UPND deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says the PF in its continued onslaught against Hakainde Hichileme has set up a taskforce at Anti-Corruption Commission to probe the opposition leader with possible arrest over his role in the privatisation process.
He alleges that the PF government also wants to grab Hichilema’s assets in a manner like they did with Post Newspapers Limited (in liquidation) to incapacitate him.
Mweetwa briefed the press in Choma yesterday over continued attacks on Hichilema heightened by FDD president Edith Nawakwi.
He said the issue was not a Nawakwi Vs Hichilema fight but about the PF fighting Hichilema in a desperate attempt to shift national debate from current national problems.
“So people like madam Edith Nawakwi should be understood in context. Number one, this is someone whose political career as someone aspiring to become the head of state under FDD has come to a dead-end and she has come to accept it because she can no longer command national support and she also can no longer command sponsorship,” he said. “Madam Nawakwi runs FDD as an NGO to promote women participation in politics. She was receiving sponsorship from the Nordic countries as an NGO operating as a political party. And that is why she was able, ahead of 2016 elections, to be going round donating chickens to women groups.”
Mweetwa alleged that from the same money Nawakwi managed to hire some employees as her image builders for FDD to look like a political party.
He said in 2016, Nawakwi lost miserably getting less than 50 per cent of votes he got in Choma.
He claimed her sponsors knew Nawakwi was misleading them that she had nationwide support and they immediately withdrew their support.
“That is why even those employees of hers masquerading as supporters left and trekked to PF. She is the last one therefore to join the choir members who are singing for President Edgar Lungu and PF,” Mweetwa said. “How come Nawakwi can now begin to speak the way she is speaking against HH? This is hypocrisy of the highest order. Thirteen years ago in 2006, Edith Nawakwi went to bed with HH under UDA (United Democratic Alliance) in a similar style of being HH’s running mate. How can she summersault now to say that HH misconducted himself during privatisation?”
Mweetwa wondered how Nawakwi found it convenient to go to bed with Hichilema in 2006 but demonise him today.
“She is now behaving like a prostitute who goes for the highest bidder. Why did she go to bed with HH if HH conducted mischief through privatisation? It is these kinds of leaders Zambians should begin to say no to – those who take the position of convenient to themselves. When it was convenient, HH was her darling,” he said.
Mweetwa said the whole scheme was one of the stages that PF had lined up for debate in their desperation.
He said after 2016, PF slapped Hichilema with treason, which ended in a nullity.
“They went ahead now to try and link HH to the burning of Soweto market, city market, Chisokone and other places. They even went to the extent of sending their agents to knock down Zesco poles in some places of this country and allege that it’s HH’s people knocking those poles down as acts of economic sabotage, the same way they said the burning of markets was work of the opposition. They went on a heavy tribal crusade, they have realised that the tribal chorus has become a tired song, people are no longer interested in listening to it, it is at the level of dununa reverse song,” he said. “From there they graduated and brought in the issue of Satanism, that HH is a Satanist, he is a free mason. Hadn’t it been for Seer 1 who exposed them for the rings and things they got from him relating to supernatural power, they would still be insisting that HH is a Satanist. Now Seer 1 exposed them. From the time Seer 1 exposed them, they kept quiet on Satanism. The next thing they did was that two months ago, I know, on the Copperbelt, they gathered the clergy and told them that ‘as Christians begin to demand that HH should begin to speak against Seer 1’ who appears to be endorsing HH and demonising President Lungu. They lined up the clergy and gave them money. Some of the people they go to address are our people and they get surprised.”
Mweetwa said the PF went ahead to link Hichilema to gassing but that too boomeranged in their face.
“As things stand, as somebody who has worked as an anti-corruption crusader for a while, I am fully briefed and we know that right now this government has set up a taskforce under the Anti-Corruption Commission. Let them deny that they have set up a taskforce to begin to manufacture issues that should present a good case of probing and investigating HH with a possible arrest over privatisation, that he abused his position,” Mweetwa said.
He said the PF know very well that no reasonable court, properly constituting itself could convict Hichilema on trumped up charges they want to prefer on him.
“This is the scheme, let them deny that they have set up a taskforce at the Anti-Corruption Commission. We are aware that they are using a two-pronged attack against HH, attacking him left, right and centre. They are even looking at a window to grab some of the assets of HH so that they incapacitate him in the like manner they did with the Post Newspapers and sold to themselves. Can they tell us who bought the courier trucks of Post newspaper if it is not they themselves at the apex of the PF leadership. Can they deny? Let them tell us who bought those trucks if not those connected to the same powers that today want to claim to be faithful,” he said.
Mweetwa said the PF were trying to strip Hichilema of his assets he had worked for without stepping foot into a government office or looking for a contract from a government official.
He said Hichilema worked in the private sector.
He wondered at what stage Hichilema abused his position.
“According to the anti-corruption Act, you only abuse your office or authority of office when you are a public officer, using your public office, authority for private advantage. HH has never been a public officer. If they are talking about him being a consultant of a company which government had contracted to advise them, I mean, even a grade 1 or grade 4 could understand that it was not even HH, it was the firm that was contracted, HH was just a consultant. And the job of a consultant is not to make a decision, the job of a consultant is to advise you and the advice is simply to inform you and not make a decision on your behalf,” Mweetwa said.
He said the PF government have tried all tricks on the ground, including violence but have realised that the tide of change could not be stopped.
Mweetwa said the PF have even used ministers to declare no go areas for Hichilema but UPND shows strength on the Copperbelt.
“The next day President goes to the Copperbelt and he is booed in a province they are talking of no go area. They are seeing what is going on in Lukashya right now. They are seeing what is happening in Mwansabombwe. This tide of change is not about HH, it’s about the people of Zambia. This is the most important election in Zambia after 1991,” he said.
Mweetwa said the PF want to paint Hichilema black and leave thieves alone in their government positions after cleaning them at Anti-corruption Commission and at court.
He said now the PF has begun dishing out money in compounds like Chawama where entrepreneurs were being given K1,600 each.
“Where is this money coming from? Let them deny that they, this PF government, demanded that Bank of Zambia gives them K1 billion and they demanded that this K1 billion be taken to the Presidential Empowerment Scheme and Bank of Zambia told them that ‘we do not have such kind of money, we have run out of actual cash. And the only money we have in our reserves is K900 million’,” he said. “That is the money that they are dishing around. Let them deny that they have since asked Bank of Zambia to give them K4 billion so that they sweep to presidential empowerment scheme for them to continue this handout scheme. This K4 billion and the K1 billion are part of the reason why the Bank of Zambia governor was fired. I want them to deny it.”
Mweetwa urged all surrogate and vuvuzelas paraded on cameras to talk about Hichilema to reason.
He said if people want to talk about corruption, they should point to the US $42 million fire tenders, $273 million digital migration, $250 million obsolete hammer mills, 48 houses that have got no owner, and the social cash transfer, which were plaguing the nation.
Mweetwa also challenged the PF to tell the nation why three years ago they sent teachers to Eden University to upgrade their qualifications but the government is failing to pay Eden University to graduate them.
He said Zambians were still interested in hearing more about the Carlington Maize scandal which implicated Nawakwi.
“Nawakwi’s trip to Canada as minister of finance, when they went to negotiate issues of privatisation. Can she tell us the discussion, the circumstances under which she met Ari Ben-Menashe, an Israeli, to discuss issues to do with privatisation? And what other things happened, where did they meet? There is more we know which is why we say let the sleeping dogs lie,” said Mweetwa. “Can she also dispute, we would like her to clarify whether Francis Kaunda did not come from those talks of privatisation and complained that the person who had messed up our talks is Edith Nawakwi.”