UPND vice-president Mutale Nalumango says it’s stupid for the Patriotic Front to suggest that the opposition has connived with Constitutional Court judges and is trying to bribe them to declare President Edgar Lungu ineligible to contest the August 2021 elections.

Commenting on Lusaka Province PF chairman Paul Moonga’s remarks who stated that the opposition was trying to bribe judges to disqualify President Lungu from standing in the August 12 polls, Nalumango said the PF was undermining the Judiciary by insinuating that ConCourt judges were not trustworthy.

“For me, politically, I will just say that is stupid, actually! Because one, do we have such money? Are we corrupt like them who are throwing money all over the place? Why should judges be bought? That is actually undermining an institution if the party in power can speak like that. Then they are saying these judges are not trustworthy. They themselves know, therefore, what they are talking about, they are telling us, ‘don’t trust these judges, you can buy them.’ It is a shame! Zambians have woken up. Nobody needs to buy anybody. They are the ones who have sold our nation to greed and they have sold our nation to evil practices, including corruption, are they not the masters of corruption? How can they accuse everything [on the opposition]? You know these people are mad, even when they see people on camera with heaps of money, it is UPND,” Nalumango said in an interview.

“Even a big person, I wouldn’t want to talk about, the Vice-President [Inonge Wina] can stand in Parliament and utter such statements. Why can’t they arrest those people? Are they not their members? Let them bring them on and then we say that, ‘this man is not our member.’ They are always projecting, when they commit crimes, they want to project, it is too late for projection. I know they have done everything in the system to confuse the electoral processes, but Zambians must prove to them. Through you, I am calling on Zambians to get rid of this regime, it is an evil regime that has failed and blaming others for your evil and you think others do what you do?”

And she cautioned PF members to be careful with their statements on the Judiciary.

“If they buy judges, we don’t! We could have bought them in the ConCourt case, did we? Then, Zambians must start laughing, Zambians must start saying, ‘what a joke?’ How much can you buy a judge? We don’t know the cost; those are the ones who know. We don’t have the money and even if we had, we are not corrupt, we want justice. We have told them that we are for the rule of law; the justice system must be left alone, not interfered with. Who are you to watch judges? If the justice system is destroyed, that is the last point before you have a total breakdown and a failed State. I don’t know what they are declaring, you declare judges corrupt because this is what he (Moonga) said,” said Nalumango.

“When you say, ‘you can bribe them,’ then you are saying, ‘these judges are corrupt so, then, why should we trust them?’ Then we don’t have a justice system. They should be careful when they are talking. Do they know what they have declared by this? It’s not about us, it is saying that, ‘these are corrupt judges,’ ‘Zambians, don’t trust them.’ They have declared the courts corrupt and untrustworthy as the ruling party. What confidence, then, would they want Zambians to have in the courts of law?”