By Fanny Kalonda
UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has warned Kelvin Fube Bwalya to stop the politics of name calling before he spills the beans on why he was not appointed as minister in the UPND administration.
Addressing the media in Livingstone on Wednesday, Mweetwa accused Bwalya of being emotional.
Recently, Bwalya said the UPND are stingy. But Mweetwa said no government dishes out money for free unlike what was done in the PF administration.
“Now the comment which you make, which we feel that as a party cannot go unnoticed where he said the problem ‘nasanga muli iyi party batila UPND Bakaso (I have found in this party called UPND, they are stingy)’. That statement emanates from his DNA foundation which anchored the Patriot Front bordering on hate speech, division and stereotyping a particular grouping of people in the country. So he’s too intoxicated with divisive language, which was their daily bread in PF stereotyping. Calling people names calling UPND Bantustans tabakateke (they’ll never rule). That was what he was speaking when KBF was saying bakaso,” he said. “KBF, welcome to politics. We wish that you can settle down quickly and understand that being a leader of an opposition political party is not child’s play. It is a serious business. Let me also indicate that we don’t want to continue on the trajectory of name calling. We should be spending time debating policy and policy alternatives. Not politics. But if you are going to continue, we will leave those in government to do policy and us as a party we will do politics. So very soon, if they continue playing around the way they are doing as a party spokesperson, I will be left with no choice but to begin to spill the beans. So KBF should not push me and the party to disclose why he was not appointed as minister.”
Mweetwa argued that Bwalya only assisted a few people “on which he spent 15,000” ahead of the August 2021 elections.
“My elder brother KBF made startling comments at his appearance at the ‘Let the People Talk [programme on Phoenix FM] Firstly, he was so emotional. A leader should not be emotional. A leader should be passionate about what they stand for. Not emotional. He was too emotional but we forgive him and understand. KBF indicated that he sponsored UPND candidates, MPs and mayors. He should have gone to indicate that if at all he gave money to anybody, no one ever asked money from him. No one. Whoever he assisted, a few of those he assisted, what we thought that time was generosity. So those he helped, he helped out of his free will and volition. Not that anyone went to him and said ‘I’m broke, I need eight thousand or ten thousand. Never,” he said. “So, if you’re going to assist someone, Meanwhile, you are doing it for political gain, then that is questionable in leadership. If he becomes president, and he will be privy to so many issues, how many people will be exposed under a supposed KBF presidency? Because a leader should have a sense of discretion of what information to channel out to the public.”
Mweetwa said the money the PF was dishing out, when they were in power, is the money that President Hakainde Hichilema is using to create employment opportunities for teachers and health workers.
“If PF had continued, those people who are employed you would not have been employed. But a clique of their supporters would have been receiving handouts. We are not about to begin to emulate bad political manners,” he said. “Let him just run his political party quietly and we shall leave him alone to run his political party because we appreciate the role he played to the nation. When he joined to support his brother HH to tip the scale that was already tipped by the people of this country to exert government change, leadership change, we respect and we appreciate that. So when he goes to say the UPND are saying we don’t appreciate, that they don’t appreciate the role he played, as a lawyer I would have expected him first before he speaks to deal with primary evidence. Not react from hearsay.”
And Mweetwa urged UPND members to respect the judiciary stressing that an attack on the judiciary is an attack on the President. He said those who attack the judiciary are doing it on their own capacity and not speaking for the party.