By NATION REPORTER
IT is a serious lack of integrity and a character flaw for UPND president Hakainde Hichilema to keep insisting that his “Intercontinental corruption case was in court, when in fact not, Patriotic Front deputy Chief Whip, Tutwa Ngulube has charged. Mr Ngulube said it was cowardice to shy away from real issues being debated by the public, and advised Mr Hichilema to man up.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Mr Hichilema said, “Recently, the nation witnessed an age-old political debate that was instigated by a politician sponsored by Mr. Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front, and given unlimited media coverage on my role in privatisation, over a matter that has since been handed over to the courts for determination. This was a malicious campaign meant to pit me against the Zambian people.”
However Mr Ngulube urged Mr Hichilema to stop using Facebook and to come on radio and explain so that people can have an opportunity to ask him questions.
He said the UPND leader was being jittery and acting funny trying to threaten everyone who comments on privatisation.
He said there is no way the court can stop any Zambian from commenting on the matter because that would be unconstitutional.
“We all have freedom of expression guaranteed by the constitution. We have all rights to comment all matters of affecting the nation and privatisation is one of those issues affecting the nation,” he said.
He should keep quiet and use his energy to explain what happened. He has claimed on some radio that he did not participate in privatization, but if he did not participate in privatisation why is he saying the matter is in court?
“We want to tell Mr Hakainde Hichilema that first of all it is not possible to take the whole country in court. Number two, the issues that are in court have nothing to do with how he failed to declare interest in swindling the Zambian people of a hotel that the Zambians had actually believed was sold to a third party when in actual fact he is the one who bought,” Mr Ngulube said.
These, he said, are matters of public interest and are fair comments that people are making and by law, even if Hakiande has sued Edith Nawakwi alone, it does not stop every Zambian from commenting on the matter.
“Hakainde’s complaint in court is that Edith Nawakwi accused him of having stolen a house, that is the issue that he has taken to court. In that court case, Hakainde refused, failed or neglected to mention privatisation. There is nothing stopping us from commenting on this matter. We demand answers from Hakainde. We demand that from today, this issue of privatisation will follow you until you explain,” he said.
Mr Ngulube further said, “We will not allow Hakainde to intimidate the nation by threats of taking the matter to court. The decision to take the matter to court was his personal decision, it did not silence the people of Zambia. Just like Hakainde himself calls the Zambian people and the ruling corrupt, how he calls everybody in PF corrupt, it is in the same spirit, we are also asking him to account.”
“ Hakainde thought he was very clever when he started calling people corrupt, he thought he was not living in glass house. He is living in a glass house and now he has realized that apart from him throwing stones at people, people are capable of also throwing stones at him,” he said.
So, we want to urge him not to be a cry baby. He should just be strong enough to explain what he did during privatisation.
“He should just tell the Zambian people why he failed to declare the conflict of interest and Hakainde Hichilema should not forget that the people of Zambia have been watching his mouth.
“The same mouth was claiming to be the richest in the country. In 2015 he published a brochure where he listed more than 200 companies where he was a shareholder, more than 200 companies. He claimed to be the richest presidential candidate. Today he is refusing to answer questions on how he became rich.
We are asking you Mr Hakainde Hichilema, please explain to the people of Zambia, during privatisation you were poor, after privatisation you became rich. So can you explain to us how you became rich? And stop threatening people. Stop gagging us. Allow people to debate openly and freely,” the Kabwe lawmaker said.
Mr Ngulube said, “The issue of privatization is a matter of public interest and it is in our minds. All of us were swindled by you and so we have the right to get an explanation. If he wants he can sue the whole country, get the list of all Zambians and make sure that he serves everyone with an injunction and he must explain why he doesn’t want us to talk about privatisation.”
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