IT’S TIME FOR ALL OPPOSITION TO FIGHT UPND EVIL.
Good Evening.
From what was seen of Second Deputy Speaker Moses Moyo’s performance while expelling nine Patriotic Front ( PF) Members of Parliament ( MP), the man is not just unable to express himself fluently, but also has great difficulties thinking logically.
If he was able to reason, he would not have disregarded the Constitutional Court precedence that the Speaker of the National Assembly ( Then Patrick Matibini) had over stepped his jurisdiction when he nullified the Roan Parliamentary Seat which was held by Chishimba Kambwili.
The Constitutional Court also found that the Speaker had fallen foul of the subjudice rule because at the time Kambwili had sued the Patriotic Front ( PF) over his expulsion from the party and the matter was still in court.
Moyo seemed totally oblivious to these profound findings of the Constitutional Court, and their implications for the case of the nine PF MP’s which he chose to spoil with his ignorance.
The main case in which the faction of the nine MP’s have challenged the extra ordinary convention through which Miles became PF Faction President is still active in Court, and Moyo ought to have known, unless of course he has no capacity to comprehend the Concourt judgement mentioned.
This embarrassment of the Deputy Speaker also chose to ignore the letters Miles Sampa, Parliament’s own recognised PF President, wrote to the Speaker reversing the expulsion of seven of the nine MP’s and also notifying the house on the removal of Morgan Ng’ona as Secretary General.
Moyo should also know that such recognition by Parliament should not be a matter of his personal preference, especially as he is showing such low levels of reasoning.
Under the PF Constitution, the President appoints the Secretary General and whatever authority the latter exercises is on behalf of the President. The President can also remove the Secretary General the same way he can appoint Members of the Central Committee and remove them. In case Moyo didn’t know, Late PF President Michael Sata got these provisions from the constitution of the United National Independence Party ( UNIP) under President Kenneth Kaunda.
If Parliament has so far acted on all correspondence from Miles Sampa and his Faction, why should Moyo now choose to disregard the PF’S Faction President’s letter removing Morgan Ng’ona from the position of Secretary General? how dull can a person actually be?
But Moyo’s conduct is not an isolated issue. The UPND government has previously disregarded courts in such cases as happened in the Joseph Malanji Kwacha Constituency and the Bowman Lusambo Kabushi Constituency instances, and even Parliament’s recognition of the Miles Sampa faction when the challenge of the extra ordinary convention is still in court. Therefore, the opposition should be aware of this and fight this new battle with all that they have.
The MP’s expelled from the house by Moyo should mount a vigorous fight over the seats they won in a legitimate election. What the UPND government wants to achieve through this dangerous strategy is well known. It is to gain a parliamentary majority, amend the constitution to allow simple majority election of the Republican President and extend tenure of office to
Seven years.
The UPND government must not be allowed to achieve these goals. The best way to do that is for the opposition to involve the majority of the people of Zambia in this fight because the UPND is showing a lack of both respect and fear of Zambians.
Should the State prove obstinate and still disregard the judiciary once again, all opposition parties should mount a united fight for the nine seats. They can do this by picking youth candidates in all the nine constituencies, for whom the expelled MP’s should be campaign managers so that the UPND is defeated.
These bye elections, if they go through, will be a contest between Good and Evil. The UPND is currently the embodiment of all political evil.
The opposition now also need to begin marking the conduct of Judges and Magistrates. A list of those misconducting themselves in these political cases should be made and submitted to the Judicial Complaints Commission ( JCC) and charged with helping the UPND destroy the country. This applies to other public service workers at every level, because the office of the Public Protector will eventually be operationalised.
It is curious that State House, which is usually slow to react to actual developments, such as the abduction of Petauke Central Independent Member of Parliament allegedly by some of its staff, has reacted very quickly to the expulsion of the nine MP’s quoting unspecified insinuations.
The only person who can say whether or not Dictator Hakainde Hichilema was involved in this whole saga is Miles Sampa. We know that Miles Sampa himself can not be entirely absolved of blame for these developments. He obviously needed financial help to stage his extra ordinary convention, and knows who funded it whether directly or through proxies. Only he can tell.
Even now, Miles Sampa must know who is funding Morgan Ng’ona to take him to court. Morgan Ng’ona looks like he had to be helped to have a descent Wardrobe and change of shoes to fit in the SG’s office.
All in all, this is now a fight that calls for the opposition to make their every step count. If they fail now, there could be nothing left of Zambia’s democratic system in just a few years.