PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
26th August 2021
SECRETARY GENERAL’S STATEMENT ON MISCONSTRUED STATEMENT CIRCULATING ON HH’S RESIDENCE
As UPND, we wish to guide that there is a difference between President Hakainde Hichilema as President of the Republic of Zambia , and Mr .Hichilema as President of the Party.
Under the circumstances, no party official has the right to speak on behalf of His Excellency Mr .Hakainde Hichilema as President of the Republic of Zambia.
This said, the statement attributed to me that Mr. HH has the right to stay in place he believes is safe is a party position and not state house position.
Our view is that ,in the absence of any appointed State House spokesperson or indeed any appointed legal person for state house, only the Secretary to the Cabinet has the right to comment on state house related matters and the President.
All Party members are guided accordingly.
Further, I wish to put it on record that my statement regarding Mr. HH’s residence was picked out of context, as such I wish to clarify the following :
1.President Hakainde Hichilema is free to choose his own ADCs as a general practice ;
- Former Presidents equally did the same, and our view is that state house reserves the right to ascertain whether President Hakainde Hichilema should occupy Nkwazi House at state house or not; this is not a UPND mandate;
3.Mr. Hichilema is now President of the Republic of Zambia, as such, any statement from my office represents the position of the party and not state house;
- No party official or party appointed person has the right to represent state house in any capacity;
- As regard to all UPND related matters, the party has a spokesperson who is Hon. Cornelius Mweetwa, including other party constitutional office bearers mandated to speak on behalf of the party; and
- We advise media houses to realize that our party officials are a wrong source to comment on state house unless they want to get the party view…as such my view represents the party view and not the President of the Republic of Zambia’s office.
Lastly, my office has an open door policy to all media houses for all clarification.
Issued by:
Hon Batuke Imenda
UPND SECRETARY GENERAL
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