Transparency International Zambia says President Edgar Lungu should go beyond pronouncements in the fight against corruption.

And TIZ has said it does not condone false allegations of corruption.

TIZ Chapter president Reuben Lifuka has stated that the results of any meaningful fight against corruption in Zambia should be self-evident and people do not have to believe propaganda to attest.

“While we agree with President Lungu that corruption, whenever it rears its ugly head, should be nipped in the bud, we want to underscore that the PF administration should go beyond mere pronouncements about the fight against corruption. The results of any meaningful fight against corruption should be self-evident and people do not have to believe propaganda to attest to this. Government should move away from a rhetorical approach and put in place strategies to ensure that we reverse the corruption trends in this country. The undeniable truth which we cannot run away as a people is that we have a huge problem of corruption in this country. In fact there are various forms of corruption and it will be amiss of the President and his administration to reduce the debate and concerns to allegations of corruption made against himself and his ministers,” Lifuka stated.

He further discouraged malicious accusations of corruption.

“As Transparency International Zambia, we do not condone false allegations of corruption against any person or institution but we also condemn any attempts to create an atmosphere of fear of reprisals among those who genuinely witness situations of corruption. Whistle-blowing is not an easy act and those that courageously come forward to bring tips and information of possible wrong doing, should not be made to carry the full burden of proving their cases. That is why we have investigative and prosecuting agencies to do that and these agencies in a number of cases, depend on the active participation of the public. Time and time again, we hear law enforcement agencies calling on members of the public who may have vital pieces of information on a particular case to come forward,” Lifuka stated.

” In this new dispensation, it would seem members of the public should only come forward when they have the full evidence of wrong doing of public officials. In fact, the veiled threats made by President Lungu will have the chilling effect of scaring away whistle blowers who will shy away from bringing vital information to relevant law enforcement agencies. Already we have a very weak culture of whistle blowers in this country and that is why we see Ministers and public servants only speaking out when they have left office.”

He further stated that TIZ does not support whistleblowers who maliciously make corruption allegations.

” Again, we reiterate  that we do not support whistle blowers who maliciously make allegations of corruption but we also find it unacceptable to implicitly create a perception that most whistle blowing is about ‘framing and painting government black’. Fighting corruption requires strong leadership and commitment and we will be making a big mistake as country to imagine we will clean up our country of corruption merely by gagging people from expressing their concerns. It is also an insult to the intelligence of the international community to insinuate that they somehow arrive at conclusions on the state of corruption in Zambia merely by reading social media postings and listening to bar room chats discussing corruption in the public service in Zambia,” stated Lifuka.

“The international community has various means of conducting their due diligence and the onus is not on them to prove that we are doing all that is necessary to fight corruption- the ball is firmly in our court as Zambians and President Lungu and his team should not abdicate their role of providing leadership at this crucial period in the life of the nation. The fight against corruption requires honest engagement and we will have no one to blame if we bury our heads in the sand, the world does not owe us any favours, we owe it to ourselves and posterity to rid our society of corruption.