By VITA BANDA
GOVERNMENT has finally made public its involvement in the Patriotic Front (PF) confusion with Home Affairs and Internal Security Minister, Jack Mwiimbu claiming the list of office bearers for the former ruling party which shows former President Edgar Lungu as president is not genuine.
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But Makebi Zulu, the lawyer for the PF is wondering why the UPND administration had taken so much interest in the former ruling party and its office bearers instead of concentrating on governing the country and delivering its promises to Zambians.
Mr Zulu said yesterday that it was disappointing that Mr Mwiimbu, who was a lawyer could not understand contents of the released list of the office bearers which had been tabulated in the simplest form of a layman’s language.
Mr Mwiimbu is however claiming that former President Lungu was a member of the UPND in 2002 and has therefore dismissed the list of the PF office bearers obtained from the Registrar of Societies by the former ruling party.
The release of the list of the PF office bearers has since seen the immediate dismissal of Thandiwe Phiri-Mhende only for the reason that she had obeyed a court order, which Mr Mwiiimbu says there has never been.
Mr. Mwiimbu said at a media briefing yesterday that list of the PF office bearers was indicating that former President Edgar Lungu as having been registered as PF president in 2002 and yet, according to Mr Mwiimbu, he (former President Lungu) was allegedly a member of the UPND at the time.
“Coming to the purported document, which is being spread that there is a list of PF office bearers…that document all of you have seen. That document has listed a number of office bearers. That document identified president Lungu is the president of PF. And he was appointed in 2002. Michael Chilufya Sata was a president and the vice president then was Guy Scott.” “Is it a genuine document or it is a fake document? This is why the court wanted the document to be produced so that the Registrar (of Societies) can be cross examined so that they know the authenticity of the document,” Mr Mwiimbu said. Mr Mwiimbu has however said the Registrar of Societies, Mhende had not been fired but reassigned to other duties contrary to information circulating on social media.
But Mr Zulu said he was disappointed that Mr Mwiimbu, the man with a legal mind could not understand and comprehend the PF list of office bearers which had been presented in the simplest form of a layman’s language.
Mr Zulu said former president Lungu had been an office bearer of the PF since 2002 and that his status could not be changed even when he was elected as a party president. Mr Zulu said if Mr Mwiimbu was seeing flaws in the document in his office, then the most appropriate thing to do was to blame his officers who produced it.
He said it was important that Mr Mwiimbu should understand the issues involving the office bearers of the PF instead of misleading himself and the nation.
Mr Zulu told Mr Mwiimbu that subpoena was a court order, therefore, the Home Affairs Minister should consider consulting widely to avoid the embarrassment of peddling wrong information.
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