Anthony Kunda in Lusaka
IN an embarrassingly theatrical turn of events, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba has admitted that his government is corrupt. The head-turning admission came about during a recent inspection tour of the nightmarishly potholed roads of Lusaka.
At one point, the visibly perturbed Chiluba, gesticulating angrily, said: “There is something fishy here. Every year you have the same contractors with the same specifications repairing the same roads which don’t last. What is the relationship between those contractors and yourselves?”
But all the officials in his entourage – among them Keli Walubita, Works and Supply Minister, and Bennie Mwiinga, Local Government Minister – were silent as statues.
It was hard to tell whether the silence was born of guilt or mortification, or both.
This seemed to incense Chiluba even more. He railed at them: “Go to South Africa or Zimbabwe! They don’t repair roads every year. They make a road, it lasts 10 or 15 years. But here you repair the same roads every year. This is unacceptable. Why do you hire the same contractors who do a bad job?”
Chiluba then theatrically started jumping in and out of a particularly large and deep pothole on one of the city centre roads to demonstrate for television cameras how bad the situation is.
There were titters on the edge of the entourage as the diminutive president struggled to keep balance. He turned to Lusaka Mayor Fisho Mwale, and, astonishingly, said: “Do you know that this can cost the ruling party a good mayor like you?” Mwale failed to answer.
The city is much dirtier than it was two years ago, when he took up his post as mayor. All the pavements in the city’s commercial centre have the shabby look of a windswept shanty town with several vendors erecting crude kiosks with planks, plastic sheets, cardboard and iron sheets wherever they can find space.
Failing to get an answer from the seemingly puzzled Lusaka mayor, Chiluba sighed frustratedly. He pumped up his cheeks, screwed up his eyes, gesticulated despondently at the muddy potholed road, then shot at the immaculately attired and richly perfumed officials again: “When people talk about corruption, this is what they are referring to. This is corruption!”
Hitherto, Chiluba has been vehemently denying the prevalence of corruption in his government, and challenged opposition parties and the independent press to provide evidence.
“Corruption in my government? Give me evidence and I act. I act on the basis of fact, not rumours,” he once told a press conference.
This time around, he has provided the evidence himself. But strangely, he declined to dismiss any of the government officials responsible for the messy roads.
There isn’t even news of the Anti- Corruption Commission investigating the corruption Chiluba has unearthed from the potholed roads of the city.
Several political observers have cynically pointed out that that is just about where the theatrics end – with a clip on the state-owned television to show that the president is concerned.