Sinda constituency UPND chairlady Veronica Phiri says Independent area member of parliament Masauso Tembo on Saturday insulted her and threatened to demolish her house for visiting some traditional leaders and delivering campaign related messages.
Phiri narrated to News Diggers in an interview that Tembo used F-words on her among other unprintables after he accused her of ‘talking’ to chiefs in Chidwale area.
“It was on Saturday and it is disappointing that a member of parliament whom we elected to represent us in Parliament is now insulting us. Honorable Masauso Tembo phoned me on Saturday. So when he phoned me, I answered and said ‘hello’ and he said ‘is this madam Veronica?’ and I said ‘yes’. Then he asked to say ‘what did you say in Chindwale when you met the chiefs?’ I told him I wasn’t aware of what he was talking about. Then he started insulting me saying ‘Amai a Vero pa*yo panu ‘amai a Vero chi**ni chanu, amai a Vero mukwatilana na Levy Ngoma ch**yo chanu ch***ni chanu.’ He then told me that ‘right now I am with my youths, we are coming to demolish your house and to beat you right at your house around 21:00 hours,” Phiri narrated.
She wondered how an honourable lawmaker could insult his electorates.
“Just after he finished insulting me, I went to report at the police station. So he was insulting me saying that I was speaking to the chiefs. After reporting to the police, I followed him at the bar where he was drinking from to tell him that there was no need for him to hire people to beat me because even him alone could manage to kill me. So when I reached at the bar, I was told that he was drunk and sleeping in his car and his men had run away from him,” said Phiri.
But when contacted, Tembo denied the allegations saying he could not remember the last time he met her.
“She is just lying. I don’t communicate and I don’t even remember the last time I met her and I don’t even know her. She is just lying,” said Tembo.
In February 2018, Tembo unleashed a myriad of insults on his constituents after one of them, George Malonje Mwanza, posted a satyrical joke on Facebook which was misunderstood and ended up angering the Honourable.
But when contacted, Tembo claimed someone was playing with his Facebook account and that he had notified ZICTA to look into it.