PATRIOTIC FRONT RESPONDS TO MULAMBO HAIMBE, CHIPOKA MULENGA AND MARK SIMUUWE

Wednesday-14th May 2025

….We also note recent public and media statements made by the former Director General of the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZMMSA), Victor Nyasulu who has made his own detailed revelations and has implicated both former Minister of Health, Silvia Masebo and State House official, Dr. Lawrence Mwananyanda….

Following the detailed revelations by United States Ambassador accredited to Zambia, His Excellency Michael Gonzalez, about the systematic theft and plunder of medicines and medical supplies donated by the United States, Sixth President of the Republic of Zambia, His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu weighed in on the matter and made a public statement and called on President Hakainde Hichilema to immediately accept responsibility and take action against this systematic theft and corruption of resources in the health sector.

President Lungu said the theft had endangered lives of the millions of Zambians that depend on this support to fight and overcome malaria, TB and and HIV/AIDS.

President Lungu recognized that the United States was Zambia’s largest bilateral resources partner as the country contributed $600million a year to the health and other sectors.

He also bemoaned and regretted the decision to withhold $50million aid by the USA Government to health programmes related to the fight against malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS.

He therefore implored on President Hichilema to act with resolute determination to stamp out the systemstic theft of medicines and medical supplies without sparing known sacred cows and without blaming the Patriotic Front, a tired and typical response the UPND resorts to every time a crisis brew in President Hichilema’s government.

Surprisingly the response from government has been but prefigtabke, extremely disappointing, disjointed and literally insulting to the stakeholders and Zambians worried about these revelations.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Mulambo Haimbe SC, wants diplomats to remain silent while public resources are being plundered. It is clear that the UPND want to be left alone as they pillage both the public treasury and donated resources.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Hon. Chipoka Mulenga was concerned that President Lungu was depicting that President Hichilema’s Government as corrupt.
It is clear that Hon. Mulenga has chosen to conveniently burry his head in the sand, as if there is any dispute about the deeply corrupt nature and status of this government.

And a Civil Servant of the UPND Party, a Media Director, Mark Simuuwe went to a great extent to depict phantom successes of President Hichilema, a method they resort to that only succeeds to show that President Hichilema was an Emperor without clothes.

We wish to reiterate as stated by President Edgar Lungu, with these revelations m, a serious government would have undertaken far serious measures and adhere to rhetoric that promotes transparency, accountability and shows respect for public funds.

Further, audits both private and public conducted on the health sector as a result of these complaints would have been published and the culprits surrendered to Law Enforcement Agencies.

The token measures so far taken of harrassing and arresting small fish, people at the tail-end, demonstrates lack of seriousness and a skewed response to an urgent matter of serious repercussions.

The various scandals that have gripped Ministry of Health and ZMMSA remain unattended to as President Hichilema skirts around the issue.

We also note recent public and media statements made by the former Director General of the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZMMSA), Victor Nyasulu who has made his own detailed revelations and has implicated both former Minister of Health, Silvia Masebo and State House official, Dr. Lawrence Mwananyanda.

We also take recognisance of the public statement that was made by the Acting Director General of the Anti-Corruption Commission Mrs. Monica Chipanta Mwansa that five Ministers and a City Mayor were under investigations and the probes had reached advanced stage.

President Hichilema has never suspended these members of his Cabinet in order to allow for fair investigations. The suspects remain in office and probably have interfered or destroyed evidence.

Further the culprits have not been arrested or prosecuted.

It is no longer in dispute that the Government of President Hichilema will go in history as the worst and most corrupt government since 1964.

It has become a norm that the procurement of goods and services especially, large-scale tenders, have been done through deliberate and uncompetitive procurement methods of single-sourcing or direct bidding and are replete with regular reports of State House interference.

The sale of public shares in state-owned enterprises such as Mopani Copper Mines and Kansanshi Copper and Gold Mine without recourse to the National Assembly as demanded by Article 210 of the Republican Constitution is not only criminal but is also unconstitutional.
Recently, Transparency International Zambia revealed that upto $500million of public fund is lost to corruption every year.

The Financial Intelligence Centre has also revealed that over $3billion is being lost every year through Illicit Financial Flows ( IFFs) since 2023.

The Public Private Partnership projects are nothing but corrupt processes targeting and plundering resources from secure public pension institutions.

The presidential directives to commandeer public pension funds to be invested without regard to probity, transparency and risk in the Ndola-Lusaka Dual Carriage Way and Maamba Colleries Power projects amounts to high level acts of corruption. It is no wonder that the National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) has engaged in an unwarranted disposal of high value security investments, property, buildings and farms. Has its liquidity and financial stability and status been compromised by these forced investments?

The decision to dismantle the National Audit Office, illegally remove the Auditor General and appoint a person not fit to run the office, is a deliberate action to impede fair and credible audit of public resources.

By these actions President Hichilema has removed the Auditor General’s independence and impartiality to play the crucial role in ensuring that government funds are used responsibly and in accordance with Parliament’s decisions and approval.

The capacity of ghe National Audit Office has been reduced and undermined that government is increasingly relying on the expensive services from the private sector.

The rapid rise in accumulation of both local and foreign debt and the failure to mobilize domestic resources will continue to place Zambia among the poorest and highly indebted countries in the world.

Further the abuse of human rights, the enactment of a dictatorship through repressive laws and the extensive abuse of law enforcement agencies against political opponents and critics of government has sent Zambia to the dark ages.

This government is now collapsing on the weight of its own incompetence, theft, corruption, misrule and misgovernance and is showing increasingly desperate traits to hold on to power.

We have faith that despite the repression and plunder of national resources and the heightened repression, our people’s’ spirit will not be shackled or dimmed and will rise to emancipate themselves in the coming general elections of 2026.

ISSUED BY;

Amb.Emmanuel Mwamba
Chairperson for Information and Publicity
Member of the Central Committee
PATRIOTIC FRONT