MAYOR’S WIFE, HAMWEENDA EXCHANGE HARD SLAPS AT GOLF CLUB
United Party for National Development (UPND) Mazabuka Youth Chairperson, Bright Hamweenda, has described his physical confrontation with Namwaka Lilanda, the wife to Mayor Vincent Lilanda, as unfortunate.
The two are said to have exchanged excruciating hard slaps following an altercation at Mazabuka’s Golf Club, Saturday night.
Hamweenda, who exclusively narrated the ordeal to Byta FM’s Joe Pandwe, says he was provoked to react in the manner he did.
“I was at Golf club watching news, so when I was leaving going home, I found the Mayor with the party district Chairperson, Skinner Pasi and I greeted them,” Hamweenda said.
“I later told the Mayor that I wanted to speak with him at the right time because I had some issues I wanted to discuss, and whilst we were talking, his wife came and told the Mayor that she has been advising him not to speak to me because am useless, and she slapped me,” Hamweenda added.
He notes that they were separated by a few people that were around, and he later went to report Namwaka (in chitenge) to the Police for Assault.
Hamweenda, who accuses the Mayor’s wife of having been drunk during the fracas, has denied reports from an online platform suggesting that he is bitter with the Mayor for not awarding him a tender he had applied for.
“Yes I participated on that tender, but I had no interest in it, I have got everything, I was awarded that contract, turned it down on my own,” Hamweenda indicated.
The Youth Chairperson, who says he sustained a painful right ear form the encounter, has since called for dialogue with the Mayor, saying it is not right for his wife to engage in physical confrontations with senior party officials.
“We just need to sit down with the Mayor, he must understand that the route he has taken is not very right as you can’t have a wife to the Mayor fighting people like me, a senior party official,” Hamweenda charged.
And when contacted to give his side of what transpired, Mazabuka Mayor, Vincent Lilanda, expressed regret at what happened.
“It is unfortunate Joe that politics have gone to that level, I never had a conversation with that gentleman, he just started poking me, even my shirt is torn” Lilanda narrated.
“Why my wife ‘pushed’ him is because he was insulting on top of his voice, everyone was there, he insulted my mother and called my wife all sorts of names,” Lilanda explained.
Asked how his wife was fairing after onlookers said that she had fallen to the ground after being slapped by Hamweenda, the Mayor revealed that she has general body pains.
Earlier on in the day, Hamweenda had donated assorted essentials to Mazabuka General Hospital.
This was in a move aimed at supplementing government efforts in improving the provision of health care services to the people.
The assortment compromises of brooms, 200 syringes, 200 injections and other cleaning essentials all valued at over K2,000.