ECL HASN’T DONE ANYTHING TO WARRANT THE TREATMENT HE’S RECEIVING- MUNDUBILE
…Says an attempt by the UPND to try to control his behaviour and action will not work, that’s an infringement on his right
PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile says former president Edgar Lungu has not done anything to warrant the kind of treatment he is receiving from the UPND government.
Commenting on Justice Minister Mulambo Haimbe’s statement that Lungu was still enjoying his benefits despite his misbehaviour, Mundubile wondered what kind of behaviour Haimbe was referring to.
“I take great exception to the statement made by the honourable minister, my fellow counsel. The question to ask is what behaviour are they referring to when they refer to the former president? I think what must be known to them is that president Edgar Chagwa Lungu is a citizen of Zambia who enjoys his full rights as a citizen. An attempt by the UPND to try to control his behaviour and action will not work, that’s an infringement on his right. In our view and fair assessment, I don’t think the former president has done anything inimical to public interest. He has not done anything that should warrant the kind of treatment that he’s receiving from the UPND government. The continued harassment and humiliation at the hands of the Police and the UPND government is unwarranted,” he said.
Mundubile said the UPND government should learn from countries like Kenya on how a former head of state should be respected.
“I think the UPND government has a very good example with our neighbours here, Kenya. President Uhuru Kenyatta did not support Ruto but President Ruto respects the fact that Uhuru Kenyatta is a former president, and has actually warned his people against disrespecting the former president. That is what we expect from a statement of a minister or indeed the Head of State himself,” Mundubile said.
“The continued harassment of president Lungu is not justified, you can’t justify it in any way. The reason why there are so many statements from ministers, directors, State House, and everywhere regarding the office of the former president goes to tell that there’s something wrong that they are doing. Why are there so many contradicting statements? Why is there so much activity around that office? My advice to the UPND is that they might take one step back and reflect upon their own actions.
We live in this global village and right now we are a laughing stock in the world over regarding the manner in which we are treating a former head of state”.
Mundubile said Lungu was being harassed because the UPND feared that his interaction with citizens would expose their failures.
“What is even more disturbing is that all this is just because of paranoia, fear of the unknown. If the UPND had been fulfilling their promises, they would not have bothered much about what president Lungu was doing. They would not even be worried that he’s jogging with citizens or he’s greeting citizens at the market because they would have been busy delivering to a cheering public. Now the fact that they are failing to fulfil their promises, they are looking out for the next person that can remind the Zambian people about the unfulfilled promises.
That’s the reason why they are so sensitive, they’ve come to realise that two years down the line there’s nothing they have done that the Zambian people can point to. They fear that when president Lungu is interacting, he may speak about the shortage of drugs,” Mundubile said.
“They fear that during his interaction with the Zambian people, he may refer to the problems that are happening in the agricultural sector, they fear that he may expose the failures of Cabinet where vehicles are being bought and sold and people claiming not to know what has transpired. They fear that he’s going to highlight some of the challenges on how the executive has compromised the judiciary through a recent appointment.
They fear that president Lungu might highlight the challenges happening at ECZ where cadres have been appointed to commissioner positions. They’ve done so many wrong things in the past two years that they’ve become very sensitive fearing that people will begin to take up the information regarding their wrongdoing.
This is why we are facing these problems”.
Meanwhile, Mundubile disputed Haimbe’s claims that a former head of state was treated according to how they conducted themselves while in power.
He accused the UPND government of handling things in a childish manner.
“That’s not true, there is no law that says that. If the president did something wrong, the correct step will be to lay charges, come to Parliament, remove his immunity and prosecute. Not what we are seeing, not the childish behaviour we are seeing from the UPND. If they have a case against president Lungu, they should come to Parliament and remove his immunity then prosecute him. It’s more dignified than the childish manner in which they are handling things,” said Mundubile
(News Diggers)