Munji Habeenzu, The Once Powerful Figure At Community House

MUNJI, THE ONCE POWERFUL FIGURE AT COMMUNITY HOUSE

Munji Habeenzu was not until the $62 million ZMSSA saga revelation a prominent figure at Community House, President Hakainde Hichilema’s residence.

Community House is now the official residence of the current Zambian President, Hakainde Hichilema. He did not move into the State presidential residence called Nkwazi House which is located within State House.

President Hichilema is driven everyday to State House for work and sometimes operates from Community House.

So Habeezu operated the diary of the President Hichilema at Community House. He was in short the Principle Private Secretary based at Community House while Bradford Machila is the Principle Private Secretary at State House.

Habeenzu was a powerful figure at Community House just like Machila at State House because the two manages the President’s diary.

A number of people especially from the party who could not access President Hichilema opted to try and access him through Community House.

This was not as easy as they thought it would be. They thought since the main man Habeenzu is from the party, UPND unlike Machila who is from MMD and a business friend of Hichilema Community House would be an easy entry.

Habeenzu is a long time UPND member who at one time served as member of Parliament for Chikankata in Southern Province.

The complaints from a number of UPND members is that Habeenzu has not been helpful at all. “He doesn’t pick calls,” is the complaint from his fellow UPND Supporters. But he is not the only one who doesn’t pick calls, a number of them including those we as Zambian Eye interacted closely have become unavailable. This is typical of politicians.

The information we have is that Habeenzu has been fired from his position following the ZAMMSA saga revelation. His dismissal has not been made public because just like many other supporting staff at both State House and Community House, he was not sworn in.

Since early hours of Friday when the news filtered out, Social media is awash with celebrations. His dismissal has been received with celebrations.

Some UPND officials have publicly mocked Habeenzu saying he is now trying to call the people whose calls he never picked.

One top UPND Official at the party Headquarters who has been trying to meet President Hichilema since 2021, told us that Habeenzu blocked him despite him being her junior.

“You can’t believe that I have not been able to meet the President since we won elections. He (HH) doesn’t pick my calls. In my last attempt at Community House, I was blocked by Munji,” complained the UPND top official.

A number of UPND members appointed into government have detached themselves from their fellow members. There now seem to be two groups those appointed who interacts amongst themselves and those not appointed who are complaining day and night.

These complainants forced President Hichilema a few months ago to come out in the party blog to calm the situation.

So there are many “Munji Habeenzus” UPND members are not happy with because of the way they conduct themselves when given privilege positions.

Zambian Eye, 19th July 2024.