I didn’t spit saliva on journalist, I thought he was a UPND cadre,  Given Katuta tells court

I didn’t spit saliva on journalist, I thought he was a UPND cadre, Katuta tells court

CHIENGI member of parliament and Facebook marriage counselor Given Katuta has denied showering saliva on Times of Zambia photojournalist Henry Chunza, stating she mistook him for a UPND cadre sent to mock her walk of shame.

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Katuta is facing charges of common assault and threatening violence after a bizarre July 21, 2023, incident when she was ordered by Speaker Nelly Mutti to take a seven day suspension and walk of shame out of the National Assembly chamber.

In her defence before magistrate Idah Phiri, Katuta painted a picture of a sickly MP limping out of the house with a spine dislocation and a tight skirt restricting her movement.

The 56 year old parliamentarian narrated that on the date in question, she was unwell, nursing a spinal dislocation and dressed in a tight skirt that made movement painful, when she spotted a man with a camera.

Katuta said as she emerged from the chamber, she saw a strange gentleman taking pictures of her from a restricted area.

“To me, he looked like a cadre. He was laughing and taking pictures. No one is allowed to stand there, so I thought it was a UPND cadre mocking me,” said Katuta.

She explained that she pointed at him and demanded that he stops photographing her, but when the man continued laughing, she asked a security officer to intervene.

“I never spat on any journalist. I never threatened anyone. Those stories shocked me when I later saw them online. The time I was going downstairs that gentleman had already gone,” she told the court.

But Katuta’s denial stands in sharp contradiction to the testimonies already laid before the bench.

Chunza earlier told the court that Katuta charged at him like a spitting cobra as soon as she spotted his camera.

He said she hurled Bertha Lungu insults, calling him “we mwana wambwa iwe” (you son of a dog) and spat on him as he tried to escape her wrath down Parliament’s staircase.

“She was on top, I was running down, she leaned over the guard rails and spat on me,” Chunza testified, adding that the ordeal left him traumatised.

Times of Zambia acting chief reporter, Chusa Sichone, backed Chunza’s story, telling the court he watched Katuta lose her temper and spit on his colleague before they rushed to report the incident to the police.

Even a National Assembly security officer, Julius Tembo, confirmed witnessing Katuta spit on the journalist, though he clarified that he never heard her call him a “son of a dog” as claimed.

Tembo likened the incident to a cat and mouse chase, with the MP in hot pursuit of the fleeing journalist while demanding deletion of the pictures.

Katuta, who doubles as a reverend, risks up to five years imprisonment if convicted of the charges.

By Catherine Pule

Kalemba, August 23, 2025