THE governing PF says UPND deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa is short of agreeing that President Edgar Lungu’s March 6 parliamentary address is a “score” that highlighted a positive record.
PF deputy media director Antonio Mwanza also says it is immoral for Mweetwa and other UPND members of parliament to draw sitting allowances from Parliament when they, from time to time, walk out of Parliament.
Meanwhile, Mwanza says the PF research bureau is ready to write a manifesto for the UPND, at no cost.
He charged that the UPND had no manifesto and challenged the opposition party to produce one.
“Let UPND develop a manifesto! If they cannot afford to develop a manifesto because they don’t have the human resource to do so, we as the Patriotic Front are offering free consultancy; we can help the UPND [to] write a party manifesto,” Mwanza mocked. “We are ready using our research bureau; we can do research for them and write a manifesto for them, free of charge. If they had a manifesto, they could have been talking to the alternatives they could have provided. But since they don’t have a manifesto, they don’t have any alternatives.”
Last Wednesday, Mweetwa, who is Choma Central UPND member of parliament, was quoted in The Mast describing President Lungu’s parliamentary address as heavily sugar-coated, when in fact void.
In reaction, Mwanza expressed disappointment that Mweetwa, “who has served as a police officer and also who has read law seem not to understand the meaning of the presidential address to Parliament.”
“Mr Mweetwa has criticised the presidential address saying it was sugar-coated and he has cried foul that the President did not address the issue of Bill 10 in a manner that would satisfy him and that the President did not deal with the issue of gassing decisively. I want to help Mr Mweetwa, since he is having difficulties to understand the presidential address to Parliament,” Mwanza said in an interview. “Article 8 of the Republican Constitution defines and prescribes what the President must address when he goes to Parliament. Article 9 is very instructive; it instructs the President, once in every year, to report to the National Assembly to report the progress made in the application of national values and principles that are specified in Article 8.”
He added that according to Article 8 of the Constitution, there were six categories of things which the President must report on to Parliament.
Those are morality and ethics, patriotism and national unity, democracy and constitutionalism, human dignity, equity, social justice, equality and non-discrimination, good governance and integrity and sustainable development.
“So, the President’s address has been prescribed in the Constitution. So, when Mr Mweetwa says that the President’s speech was sugar-coated because it painted a positive picture of the country, that’s exactly what the President and the Patriotic Front government has achieved,” Mwanza said.
“We expected that Mr Mweetwa should have said that the President’s speech reflected the progress that we have made as a country under the Patriotic Front.”
He underscored that what President Lungu said in Parliament, insofar as good governance and integrity, sustainable development and other issues could not amount to sugar-coating.
“[But] that’s the PF’s positive record,” he noted.
“So, when Mr Mweetwa says that the President’s speech was sugar-coated, what it simply means is that he agrees that the President and the Patriotic Front have scored. Instead of using the word “sugar-coated” Mr Mweetwa should have understood that what the President was giving are the actual statistics of the progress we have made in as far as the economy, politics and social justice is concerned.”
Mwanza insistently argued that President Lungu’s speech was not sugar-coated but that it was merely quoting the progress made thus far under the PF government.
He said President Lungu decisively addressed Bill 10 in his parliamentary address.
“He raised the key issues that are beneficial to all of us as a nation if Bill 10 was to pass. He again appealed to the conscience of people like Mr Mweetwa not to use politics but to be patriotic enough to participate in the issue of Bill 10,” Mwanza said. “So, our advice to Mr Mweetwa is that instead of him walking out of Parliament and boycotting the process of law reform, he must be patriotic enough to be present in Parliament when Bill 10 will be brought before the House so that he can debate the content of Bill 10.”
He added: “I challenge Mr Mweetwa and all members of parliament from the UPND that if they want to be walking out of Parliament, they should also stop collecting sitting allowances.”
“It is immoral for members of parliament from UPND to be collecting sitting allowances when they don’t want to sit in Parliament and do their job as prescribed in the Constitution by Article 62,” Mwanza noted.
On Mweetwa’s complaint that the public media are used to the exclusion of opposition voices, Mwanza countered that: “if Mr Mweetwa speaks truth, the public media will cover him.”
“But if he speaks propaganda, the public media will not cover him. The public media is not there to serve the interests of Mr Mweetwa or the UPND but each and every Zambian,” said Mwanza.