Mumba in trouble for 'insulting' Sata
By Speedwell Mupuchi and Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 22 Sep. 2013, 14:00 CAT

POLICE in Lusaka have summoned MMD president Nevers Mumba for allegedly insulting President Michael Sata during a radio programme last Thursday in which he called the President a liar, violent person and king of confusion among others.

Acting police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga, Mumba's lawyer Makebi Zulu and his personal assistant Raphael Nakacinda yesterday confirmed the summoning of the MMD president.

Hamoonga said: "We summoned him yesterday (Friday) and his lawyers said they will avail him on Monday. He was summoned in connection with a statement he made while on the Platform programme on Joy FM."

And Zulu said Mumba would appear at Woodlands Police station at 10:00 hours tomorrow.

"Yes, they sent a callout at about 12:00 hours (on Friday), saying they wanted to see him around 14:30 hours. So we wrote a letter that we will not make it, but that we will be there on Monday," said Zulu.

"It's in connection with an interview on radio Joy FM. The charge they intend to slap him with is insulting the President. So we will go there on Monday at Woodlands Police at 10:30 hours, but the callout came from Force Headquarters."

And Nakacinda said when he asked if Mumba could appear on Monday since he was not available on the day they wanted him, the police officers who took the callout refused.

"I was handling them and they went back and mobilised and came back trying to pick him by force. When they came, they were saying they wanted him for inquiries and interviews and were not willing to disclose, so we couldn't receive the callout because they were no cooperating," Nakacinda said.

"I then called our lawyer, Makebi Zulu, who also indicated to them that they should serve the callout on him and he advised them that his client would present himself on Monday. He was told that they (officers) had been instructed to pick Mumba wherever he was."

Nakacinda said President Sata should just respond to challenges posed to him instead of arresting opposition leaders.

He alleged that the President sent New Revolution Party president Cosmo Mumba to Joy FM to insult Mumba.

Nakacinda said Cosmo was not Mumba's blood relative.

"His real surname is Kamba. His father was a teacher at Kenneth Kaunda Secondary School in Chinsali, but his mother later married Dr Mumba's brother. So they are not blood brothers per se, but he has been allowed to use the name Mumba and he is abusing it. Anyway, the family will deal with that," said Nakacinda.

Meanwhile, chief government spokesperson Mwansa Kapeya has urged opposition leaders to practice politics that help build and develop the country.

And Kapeya says people are keen to see that leaders at all levels engage in debate that would resolve these and other serious matters affecting their welfare and livelihood.

Referring to Mumba's attacks on President Sata when he appeared on Joy FM Radio on Thursday, Kapeya, who is also information and broadcasting minister, said the government found it difficult to respond to the careless attacks made by Mumba as they consist of derogatory and demeaning language that only serves and promotes hatred and plants seeds to uncivilised politics in the national discourse.

"Currently our colleagues from the opposition are bent in engaging in disruptive and negative politics that take away the strides that the people of Zambia are making in coming together to focus on the development of the country and to ensure that we maintain our peace and unity," he said.

He said the government was determined to engage in healthy and constructive debate and discourse that would bring solutions to the challenges the country faces.

Kapeya said the government had a strong and clear economic programme that focuses on alleviating poverty, develop rural areas, promote agriculture and diversify from copper as the mainstay of the economy, to other productive sectors as outlines in the revised Sixth National Development Plan.

He said to therefore respond to the broad insults that Mumba has uttered would be giving credence to the unfounded and baseless attacks, allegations and malicious insinuations

"President Sata would be keen to respond to attacks from opposition leaders, if the response will evoke a genuine dialogue on solutions to the various developmental challenges facing the country such as high poverty levels, the high disease burden, the high unemployment rate affecting our people, especially young people and the under development that characterizes our countryside," he said.

Kapeya said it was for this reason that the government refuses to give merit to Mumba's derogatory journey on insults, his keenness to practice dirty politics and mischief as clearly displayed by him.