By Daily Revelation Reporter
Chilubi member of parliament Mulenga Fube says he will have commenced impeachment proceedings against President Hakainde Hichilema if the PF had numbers, for breaching the constitution over the removal of fired district commissioners from the payroll before settling their benefits.
And Fube has taken issue with a Daily Revelation headline “PF MP INSERTS LUNGU’S NAME INTO ‘TOP ROTTEN WITH CORRUPTION’ REMARK”, saying it suggested that he was implying that former president Edgar Lungu’s must be included among those who were corrupt.
Calling in to Daily Revelation, Fube said the UPND have been dodging his points of order in parliament over their decision to remove district commissioners from the payroll, saying that was unconstitutional as the fired officers were appointed under Article 174 of the Republican Constitution which gives the President power to appoint people.
Fube said the constitution was very clear that public officials could not be removed from the payroll before paying their terminal benefits.
“It’s a Constitutional breach and if we had numbers I would have started pushing for impeachment of the President,” he said.
On the 12 percent salary increments awarded to civil servants and the 15 percent from 10 percent on transport, Fube said that was another broken promise among the many from the UPND, as it did not even get closer to the K1500 increment across the board promised by President Hichilema during the campaigns.
He said the PF had beaten the UPND pants down in terms of salary increments during the first year in office, saying late president increased salaries by as much as 200 percent.
Put to him that president Sata also inherited a healthy economy with minimal debt left behind by the MMD, unlike the poor economy riddled with insurmountable debts left by president Lungu, Fube said that argument could not hold, claiming that salary increments were not based on the soundness of the economy but the cost of living.
He said governing the country was about finding means, as even with the employment of teachers and nurses, the UPND will have to get into “kaloba” to achieve that. He urged the unions to especially negotiate for a reasonable hardship allowance increments.
And Fube fumed over the headline crafted on the story where he rose on a point of order to Sikongo member of parliament Mayungano Simushi’s submission that the corruption in the previous PF regime was so alarming as it started from the very top which he said was highly rotten.
Simushi did not mention any person’s name during his submission, but rising on a point of order, Fube asked if Simushi was in order to insinuate that the 6th president was involved in corruption when he was not in the house to defend himself.
Daily Revelation crafted a story from that and headlined it “PF MP inserts Lungu’s name into ‘top rotten with corruption’ remark”, but Fube said he had issues with the headline.
“A lot of people have misunderstood. You know my point of order was that was he in order to insinuate…actually it is a protest, if you saw even the other materials that I added on, I was protesting that he was bringing the presidents name in that debate. I hoped you followed how he talked, he said the past regime was very corrupt starting from the head. Who was the head of that party?” Fube asked. “Because you know this corruption, I think this kind of behaviour in Zambia where if you were working, wherever you were working even before that you have had some history of working elsewhere. And if you collected a salary wherever you worked it was supposed to be used for drinking or something else. If you invested that salary then you are a thief.”
Fube decried what he called as poverty of mind in Zambia, saying even officials like the current DCs appointed by President, who were just mere people without sound incomes will see a rise in their fortunes and will accordingly invest.
“A lot of friends, including those that are outside have called me about, you know what that headline is depicting… ati iwe kutiwayambafye ukulanda pali corruption ukwabula ukubikapo ama names? Bikamo Lungu (It’s like I was telling him that how do you talk about corruption without including names. Include Lungu also) That’s what that headline is saying,” said Fube. “Even my in-laws you know I recently married, he called me that don’t you think this story will damage your name? I didn’t want to react yesterday. When I read I saw that the headline is not matching with the content.”
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