L/stone UPND chairman disobeys Nkombo’s order

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L/stone UPND chairman disobeys Nkombo’s order

By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone

WRITE to me and quote the law that stops a party official from being Constituency Development Fund committee chairperson, Livingstone UPND chairman Christopher Syamwenya challenges Gary Nkombo.

The local government minister on Wednesday said anybody holding a political party position does not qualify to sit on the CDF committee.

He said CDF was not a political fund.

“The CDF in its design was meant to be an apolitical fund and so we set regulations for ourselves that anybody, anyone who holds a political office in a party structure does not qualify to hold any position in the CDF committee. We have noted that there have been some abrogation of that particular requirement and we have written to all councils where we have significant evidence that there are office holders in a political party who also have been nominated to run the CDF,” said Nkombo. “What that does is that because we are living in a democratic

dispensation where politics are normally a dividing factor, if for instance, secretary for a ward is UPND, PF or Rainbow or any other

political party is the chairman of the ward development committee, it means that the office will be repelling those who do not subscribe to the political idea and that is why we deliberately watered down the

issue of political office bearers sitting on the CDF committee. And it shall be like that and it is a non-negotiable position. So anybody who wants to serve in that capacity as a matter of fact must relinquish the position that they hold in the CDF or on the party ticket and that is a settled matter which is not subject to any negotiations.”

Asked if he would step down, Syamwenya said Zambia has laws which citizens follow.

“What I know is that there is nothing like that in the CDF Act number 11 of 2018, even in the CDF guidelines.This country has laws which we follow as citizens,” said Syamwenya. “Let him write me a letter and quote the law he referred to.”

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