FORMER special assistant to the President for political affairs Kaizer Zulu says he did not beat Chitambo PF member of parliament Remember Mutale, despite him insulting President Edgar Lungu.

But Mutale claims Zulu beat him after he refused to be part of a ploy within PF created to facilitate a way for Lusaka lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) to contest the 2021 elections on the ruling party ticket.

This is a matter in which the two were involved in a brawl at a famous drinking joint called Chicago’s in Lusaka last Friday.

In an interview, Zulu denied the allegations, but accused the PF law maker of using vulgar language to describe the Head of State during their drinking spree.

“It is not true [that I beat him]. If you read from other versions that he has given, he says that I sent people to go and beat him but the truth is that he insulted the President, and I reported him to the police first. So this is a counter accusation that he is trying to level against me,” Zulu said before giving his version of what transpired.

“He joined my table at Chicago’s, not that we were together. He first hugged me, we went and sat, I asked him a particular question and in response he said the following; ‘what have you and chik**a Lungu done for me to be pushing your agenda. It was at that point that I asked him to leave, but certainly he did not want to leave but they took him out of the club. That is the truth,” claimed Zulu.

In a separate interview, Mutale said Zulu instructed youths to bundle him in a van and took him to Central police.

“That man Kaizer is not normal. I have a friend called Duncan Zulu he comes from the Copperbelt he is the one who invited me that we go and have a drink at Chicago’s. Honestly I [initially] refused to go there because I said I don’t drink from that place. [But] we went there and after drinking for 30 minutes or so I noticed some people entering a bar, a group of youths who were looking like thugs. I got worried and I thought this could be UPND cadres coming for my life. I wrote a text to the Inspector General of Police telling him I was under siege but he did not respond to my text,” Mutale narrated.

“I had to call (Daniel) Kalembe and he sent me a boy called Mwelwa. Some boy who I have now come to know that he is ‘soldier’ came to where I sat, my colleague Duncan had gone to the toilet, that soldier guy came to grab a seat. But I told him there was a person on that seat, and there was confusion that is how Mwelwa calmed the situation. I decided to leave because I did not feel safe. When leaving, I met Kaizer by the gate he is the one who noticed and forced me back in Chicago’s.”

He said after buying him some whiskey, Zulu introduced the agenda to back KBF at the PF convention.

“He bought two bottles of 21 years whisky. We started having a conversation then from nowhere he said ‘so you people want to go and ensure that Davies Mwila stands as President at the Convention and you have allowed it?’ I told him Mwila was my boss and we cannot talk about those issues. He started telling his boys that ‘I want you to bring this boy to Kafue, we should have a boat cruise together’ I asked him why he was inviting me for the boat cruise and I refused to go there. He got money and put in my pocket and that I should buy fuel when going to Kafue,” narrated Mutale.

“I asked why he was insisting that I should go to Kafue he said ‘I know you are very powerful provincial chairman for Central Province. What I want is that you create a way so that KBF can come and enter at the PF convention.’ I told him I couldn’t do that because KBF is no longer in PF and I told him that I was not the one who makes the lists for people to go at the convention. So he started saying why are you refusing to accept what I am telling you. That is how his boys lifted me up, dragged me out, Kaizer came and head-butted me and I was bundled onto a land cruiser.”