By Mwaka Ndawa
PF CHAIRPERSON for information and publicity Raphael Nakacinda has denied accusing President Hakainde Hichilema of meddling in the operations of the judiciary.
Appearing before Lusaka chief resident magistrate Dominic Makalicha, Nakacinda, 43 of Farm No. 1794 Kafue, pleaded not guilty to a charge of defamation of the President.
Particulars of the offense are that Nakacinda on December 13, 2021, with intent to bring President Hichilema into hatred, ridicule or contempt, caused to be published a defamatory statement whilst addressing a crowd of PF members at the High Court when he alleged that ‘His Excellency Mr Hakainde Hichilema has summoned judges at his private residence, intimidating and coercing them to frustrate PF legal battles’.”
The slanderous statement was widely broadcast by Muvi Television.
Trial commences on January 20, 2022.
And PF acting president Given Lubinda who accompanied Nakacinda to court clarified that he was not appointed as party president as he did not have the authority to take over from former president Edgar Lungu without members holding a general conference to elect the new party leader.
Lubinda, who wondered why people were thrilled that he was acting president of the party, said Lungu could not relinquish his position as party president “until a new captain is chosen to steer the PF boat”.
“There is nothing new about this position. President Lungu wrote a letter to former secretary to the cabinet in September 2021 saying that he was taking a back seat in the running of the party, and he was doing that simply to fulfill the requirements of the party constitution that he is supposed to hand over the presidency of PF to the person who shall be elected at the next conference of the party,” he explained. “Long before people started talking about his position he himself voluntarily stepped aside and is just holding that position because the constitution does not allow him to abdicate, he cannot just abandon sheep midway and say navileka ( I have stopped), no. He has to hold the office until the next president. In the meantime, the party cannot remain headless; this is the reason why using the constitution Article 54 the vice-president acts in the position of president. I am substantially vice-president of the party but because president Lungu has taken a back seat I am acting president.”
Lubinda said the party lost the August 12, 2021 general elections countrywide and in Kabwata Constituency because people voted against it.
He however dreamed that voters in Kabwata would choose the party’s candidate Clement Tembo on January 20, 2022 as their parliamentary representative.
“We are very confident that the people of Kabwata shall hand back the authority to represent them to the Patriotic Front. We believe that our loss in Kabwata was just a fluke, like the loss nationwide, because nobody in Kabwata ever saw UPND campaigning; there was not a single poster of the late Levy Mkandawire,” Lubinda claimed. “Not a single person was visited by UPND, so the vote in Kabwata was just a vote against the Patriotic Front and not necessarily to favour the UPND. This time we are not leaving any stone unturned, we shall make sure that we go in that campaign smoothly.”
He urged PF members to reclaim the party’s dignity by avoiding violence during campaigns as it was detested by voters.
“We are only appealing to members of the PF to go into this campaign peacefully, we do not want any cases of violence, abuse and insults. The people of Kabwata Constituency whom I’ve been very humbled to represent in 20 years are people I know as being extremely sensitive to violence and people who do not condone any acts that are inimical to the interests of society,” said Lubinda. “I would like to urge members of the PF to go into Kabwata in a very civil manner. Some people told us that they know that we are reorganising, we are regrouping ourselves and because of that they are going to effect a citizen’s arrest, whatever that means, as far as we are concerned that is provocation. Be wary of such threats, don’t be intimidated and when you hear people like that it means they have already lost. Go into this as humble servants, let us make sure that we restore our honour and dignity for being what we were created to be, a people driven political party.”