Maravi

Lubinda explains his letter to Hapunda
By Moses Kuwema
Mon 05 Aug. 2013, 14:01 CAT

GIVEN Lubinda says no one deserves to be thrown into the doldrums and that it is his prayer that Brian Hapunda will reflect upon what he did and become a better citizen of Zambia. Officiating at a wedding ceremony of Nathan and Maureen Nhlane at Government Complex on Saturday evening, Lubinda said the letter he wrote to Hapunda was not in any way meant to mock him.

"It is the duty of everybody to lift those who have fallen. For those of you who have any positive feelings for me, I want to assure you that I am not given to kicking people when they are down. It is not my nature to kick a person when they are sitting, when they are low. I am actually not given to kicking people at all. I try with the best of my ability to lift whoever I see has fallen," said Lubinda, who is PF Kabwata member of parliament.

Lubinda sincerely apologised to Hapunda if the letter he wrote to him sounded like mockery, saying that was not his intention at all.
He said he felt genuinely sad to hear that a young man who advised him on how to handle party money was himself caught up in a very difficult circumstance.

"I genuinely wrote to him to commiserate with him. I did not mean any malice in my letter to him at all and I would like to say publicly that I feel sad for young Brian Hapunda because he is a son to a friend of mine Fredrick Hapunda. I take him as a nephew. I supposed people might have taken that I mocked him because they remembered what Hapunda said about me when people had made it fashionable to pour scorn on me. When it became fashionable for anyone to insult, Hapunda also joined the queue in insulting me," he said.

Lubinda urged the newlyweds to count on him when they fall, saying he would not kick but help them up.

In his letter to Hapunda, Lubinda asked Hapunda to praise God that President Michael Sata had only dismissed him and not handed him over to the police for obtaining money by false pretences.

In December last year, Hapunda had also asked Lubinda to go back to UPND if he could not remain fully loyal to the PF.

This was at a time Lubinda was being accused of leaking information to opposition members of parliament.

Lubinda stated that he was confident that Hapunda's experience would be an opportunity for introspection.

On July 29, President Sata fired Hapunda as PF provincial political secretary for Southern Province for collecting monies from companies and business houses in his name and that of PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba.

Labels: BRIAN HAPUNDA, GIVEN LUBINDA

posted by MrK @ 5:14 PM