Bowman Lusambo knows that there will be no consequences for him presenting a belligerent attitude after his suspension from Parliament, that’s why he is remorseless, Alliance for Community Action (ACA) executive director Laura Miti has said.

Speaking in an interview with News Diggers yesterday, Miti observed that the behaviour of Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo where he publicly said that he had no regrets over his actions that led to his suspension from Parliament, showed the direct result of the general lawlessness in the PF.

Miti said Lusambo had every right to handle his suspension in the manner he did because President Lungu never takes action against his members who are willing to break the country’s laws just please him.

“What Mr Lusambo has said and the behaviour and attitude that he is representing to the public is a direct result of the general lawlessness of the PF. It’s not really an individual issue, but it is because Mr Lusambo knows that there will be no reappraisals, there will be no consequences for him presenting a belligerent attitude to the public as well as generally showing that he is completely remorseless over something that the Speaker told him and that he has been censured within a due process. So what we need to worry about is the general state of the country right now,” Miti said.

She said President Lungu’s pronouncements about upholding national values were simply academic because he never took action against some of his ministers who were breaking the law.

“Not too long ago, the President was addressing us on morals but because he tends to be academic about morals and never acts against those people around him who are accused either of corruption, violence and all kinds of things, that is why we are seeing these kinds of things. Bowman Lusambo, we have known him right through his history as being very belligerent, he has been accused of violence, he has been accused of all kinds of things. The fact that he can stand up and say he is not sorry is one, true he is not sorry and also he is trying to please his master (the President), who he believes in his own mind that this is what he wants. So somewhere along the way, the message has been sent by the President of the country that he wants his ministers to be stubborn and to be too superior because they are in power,” Miti observed.

“I would put this straight at the President’s table, it is the President to act against Lusambo. Otherwise, this becomes the norm. And it is not only Lusambo who carries on like this, it is also the PF cadres, PF cadres are fearless, they can do whatever they want because nothing ever happens to them. They can send audios and order the President to carry out actions that they want and the President does those things. So as it is, we have a very weak President who is not in control of the country and who nobody fears and respects. Because if Lusambo believes that in order to please the President, he has to act the way he did when slapping Honourable Kambwili, he has to speak as belligerently as he did yesterday, then we have a problem with that President,” she said.

Meanwhile, Miti said President Lungu should have fired Lusambo right when he was reported to have slapped Roan member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili.

“In a normal democracy, Mr Lusambo should have been fired when he slapped Mr Kamwbili. It shouldn’t have even been the Speaker to suspend Lusambo. The President heard when this incidence happened and he also heard other people saying Mr Kambwili had gotten what he deserved, so it is at that point that the President should have acted. So what is worrying is that the President just never seems to act in time or address the matters that he should. Whenever we hear about the President, it is only about things that concern his holding of power. So as a result, lawlessness is growing around him and in the country,” said Miti.