By Staff Reporter
UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says he is not competent enough to evaluate the performance of his fellow appointees, including secretary general Batuke Imenda, saying the party knows that President Hakainde Hichilema has many sources of information to know exactly what is happening.
And Mweetwa said the party youths who demonstrated against some party leaders will not be disciplined as the party can only do so against elected leaders and office bearers.
Mweetwa also refused to respond to UPND supporter Seer 1, who has castigated the party for losing the Luangwa council chairperson seat to PF, a party a described as the most corrupt, one year after they were booted out of office.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Mweetwa said UPND Lusaka provincial chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta has disassociated himself from the calls to replace the secretary general Batuke Imenda, saying his allegiance is to President Hichilema and his leadership, and has therefore called on UPND members to respect elected and appointed leaders at all times.
“We should not allow PF to find an opportunity to celebrate perceived division just for them to drown down their misery of losing the general elections of 2021,” Mweetwa said. “Then I have indicated myself that as a party in government we mirror the state of democracy and in a democracy demonstrations exemplify that people are enjoying their freedom of speech and expression as by constitution established. But that such expression or demonstration should be within the confines of the law.”
Mweetwa said all the UPND members wishing to perform demonstrations should follow the law, as no one is above the law.
He urged that right channels be followed by party members who had any grievance.
“So follow those channels. Rushing to demonstrations and social media before you bring your case to be heard may not be the best alternative available. And that this far the party is not taking any action on any of those youths because the party can only take action on members who are elected and office bearers, they are the ones that are bound by the party constitution,” Mweetwa said.
But asked what he made of the fact that such demonstrations are happening barely one year of the UPND being on office, Mweetwa said the ones who demonstrated “were mobilised from one ward in Kanyama.”
“Number two, the fact that within one year youths can demonstrate you ask yourself what are they demonstrating about? They were demonstrating about the removal of a Secretary General,” Mweetwa said. “So that is an intra-party matter for which people should not rush to begin to engage themselves. That is an intra-party matter and therefore should not be taken advantage by political vultures to say no youths in the UPND are demonstrating. The question is what are they demonstrating about or against? They are demonstrating against their Secretary General, which is normal because of the newly found freedoms under this administration. Simple.”
Put to him that for the youths to demonstrate they could have seen something they were not happy with in the Secretary General, and was asked about what his own estimation was of Imenda’s performance, Mweetwa said: “For me I know that all of us were elected by the people and then appointed by the President,” Mweetwa said. “And therefore each one has to perform their role to their best and thus far, I am not competent to begin to evaluate fellow appointees. I am also on the line to be evaluated, so as a party we know that the appointing authority has many sources of information to be able to know exactly what is going on. It’s not my preserve because now you are asking me, it’s not me. Me I only speak for the party. I don’t speak for myself.”
Asked on the recent outbursts from Seer 1 against the UPND losing the Luangwa by-elections, Mweetwa said: “I am not going to respond to Seer 1.”
UPND youths recently demonstrated against Imenda and Local Government Minister Garry Nkombo saying they were detached from the party grassroots. The youths castigated the leadership for losing the Luangwa seat and demanded that the judiciary must work together with President Hichilema because they ruled against holding the Kabushi and Kwacha by-elections why the President was on the stage, which they took as an embarrassment on him.
The youths are demanding that Imenda must be replaced with Mwaliteta.
The youths have demanded that they be given jobs and business opportunities.
And in another note that has gone viral from a “concerned UPND member”, the anonymous member is complaining that the money for the by-elections in Luangwa was chewed leaving campaigners without any funds for the campaigns.
