Mweetwa: “…there should be no people who must feel too old or holding a position too big that when they tell lies, they cannot be reminded. Those peope don’t exist in the world I live in..!”
Choma Central Member of Parliament says there is no reason to drag issues of age and gender into his statement on Vice President, Inonge Wina’s remarks linking the gassing incidents to the opposition.
Cornelius Mweetwa also says he is ready to apologise to the National Assembly and Wina on the condition that she says sorry for misleading the national that the opposition was behind the terror.
Mweetwa was responding to Fisheries and Livestock Minister, Professor Nkandu Luo who accused him of disrespecting Wina as an elder and a woman in politics.
This is in reference to his remarks directed at Wina that it was “shameful” and “shallow” of her to accuse the opposition of influencing regime change using the recent gassing incidents.
“…if somebody feels too old that they want that even if they tell lies, we must keep quiet… Well. There are places where they can be found. Go home, go home, go to the village… There are people all over in the village here who, who are living peacefully, but if you come into public life and you want respect when you are lying to a nation, you should create new rules that should bar people from reminding you that you are lying about gassing..,” Mweetwa said during a press briefing in Choma this morning.
Mweetwa on Friday, declined to apologize for his words at the ruling Speaker of the National Assembly, Dr. Patrick Matibini, arguing that he was within his constitutional right of freedom of expression.
The lawmaker charges that he does not take Wina as a woman, but as a leader who should not mislead the nation on a sensitive matter as the gassing incident.
“To try and position her owner the Vice president as woman in this discourse is a misnomer. I as Chairperson for the Zambian Men’s Parliamentary Network on Gender Equality at Parliament, look at her owner the Vice president not as a woman. I look at her as a leader,” he added.
During a briefing this morning, Mweetwa charged that being old and a woman does not give the VEEP the right to mislead the nation and he vows not to relent speaking.
Mweetwa has also accused Luo of discriminating against young people when he refers to him as a young man who should not voice out on lies.
“By looking at me as a young man and asking me to shut up. Stopping to point out the truth and standing for truth. Is now in itself discriminatory and segregative against the young people in Zambia that they can talk… This is the reason why when the youths of this country try to talk about about corruption. They are called DISGRUNTLED,” he added.
The speaker of the national assembly has ruled that Mweetwa apologises for what he termed as an attack on the Vice President’s character with his remarks.