GBM To Hold Press Conference On Tuesday Morning

Suspended UPND Vice President for Administration, Geofrey Mwamba has said that he has not received official communication from the party about his suspension. Reacting to the news of his suspension, Mr. Mwamba said that he welcomed the move if indeed the party has suspended him.

Mr. Mwamba said that he will hold a press conference next week Tuesday to inform the nation his next move and that it was insensitive of the UPND to be issuing irritating political statements during Easter, before adding that he is a strong Christian believer who would not mix the Easter period with Politics.

According to reports, the UPND National Management Committee (NMC) suspended Mr Mwamba for allegedly issuing derogatory statements against the party and forming parallel structures.

At a meeting chaired by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, the NMC, through a secret ballot, voted overwhelmingly by 75 votes to 0 to suspend Mr Mwamba for issuing derogatory statements against the party and forming parallel structures in the party.

Earlier in the week, UPND youths gave n their leaders a 24 –hour ultimatum to discipline Mr Mwamba for allegedly insulting Secretary General, Stephen Katuka, or face unspecified action.

“We are giving the national management committee a 24-hour ultimatum to discipline our vice president Geoffrey Mwamba because no individual a bigger than the party,” UPND youths have demanded.

UPND national deputy youth chairperson Gilbert Liswaniso said the door was open for GBM to leave if he thought he was untouchable as it was wrong for him to start insulting his fellow leaders in public.

“When you are wrong, the best thing to do is to ask for forgiveness but if you, as an individual, you think you are untouchable because you are called GBM, the door is open. This is a bitter pill to swallow, but we need to move on as one people.

“We cannot allow one individual all the time to continue insulting our leaders. You cannot insult the SG of the party. You cannot insult Mr. Hichilema in public. We have meetings where such issues must be resolved. We have tried our best to counsel, manage, and rehabilitate this individual but he has become a problem to us,” Mr. Liswaniso said.

He said there was nothing tribal about UPND demanding that GBM should be disciplined because as an institution, it will be difficult for it to run if it feared to take action against people from certain provinces on the pretext that people from such provinces would rise against the party.

“We cannot run an institution in that way. When you have made a mistake, you need to be disciplined. So, discipline will start from the vice president and now I want to appeal to the national management committee that we are giving them 24 hours to discipline GBM,” he said.