HH WANTS TO BRING BACK KAKUBO, HENCE DELAY IN APPOINTING NEW MINISTER – MUNDUBILE
Monday, 29 January 2023
MPOROKOSO PF member of parliament Brian Mundubile says President Hakainde Hichilema has delayed appointing a Foreign Affairs Minister because he wants ACC to clear Stanely Kakubo so that he can reappoint him.
Mulambo Haimbe has been acting as Minister of Foreign Affairs since Kakubo’s resignation in December last year.
And last week, the Anti-Corruption-Commission (ACC) said investigations relating to Kakubo’s involvement in a suspicious financial transaction with the Chinese were ongoing, assuring that progress had been made.
In an interview, Friday, Mundubile said the President should have appointed a substantive Minister of Foreign Affairs upon Kakubo’s resignation.
“President Hakainde Hichilema has failed to fight corruption because if he was actively fighting corruption, upon the resignation of honourable Kakubo, he should have appointed another minister immediately because there are a number of competent MPs in the backbench that can be appointed.
But because he would like ACC to clear honourable Kakubo and give him back his job because he supports whatever Kakubo was doing, that’s what the delay is about. The delay is that he wants to reappoint Kakubo because he approves of what Kakubo has been doing,” Mundubile said.
And Mundubile said the UPND should not celebrate their victory in the just ended ward by-elections because the results showed how much they had lost popularity.
“But when you look through what happened in that ward by-elections, it’s also a confirmation that the UPND have lost popularity. Where did you ever see a ward by-election with 10 ministers in and out of a ward? And with all that effort and money they got 1,300 votes? If I was UPND I would not celebrate. How would you celebrate 1,300 votes with 10 ministers campaigning?
When you are analysing an election victory you look at the efforts and the results. When is a win a win and when is a win a lose?
When you analyse it from that angle, you will realise that the UPND government is at its lowest because they sent ministers, DCs, a lot of money in corruption and they got 1,300 votes, he said.
He said the electoral system in Zambia had completely collapsed as elections were being conducted outside the law.
“The point is that the electoral system in Zambia has collapsed completely because elections are being conducted outside the law.
Corruption in elections has become a norm. Article 52 of the constitution is very clear that when a candidate resigns, dies or withdraws, that particular election must be canceled. What happened in Chinsali? One candidate withdrew in accordance with provisions of the constitution, but because of lawlessness, because of having a government that has no regard for the rule of law, the elections still went ahead, confirming that the electoral process has collapsed completely.
It has collapsed completely because ECZ is being run by cadres,” said Mundubile.
“The commissioners are all members of the UPND, so they will do everything to frustrate what the law provides. It’s also true that minister Elias Mubanga and Elvis Nkandu were distributing money openly, in the full view of the Police and other electorates. But because the electoral system collapsed, nobody bothered to even spite that electoral malpractice”.
(Credit: News Diggers)