Patriotic Front (PF) Member of the Central Committee has expressed shock that the Drug Enforcement Commission summoned him to interrogate him on the source of funding of the Patriotic Front.
Speaking after appearing before the Drug enforcement commission in Lusaka this afternoon after receiving a summons, Mr Antonio Mwanza said this act was unlawful as there is no law compelling political parties to disclose their source of funding and that the DEC must summon all political parties.
Mr Mwanza has said that the Patriotic Front is the only party of the 16 that contested the 2021 General elections that is being questioned about its source of funding by the Drug Enforcement Commission.
Mr Mwanza said that he was called in to be questioned about the source of funding for the PF in the just-ended elections.
Mr Mwanza said that this was clearly an attempt to intimidate the opposition PF into cowering away from providing checks and balances to the current government and reiterated that the PF’s commitment to providing checks and balances to ensure that the UPND Government fulfils the promises they made to the Zambian people.
Mr Mwanza stressed that no amount of intimidation would gag the PF Membership and called on the commission to ensure they summon all political parties that contested the elections, the UPND included, on where they got their funding for elections if the exercise is to be viewed as not mere persecution of the PF because as far as he was concerned, no political party is required to disclose their source of funding at law.
All parties must reveal the source of their funding.
IF ITS TAX PAYERS MONEY WE HAVE THE RIGHT
Antonio don’t mix up things. The PF was not like any other party. They were in power and controlled the treasury. Is that difficult to understand?. If you did not use public resources, there is nothing to worry about.
The problem with this guy-he talks too much…”Checks and balances” lol.,. how can he be so stupid and think that everything as going back to business without being accountable for all the crimes PF has created. Let me paint a clear picture looser…you are going to Jail soon. Your days are numbered. 42 fire trucks plus the 48 miracle houses Gob paid for to be belt. The time has come for you to pay.
Looking at the over staying of Ministers in offices after parliament was dissolved in 2016 and consequently using tax payers money to campaign for the 2016 general elections, every reasoning and we’ll meaning Zambian would want to know where the PF got money this time.
If source is proceed of crime Muzamuziba Yesu
It was wrong for PF to withdraw all that cash for campaigning and dump it in Faith’s a$s.
Why is Antonio Mwanza being questioned? He has only been a member of the MCC for less than a month.
Why not other senior members of the party? Why not socialist party? Why not DP? Why not UPND?
Are the enforcement failing to be independent?
WHERE DId SHE GET THE EMERALDS FROM AND WHERE DID SHE SELL THEM
AND WERE THE TAXES PAID
Does any party, including UPND, ever reveal their funders? Do churches state there sources of funds too? No.
Everyone claims the financial aid is from well wishers when in fact most times it is from distress wishers.
Time to enshrine this in the legal books or constitution to penalise outlaws.
DEC are simply trying to rattle the cage so someone rats …just do your work, this boy will simply say he was not the treasurer or Finance Manager …he dealt with media case closed. Please new govt invest in these investigative wings…
This chap was the most arrogant, even saying HH will never be President, so what is he now. Where did you get the money to dress dogs, goats, trees, electric poles and give all headmen bicycles. Where did you get it?
Kkkkk…. Even DEC don’t know whom to call for questioning.
No plan government.
PF thought the treasury belonged to them……..
Lungu was the president, the buck stops at him………
Watch lungu crumble when his gang decide to sing…….
Given – Mwanza was a little bit$h but that is no case to arrest or question him….come on guys pull up your socks …If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you’ve got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure.
Time for rumour mongering and ZWD is long gone..
It has started, time of reckoning and accountability. Yes there may be no law requiring a political party to disclose their sources of funding but it doesn’t mean you can use illegal sources and proceeds of crime.
However, I do agree with @Tarino that Mwanza is just a pawn, and they should be interrogating the big ‘fish’ like the Treasurer and the General Secretary Mwila and the campaign chairman.
I also agree that these institutions need to be made competent.
Why did you turn up if it’s illegal then?
When you read through some comments on LT, you wonder whether some people passed through our school system. Antonio Mwanza is simply stating a fact that at the moment, there is no law in Zambia that compels a political party to reveal the source of it’s financing, and it’s therefore wrong for DEC to question him on the matter. Even if it went to court, it would fall. What’s difficult to understand about that?
Has upnd revealed the source of their campaign funds? Let them show the way and reveal. Am sure that some interesting names or entities would pop up.
If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones.
Allowing anonymous “well-wishers” to pump millions into political parties for their campaigning is a recipe for corruption! If there is no law, why not make a law that requires political parties to reveal their source of finance? Greater transparency together with limits on individual and corporate donations sounds like a good thing for Zambia.
The questioning of Antonio Mwanza over PF’s campaign financing has the hallmarks of the beginnings of UPND political intolerance of all those who dare criticize it. We are fully aware of the lack of laws on Zambian statute books on campaign financing similar to the US campaign financing laws that emerged out of the 1972-74 Watergate scandal when the Democratic Party Headquarters had its phones wiretapped, broken into and a $25,000 dollar cheque earmarked for the Republican Party President Richard Nixon re-election campaign was found dropped by one of the “burglars” who turned out to be CIA operatives. Therefore, there is no way DEC can start investigating PF on the source of its campaign financing. DEC appears to be operating under instructions from the UPND government that wants to…
… gag the former ruling party. We shall begin to see more of this intimidation of the PF with increasing criticism of the failure by government to fulfill its grandiose campaign promises.
Zambians do not know how to debate issues. stories is all about Lungu and PF. this is why we allow the part in government to do wrong because we focus on outgoing part alone by the time we realize the wrong it comes too let. debate issues as it is.
Ba DEC naba ACC mwaliba hopeless. Is that the case on which you can summon someone? If you have nothing to do resign.
While there might be no law compelling a party to reveal the source of their funds for their campaigns, pf included, there are a lot of questions that beg answers in as far as that pf party was concerned. Most of us have watched in dismay videos that went viral on social media one of which showed a cadre flashing dollars. According to him that was $14000.00 (dolido bakalamba, as he put it himself). He went further to mention the source of the money.
That was just one of the many other videos in which the people in those videos were praising the and the advantage of belonging to pf. So, is it not in order to question the sources of those monies from the pf if the party was implicated and never denied it through their media team?
When we called for investigations into PF funding for lungus campaigns, you thought we were joking ?????
Just the bill from using ZAF choppers is enough to cripple PF…….
The cash manee from the treasury will land some in jail and strip them of their assets…..
Come on guys you can do better. Why calling Antonio of all people?
Besides i think it is high time these investigative wings stop alarming the people with their excitement. We want to see professionalism where a case is viable and a proper conclusion is reached not being busy with hearsay without concrete evidence. Am tired mwe….
DEC and ZP are simply getting statements from these so called small fish to build a solid court case, they already know how the cash was collected from BOZ. Just give them time and you will soon see the bigger fish on the hook
Iyayi. Ba DEC bakana kuti they called the young man in his personal capacity and not as a representative of PF. Yamangana. Azakamba kusogolo.
You cant use money from government coffers if you are in opposition. PF was in power and there only focus in government was money. Question them there source of finance for campaign.