By Staff Reporter
Gilbert Liswaniso can no longer sleep in a one room for God’s sake, he’s a national youth chairperson, says his deputy Trevor Mwiinde.
And another UPND deputy youth chairperson Stephen Chikota has accused party members calling on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate Liswniso for allegedly amassing wealth in a short period of time, of being sponsored by the opposition to tarnish his image.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Mwiinde said Liswaniso had a life to lead, and that he has worked [pp-logged-users] for his wealth.
Liswaniso is being accused of building everywhere and driving different types of cars in the short time the UPND has been in office. But Mwiinde said Liswaniso was just like any other Zambian who had an opportunity to be in the ruling party, and made sacrifices during the time when it was not worthy to be called a UPND member.
“You cannot deny the fact that each and every position in life comes with opportunities. And there are people that may not like him as an individual to make it in life and they will speak ill about him. So as far as I am concerned he has had a life,” Mwiinde said. “Look, we want to put it clearly, people very soon may shift the blame from Gilbert Liswaniso, they may start to talk about Trevor Mwiinde. We went around with our own Nissan Hard Bodies, with our own land cruisers campaigning for UPND. People never question us that nanga Trevor aipeza kuti (where has he gotten the) Land Cruiser mu opposition? But now people want to twist the language and they want to start accusing Gilbert Liswaniso.”
He said all the people were not perfect, but he was aware that there were people that were holding grudges against them.
“To those that are jealous we know, jealous can kill them. So if at all they know each other … he can no longer stay in a one room he’s a national youth chairman now for goodness sake,” Mwiinde said. “He has a lot of privileges. He meets a lot of people who also want to see his life move in a certain way. That’s just how it is. Yes!”
And Chikota who is Mwense Town Council chairperson defended Liswaniso saying he had been a businessman for many years even when he was in opposition.
“And I can tell you that most of these people who advocate that the chairman ACC should visit him, these are camps within the party and are mostly sponsored by the disgruntled former regime to tarnish his name because they feel his weight. You understand,” Chikota said. “They are those people who are aggrieved because of his aggressive position and they have not accepted defeat. Now they are using some of the disgruntled. Let me try to be a bit soft. They are using abantu besu our own people bamo bamo (some of them) to start championing that agenda.”
Chikota said even when he lived in George Compound, Liswaniso had a chain of bars, shops and a printing company where he even worked at some point.
He challenged those accusing him of being corrupt to go to the ACC if they have facts.
Chikota said as a person who was close to Liswaniso, he could attest to the fact that most people had known him as a politician but that he had been a businessman.
He said it was not that Liswaniso had no capacity to build when he was in opposition, but he focused so much on injecting his own money in campaigns.
Chikota further said during the time he was in opposition, he was still being driven in posh cars and when people saw him being driven in posh cars, they concluded they belonged to him.
He said people should appreciate that being a ruling party does not stop someone from being in business.
Chikote said people do business to make profit and when one makes profit, they can buy a vehicle and even start building.
He said the national youth chairman was not a minister for people to say he was abusing his ministerial position or using government money.
Chikota further said Liswaniso was in a privileged position because he was now in a ruling party, adding that if he had a company and used his wisdom to partner with others to make money, it was not corruption.
Meanwhile, Mwiinde who is aspiring for the same Choma-Central seat held by Mweetwa, said his aspirations cannot bring about enmity between the two because people go into politics to save the people, and that service to the people must not be centred on individuals, saying the two belong to the same institution.
“And if at all there are people that help him do best where he has failed or maybe where he has underperformed there are people from the UPND. I am not trying to do it with the belief that he is a failure. Where he has not done well we tell him. Where we need also to help the people, we also inform him. He’s a brother, he’s incumbent MP,” said Mwiinde, saying he was not doing this out of competition but to ensure that the UPND relevance is not lost on the ground.
He said he had not gone into politics to destroy anybody’s image, saying one could grow without destroying anybody.
Mwiinde said he had been in meetings at the invitation of Mweetwa, saying leadership was about making impact on people’s lives and not competing for positions.
