Chairperson of the Chishinga Royal Establishment Musonda Mushota says calls for Minister of Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela’s dismissal are misplaced because the Pambashe PF member of parliament is innocent.

And Mushota has vowed that the royal establishment will stand with Chitotela, who is also a headman in Chitotela village, saying they won’t support him if he decides to resign.

In an interview, Tuesday, Mushota said the royal establishment was compelled to speak out in defence of Chitotela because some people had continued insulting and embarrassing him instead of allowing the due process of the law to take its course.

“As the Chishinga people and the Chishinga royal establishment, we decided to comment on the issue because since it started somewhere in February, we have been quiet and some people saw it fit to politicise the on-going investigation by the ACC and the court cases that the ACC has brought against honourable Chitotela. We made that statement in support of the honourable and to even protect him from being insulted or being attacked by anyone; because the only institution which is mandated to look at that case, is the court of law. But some people have taken it personal. But the issue is this; the appointing authority is the President, he was appointed by the President not by an individual. So it is only the President who can make a decision either to fire him or not, and the President made it very clear when he was asked by the media, that ‘no, I am not going to fire Chitotela until the court finds him guilty’,” Mushota said.

“But why do some people want to make it seem as if he is the only person who is appearing in court on corruption charges? There are a lot of people we have seen, some of them are in government, they are still holding positions, they are still there, still working. We have heard a lot of people insulting him, castigating him, calling him all sorts of names. He is our son and he is a headman in Chitotela village and we are not happy to continue hearing people demeaning him when he is already appearing before the courts of law.”

He said the royal establishment would not allow Chitotela to resign.

“Some people now think that because they have the privilege to issue statements to the media, anyone can wake up and start embarrassing Chitotela, insulting him in all kinds of manner; he is not guilty! Some of them don’t even know Chitotela well, he is a business man, he started business when he was young, he has been in business for so many years. They don’t know where he comes from, they don’t know that before he became a politician, he was surviving through business and now just because he is a minister and he has been accused, some people want to insult him. Let us just cool down, if there is a group of politicians fighting him, let them fight him genuinely than using people to insult him. He is a family man and he is a minister, he needs to be respected,” said Mushota.

“We are not intimidating anyone but I can promise that we are going to stand with Chitotela and we will give him 100% support and encourage him to work even harder so that he realises the agenda of the PF and the agenda of the President who appointed him. And even if today he said ‘I am going to resign’ we can’t even encourage him, we are not going to encourage him to resign. This is not a matter on which someone can resign. And some people are even talking about integrity, which integrity and dignity are they talking about?”