AN INACCURATE ELECTORAL OBSERVER
By Sean E. Tembo – PeP President
1. When Enoch Kavindele was appointed to head the SADC Electoral Observer Mission in eSwatini, one of his first statements was to justify Government’s travel ban on Former President Lungu, saying “even Lungu himself prevented late former President Rupiah Banda from traveling to South Africa for medical attention”
2. As a matter of fact, l remember that incident quite well in 2012, but it wasn’t President Lungu who was in office at that time, it was late former President Michael Sata. And the circumstances were totally different because at that time, President Rupiah Banda’s immunity had been lifted and he was facing criminal charges in the Lusaka Magistrates Court. It is common practice to withhold the passport of an accused person who is on bail, so the travel ban that was imposed on RB was not completely unreasonable.
3. In the case of President Lungu however, his immunity has not been lifted and he has not been charged with any criminal offenses before any court of law. So it is lame and also inaccurate for Ba Mudala Ba Enoch Kavindele to try to draw a parallel between the RB incident in 2012 and the Lungu incident a few days ago. Lungu’s travel ban is unreasonable, without justification and amounts to harassment of the former head of state by President Hakainde Hichilema. Of all the things that Kavindele could justify in order to earn his keep for his appointment as SADC Electoral Observer Mission head to eSwatini, this was the lamest of them all.
4. We know that SADC pays very handsome allowances for someone heading an Electoral Observer Mission, but it was not necessary for the Former Veep to make lame, inaccurate statements in his quest to ostensibly justify his appointment by President Hakainde Hichilema. Besides, an inaccurate electoral observer will be of no much use to SADC.
Anyway, the Future is SET ✌️✌️✌️
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SET 23.09.2023