FORUM for Democratic and Development president Edith Nawakwi says opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema is not fit to run this country because he is a fraudster.

Speaking during a press briefing, Saturday, Nawakwi said Hichilema was corrupt to the core as evidenced by the silencing of a complainant.

“I want to tell you that a person who cannot provide for the orphans to have a livelihood, they live on the fringes of their farms, they can’t feed their animals, they are sent into the villages and the rich man says he has the capacity to utilise their father’s worth is not fit to be a leader of this country. The wicked Leopold in the Congo I think the history is abound for you to see. Morals of a fraudster are nonexistent, this issue is about fraud. And if we as leaders want to mask fraud in politics then we are bringing a bad name to politics,” Nawakwi said.

“The attempt to silence witnesses, the attempt to buy witness smacks nothing other than corruption. From this moment onwards I want to state that HH should zip his mouth to ever make this word come out of his mouth called corruption. Because he is corrupt to the core as evidenced in the silencing of a complainant, a poor woman with a sick child. If you as public officials care to go to the Ministry of lands and do a search, you will find that his portfolio is littered with properties of demised persons.”

She said Hichilema wanted to be a leader of the country to cover his wrong doings.

“There was an impression and there is still an impression out in the public locally and internationally that Mr Hichilema is a very rich man. And now we know why he wants to be our leader it is because he wants the power to shield the baggage which he has accumulated over a period of more than two decades. He wants leadership at all costs to cover up his wrong doings. I am sure you’re aware that one Feluna Hatembo and Milton Hatembo, they sued HH for trespass and the court documents are clear that he trespassed. The matter went to court and the pronouncement of the courts is on record. The court said yes there is fraud on the matter but as a court which restores the civil rights we are restrained that this criminal fraud is coming too late for civil restoration. And I think you saw the adverts from HH’s camp, they run around and said ‘hooray! We have won the case’ just like in the Nawakwi case that she didn’t file so we have won the case,” she said.

Nawakwi wondered why Hichilema sent his cadres to pick up the Hatembo family from Southern Province.

“The Hatembo’s have been divided over the last 20 years because Hakainde walked into the property of their father, their dead father and got as his own property. Two people from UPND drove down to Southern Province this week and picked up Feluna and Milton Hatembo and brought them to Lusaka and picked them to file a legal complaint against their lawyer and make a statement that we are satisfied with the court ruling and therefore we are not interested in appealing. What is interesting in this matter is why did HH send his party cadres to pick up these two complaints? And put them in a situation where he tells them to record a statement which has circulated online and they turn around and say the Hatembo’s are not interested and they have withdrawn the case. Still at the core of this matter is how did Hakainde acquire this property? It is a fact that the acquisition of this property was fraudulent,” Nawakwi claimed.

Meanwhile, Nawakwi said Hichilema did not care about the poor and the orphans.

“You see there is obviously intentions to defraud and his attempts to silence the complainant is a clear manifestation that his insatiable appetite to want to be rich, to appear to be rich it is at the expense of poor people. What type of a leader is this who can’t think about a poor man and think about the orphans. The pursuit of high office obviously requires some morals and people without morals sometimes tend to make morainic decisions. And you see when you look at the documents, you will find something extremely peculiar. One, the said farm plot number 1924 the Siatembo farm in the execution of the conveyance document, I have here those documents. On the 7th of September, 2005, there is a filing at Ministry of Lands purporting that Feluna is the administrator,” said Nawakwi.

“On the 18th of September there is request to transact on that land. Hardly seven days the title transferred to HH we are all Zambians here and we have all tried to get title deeds, it takes weeks, months but on the same day he files the title deeds . I got interested in that only to find out that his lawyer Macha Muchende was in fact executive officer lands and deeds department. In their dealings they have bought properties together.”