Road Transport and Safety Agency (RTSA) chief executive officer, Zindaba Soko, to employ seven PF youths was a pure case of abuse of authority and his office. “It is a shame that Mr Kambwili can say he doesn’t see anything wrong with him abusing his authority.

He says he doesn’t see anything wrong with him using state machinery to influence the decisions of an independent government institution.

It is a shame that the minister does not see anything wrong with that. It shows that he himself is a wrong person in office. I will say it again and again that you cannot have characters like Mr Kambwili in office; it is a shame,” he said. “What does Mr Kambwili bring to the table apart from bullying, insulting, attacking and threatening people and abusing his office?

We implore relevant authorities to move in and investigate Kambwili’s actions. It is a clear form of abuse of authority because if you look at the letter that Kambwili wrote, he wrote to them in his capacity as PF national youth chairman using the government letterhead.” Mwanza said Kambwili was using government property in order to instil fear in RTSA officers to act according to his directives.

He said the fact that a political functionary in his capacity could be using state property to transact business was abuse of authority.

“That is enough evidence for the Anti Corruption Commission to move in and ensure that Mr Kambwili is arrested. We are challenging the ACC to arrest Kambwili. We are calling for the immediate arrest of Mr Kambwili for abuse of authority. RTSA is a government institution with clear operational guidelines.

The Act that creates RTSA provides for the management of administration for RTSA that is completely away from the interference of any politician. RTSA, being a government agency, is financed by taxpayers’ money, and therefore it cannot be used as an avenue of a political party to create employment opportunities for political cadres,” Mwanza said. He said employment of people at RTSA had to go through the normal transparent way of advertising for jobs, asking for applications from the general public, thereafter an interviewing process to select those who qualify. Mwanza said politicising government agencies was what had led to the ineffective management of government departments.

“This is what has led to the inefficiencies, the challenges and the complete breakdown of government institutions and government agencies because institutions such as RTSA should be managed by competent and qualified people, and employment should be given to people on merit but the PF has politicised the entire governance system, including the civil service. That is why we are also seeing that there is too much corruption in the government,” Mwanza said. “If you look at RTSA, if you look at the accidents that we are having on a daily basis due to the fact that the vehicles which are on the road are not roadworthy and individuals who are not licensed are allowed to drive, this is because of the corruption going on at RTSA. That is what you get when you have cadres running institutions of government. It’s corruption, mismanagement, inefficiency and a total collapse of the system.”

He said Kambwili’s record as far as management of public institutions was concerned was a drawback. “Such calibre, very low calibre, pedestrian calibre, street calibre, people like Kambwili to be at the helm of government… just shows you that the PF as a political party does not have the right human resource to run the government, which is worrying,” Mwanza said.

And commenting on Chama’s challenge for FDD to go for a convention, Mwanza said the former’s statement was a sign that he had felt the opposition party’s weight.

“Chama is not the right person to talk about democracy or anyone from PF because there is no democracy in PF, where the central government of the party is being appointed by a president who was elected by two conventions. In fact, Lungu was elected by the courts of law.

Generally, it’s a confused party which has no order and they don’t know their members. You can’t talk about something that doesn’t exist. The fact that Chama talks about FDD indicates the force the party has, because Chama feels FDD, dreams of FDD and talks about FDD,” said Mwanza, who further accused the PF government of destroying law enforcement.

The Post

– See more at: http://www.postzambia.com/news.php?id=10953#sthash.1QtH567f.dpuf