Criticising Laura Miti instead of Pushing for Hichilema to Declare his Assets- Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba

Criticising Laura Miti instead of Pushing for Hichilema to Declare his Assets

Amb. Emmanuel Mwamba Wrote;

In the last few days, Laura Miti has blasted  the Attorney General, Mulilo Kabesha SC for stating that no law exists to compel President Hakainde Hichilema to make public the  declaration of his assets, liabilities and interests that is submitted to the Electoral Commission of Zambia for purposes of a presidential election.

The Constitutional Court in the case of Sean Tembo Vs The Electoral Commission of Zambia and The Attorney General (2021/CCZ/0047) ruled that the declaration made to ECZ cannot be made public citing the repealed Article 34 (5) (b) which reads as follows:

..a Presidential candidate shall not be entitled to take part in an election unless-
(b) he makes, a statutory declaration, of his assets and liabilities, which shall be “open to public inspection at such time and at such place as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament;”

This repealed provision left it to members of the public to inspect the statutory declaration of assets and liabilities at the place and time to be prescribed.

However, both the Electoral Act No. 12 of 2006 and the Electoral (General) Regulations Statutory Instrument No. 92 of 2006 did not have a provision specifying the time and place where the statutory declaration of assets and liabilities for presidential candidates were to be inspected.

In our case, it is a constitutional requirement that information regarding declared assets and liabilities of contesting candidates should be made available to the public and this serves its purpose before elections are held.

However, Article 52 (3) makes the information on declared assets and liabilities, among
others, accessible to the public only upon being prescribed by subsidiary legislation.

Article 52 (3) provides that nomination papers
and the affidavits for all candidates at presidential, parliamentary and local government levels must be published, as prescribed.

The Constitution Court stated that to date, Government has not prescribed through subsidiary legislation how and where the  statutory declarations of assets of candidates will be disclosed or published or inspected.

This is the reason Laura advised both President Hichilema and Kabesha not to hide behind a finger of a badly written law.

She insisted, as every key stakeholder has demanded for President Hichilema to make full public disclosure of his assets, liabilities and business interests.

Following the appointment of another set of media teams, Laura welcomed the initiative but proposed that President Hichilema appoints Mark Simuuwe, who has been given a junior position of Media Director at the UPND Secretariat, as Hichilema’s and State House presidential Spokesperson.

She says Simuuwe was visible, articulate, expressed knowledge and therefore is seen as  natural choice for the position.

She also called for effective coordination as such a large group would have many voices talking and would immediately suffer confusion and produce a cacophony discordant messages.

This is always apparent.

While Chief Government Spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa continues to attack the Catholic Church, Oliver Shalala was circulating pictures of Hichilema and the Pope and another picture with Archbishop Alick Banda claiming that Government enjoys a cordial relationship with the Church.

Laura has been a relentless critic of Hichilema’s media team terming it “in a comatose state”.

She however refuses to acknowledge that the failures may also be attributed more to Hichilema’s policy failures and his ooor leadership style than the teams of incompetent persons he has assembled.

This stance to criticise Hichilema and call for a new Spokesperson at State House, has earned Laura a strong and scathing attack from the insulting experts from Koswe media team based at State House that have penned an article titled; “Laura Miti’s Political Hypocrisy and the Self-appointed Saint who Bites the Hand that Feeds Her” using a pseudonym called “Margaret Mwanza”.

But Laura has a point.

Look at this communications infrastructure structure working in discordant mode;

1. Chief Government  Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa ( he speaks), rightfully so with his team of PS Information and Media, Thabo Kawana ( speaks more loud than the Minister), Director Spokesperson (Henry Kapata) who also speaks.

2. State House has; Clayson Hamasaka, Chief Communications Specialist ( Speaks although he doesn’t speak) and a team members; Whitney Mulobela (Chief Communications Stategist), Brian Mwiinga and Mr. Fredrick Misebezi as presidential photographer and Press Analysts.

There is Jito Kayumba, State House Financial and Investment advisor, who rams a parallel highly visible media campaign but based on his profile promotion.

3. From the UPND, it’s Cornelius Mweetwa as Spokesperson.

With the continued failure of communication and media, Hichilema, typical of a failing leader who forms committees or commissions of inquiry for every problem that emerges, has yet again appointed another layer of communications team.

He has established a Ministerial Media Team comprising sectoral ministers;  Health Minister ELIJAH MUCHIMA, Mines Minister PAUL KABUSWE, Transport Minister FRANK TAYALI , Community Development Minister DOREEN MWAMBA and Government Deputy Chief Whip, LIKANDO MUFALALI.

He has also appointed Minister of Youth & Sport, Elvis Nkandu as UPND Deputy Spokesperson.

Others appointed included Mark Simuuwe as Media Director and former UPND Secretary General, Situla Sikwindi as Deputy Media Director and Oliver Shalala as “UPND Consultant”.

Earlier, Frank Bwalya, who recently defected from the PF, then from the Socialist Party to the to UPND from Socialist Party was appointed as “Director General” of National Media Committee of the “Presidential Support Programme”, a high sounding title that means nothing, with his counterpart Cosmas Chileshe given an obscure social-media role.

No wonder Laura puts the blame squarely on President Hichilema for failing to appoint competent persons to man the media.

Sadly Hichilema has demonstrated in nearly every sector that he can’t appoint competent persons that can deliver!

He must simultaneously first deliver and also put up a team that can help him deliver.

So ba UPND, don’t crucify Laura, she is a mere messenger.

The way you circulate widely her criticism of former President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front is the way you should circulate her articles roasting the UPND Media and her demands for President Hichilema to disclose his assets, liabilities and business interests.

Clearly this structure cries failure and will likely produce only cacophony.