Tue, 09 Jan 2018 07:26:13 +0000
By AARON CHIYANZO
OPPOSITION political parties have called on investigative wings to probe assertions by a former senior cabinet minister that President Michael Sata’s speech he was supposed to deliver to Parliament in 2014 was swapped to determine the extent of external interference in Government.
It was important, they said, for Zambians to know that external influences undermined cogent government policy at the highest levels of Government
And the opposition leaders wondered why President Sata’s former press aide, George Chellah was so concerned when the former minister did not mention him as the person responsible for the swap.
Former Finance Minister, Alexander Chikwanda stated that President Sata was undermined by people around to the extent of having the speech he was supposed to deliver to Parliament in 2014 swapped and replaced with a watered down longer version without his knowledge and which speech he failed to read.
Both Zambia Republican Party president, Wright Musoma and 3rd Liberation Movement Enock Tonga roundly demanded for a probe to bring the culprits to book.
The opposition leaders said in separate interviews that in as much as the late President’s former press aide had insisted that there was nothing sinister in the speech, a thorough investigation was invertible.
The leaders wondered why Mr Chellah had become so uneasy when Mr Chikwanda did not say that it was him who swapped the speeches.
Mr Tonga vowed to follow the issue to the very end, when culprits would be brought to book, adding that swapping the President’s speech without his knowledge was criminal.
“We have to know who exactly swapped the speech so that they can explain why. I will pursue this to the end, we need answers. These people controlled the President towards his last days, but in whose hands was the Head of State?” he questioned.
He charged that investigative wings should take up the matter because there was more to anything than what meets the eye.
Mr Tonga wondered why someone would wrongly defend criminality by claiming that the watered down speech was shorter than the ordained speech the President had prepared to read.
Meanwhile, Mr Musoma said that Mr Chikwanda was a respectable man, whose suspicions should not be taken lightly.
He said that there was no way the former senior minister, whom he said was close to Mr Sata would lie that his friend was undermined by people around him.
In the abridged speech, the Head of State had intended to propose that Presidential powers be devolved to a prime minister and as well institute electoral reforms to include proportional representation for parliamentarians. To obviate the expense of by elections.
