The PF has called on the ACC to investigate the corruption allegations made against government in a story carried by the Post Newspaper yesterday (25th August, 2015) under the headline “Govt offers Funga bribe.” The story alleges that Indeni Board chairman Johnstone Chikwanda told Post Reporter Mukosha Funga in a private meeting that the state would drop her court case, give her a new job and a scholarship if she disclosed who gives her classified information. PATRIOTIC Front (PF) deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri has challenged the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate corruption allegations labelled against government in a news article carried by the Post Newspaper.
Speaking in a telephone interview with the Lusaka Star, Mrs. Phiri urged the Commission to accurately and thoroughly investigate the allegations made by Post Newspaper reporter Mukosha Funga that government officials attempted to bribe her in disclosing who gives her classified documents.
She further said the ACC should also investigate as to whether the named Indeni Board chairman Johnson Chikwanda was sent by government to bribe Miss Funga or was representing his own interest.
In a story carried by the Post Newspaper yesterday (25th August, 2015) under the headline “Govt offers Funga bribe,” Indeni Board chairman Johnstone Chikwanda is reported to have told Miss Funga that the state would drop her court case, give her a new job and a scholarship if she disclosed who gives her classified information.
Mrs. Phiri urged the Post Newspaper not to drag government into the matter adding that Mr. Chikwanda was a mere Indeni Board Chairman who was not in any way acting on behalf of the government.
“That Mr. Johnson Chikwanda who had a private meeting with the reporter is not a government official but a Board Chair at Indeni … And for the Post Newspaper to put up that screaming headline is a shame,” she added.
Mrs. Phiri claimed that the Post Newspaper was working against the people of Zambia by fuelling hate adding that it (Post) should not release its frustrations on innocent Zambians.
“The post newspaper is frustrated, they have credit everywhere, they are unable to pay their employees and there they were also going through difficult financial times … let their frustration not affect the innocent people of Zambia,” she noted.
She has since said due to the love of power by the Post Newspaper, “the people of Zambia should not be surprised when they see themselves giving birth in the Post Newspaper pictures because that is the kind of journalism that the Post ais known for.”
ACC should investigate corruption allegations made against government by Post Newspaper reporter – Mumbi Phiri
