POLITICAL drama was enacted this morning
when National Revolution Party (NRP) President Cozmo Mumba addressed the media in a press briefing from Ndeke Hotel in Lusaka streamed live on Smart Eagles.
Mr. Mumba claimed that United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema was unwell and that the UPND leader in parliament, who is Monze Central Member of Parliament Mr. Jack Mwiimbu was acting as the Party’s President.
Meanwhile, simultaneous with Mr. Mumba’s broadcast, UPND President Hakainde Hichilema went live on Facebook.
This prompted criticism of Mr. Mumba who also claimed that Mr. Mwiimbu was acting President rather than UPND Vice-President Mutale Nalumango because of tribe.
In hus address, Mr. Hichilema expressed his sympathy and solidarity with civil servants whom he said were victims of harrassment, intimidation and humiliation by the ruling Patriot Front (PF) Party. He decried the conditions in which the civil servants had to work including those of delayed salaries.
Mr. Hichilema also condemned the harrassment of a Ministry of Works inspector Ms. Sheilly Chatugwa by PF cadres on Tuesday.
Ms. Chatugwa accused by PF cadres of being sympathetic to the opposition UPND was dragged from her office to the office of the Ministry of Works and Supply Permanent Secretary, Mr. Lenox Kalonde, who did nothing to protect her.
However, Mr. Hichilema said the helpless exhibited by Mr. Kalonde showed the state in which civil servants were subordinated to ruling party political cadres.