2 October 2009
THE Government has accused the 17 civil society organisations of conspiring with some donors and some high profiled Zambians to bring down the Government.
Home Affairs Minister Lameck Mangani said in Lusaka yesterday that some cooperating partners were behind the planned protests over the acquittal of second Republican president Fredrick Chiluba.
Mr Mangani told journalists during a Press briefing that the cooperating partners should not meddle in the country's internal affairs.
He said there was a conspiracy between some disgruntled Zambians and the cooperating partners to portray the Government as not being serious in its fight against corruption.
"We have noted that all this is happening with the blessing of some donors. Some Zambians who served in the foreign service have had some dark corner meetings with some donors agitating that the Government of President Banda is corrupt," Mr Mangani said.
He said as much as the Government accepted the support from the donors, the country's cooperating partners should not dictate how Zambia should be run as it was a sovereign State.
"There is a conspiracy between some donors and some frustrated Zambians, some of them served in Government as well as the foreign service and our appeal to Zambians is that they should not listen to these people," Mr Mangani said.
Mr Mangani said the Government would not condone the planned honking and protests against the acquittal of Dr Chiluba.
He said the Government and President Banda were serious with the fight against the graft and therefore appealed to citizens not to join in the planned honking.
Mr Mangani said some of the people that had been meeting the donors benefited heavily from the Task-force on Corruption and were not happy that the Government was planning to let the Anti- Corruption Commission (ACC) become the lead institution in the fight against graft.
He said even with the ACC becoming the lead institution and without the Task-force, the Government was still committed to the fight against corruption.
Mr Mangani said that if some cooperating partners were not happy with certain issues, they knew the right channel to follow in lodging their complaints.
He said by engaging some citizens in dark corner meetings and agitating anarchy, the diplomats were breaching the Vienna Convention.
Mr Mangani said to make the matters worse, the NGOs did not seek a police permit to hold the meeting they held, saying if he had instructed the police to disperse the gathering, anarchy would have prevailed.
He said that what was frustrating was the fact that on several occasions, the Government held meetings with the donors at which various issues were discussed but they later held dark corner meetings with some citizens.
"We have held several meetings with our cooperating partners but after these meetings, they have other dark corner meetings with particular people and not those in the Government," Mr Mangani said.
He said the competent courts dealt with the issue of Dr Chiluba's acquittal and that the Government would not interfere in the independence of the judiciary. This, he said, was so because the Government believed in the separation of powers.
Mr Mangani said there were some cases in court that involved the Government and some citizens but it would be wrong for sympathisers of the Government to agitate for protests.
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