BREBNER Changala has charged that Vice-President Inonge Wina has mooted a scheme of misleading Zambians using Parliament.
He has warned President Edgar Lungu that he faces the same fate as late former president Frederick Chiluba when he leaves office next year.
“President Edgar Chagwa Lungu will end up in the same miserable position like former president Frederick Chiluba,” Changala said. “They are misusing State resources to propel their name and their stay in power. If you see, they have the same desire to rule this country indefinitely. President Lungu is going for a third term, even when all odds are against him, even when he has destroyed the economy, even when he has cannibalised our national unity; even when he has nothing to offer.”
On Friday last week, Vice-President Wina told Parliament that the Presidential Empowerment Initiative Fund was President Lungu’s private initiative.
She said this in response to Chavuma UPND member of parliament Victor Lumayi who wanted to know who controlled the Presidential Empowerment Fund and to which office they reported.
“It is a private initiative by the Head of State to support economically deprived communities and vulnerable people and he chooses where to use these funds,” said Vice-President Wina, adding that, “the Honourable member for Chavuma can also start his own initiative in his constituency. A lot of members of parliament are doing that in their constituencies. So, I believe that the Honourable member will consider that proposal so that the people of Chavuma can benefit from their member of parliament.”
Commenting on the matter, Changala, a good governance activist, said Vice-President Wina had not lived up to her title.
“The Vice-President has mooted a scheme of misleading the people of Zambia on the floor of the House in parliament. There are many untruthful statements, either deliberately, or with intent to cheat the people of Zambia,” he said. “I have said it and I want to repeat this, that Agogo (grandmother) the Vice-President madam Inonge Wina, in the last seven months she has not lived up to her name. She has not lived up to the integrity and the position that she holds as Vice-President of the country.”
Changala outlined various misleading statements Vice-President Wina has made in public and asked her to leave if she is tired.
“She has been peddling a lot of untruths to the people of Zambia. She has been misleading Parliament; she has been putting up half-truths to the nation. We are having voter registration; she has made comments that are not correct. We are having NRC issuance, she made comments that are not true,” he said. “And surely a woman of her stature, both politically, and a woman coming from a civil society (NGOCC) which was pushing the government at one point to account, she must not fall in the same trap. My brother, if she’s tired, she’s tired and [she must] give that office to more energetic and inspiring citizens that can help us to focus and cross-breed.”
Changala wondered why President Lungu’s emissary in the slush fund has been using public resources if indeed it was a private project.
He also wondered why the project has not been named after President Lungu instead of his title.
“The Presidential Initiative Fund is a slush fund which, whether they like it or not, are public funds. And in no time, President Edgar Lungu will be made to account because this benevolence which cannot be audited or indeed which has no oversight from the people of Zambia and indeed from the Office of the President is inimical to the security of our country,” he said. “The bearer of the Presidential Initiative Fund, Mr Clement Tembo, has been using government facilities to hoodwink the people of Zambia in the delivery of these funds to various provinces and districts of our country. He has been flying [on] the [Zambia] Air Force planes, being flown by Air Force staff and enjoying the very benefits of the State.”
Changala warned Vice-President Wina that she “is playing a very dangerous game that might land her in serious problems in future”.
“The best she could have done is to tell Parliament that ‘I am not aware of the activities of my superior’ and direct the questions to the Office of the President,” he said. “The misuse of Parliament to launder the executive clean is long gone because Zambians can see through, that our representatives in that august House are cheating, so they will be asked to account.”
And Changala warned that President Lungu has been conducting himself in the same manner and spirit of the late president Frederick Chiluba.
“And they are playing the same game, and they seem to be on the same WhatsApp group. And his ending will be a tragedy, and he must blame nobody,” Changala said. “President Edgar Chagwa Lungu will end up in the same miserable position like former president Frederick Chiluba. They are misusing State resources to propel their name and their stay in power. If you see, they have the same desire to rule this country indefinitely. President Lungu is going for a third term, even when all odds are against him, even when he has destroyed the economy, even when he has cannibalised our national unity; even when he has nothing to offer.”
He said President Lungu was scared to leave because of the way he has abused his office.
Changala reminded President Lungu that
he would leave office because he has a place where he came from.
“And indeed, he shall go back to that place so that other men and women of decent and inspiring character can take over from him. But he will be made to account and he will be a guest of a competent court of law, not a tribunal,” said Changala. “President Edgar Lungu has been living beyond his means. He has been living beyond the call of his office as the President of the Republic of Zambia. For all his emoluments are gazetted and therefore in public domain. Any other money that he might call his own money, the money that he’s accruing out of corrupt and other activities that do not give honour and dignity to the Office of the President of the Republic of Zambia, there will be a time to account, and definitely that time is drawing near.”