HH IS PLAYING CHESS, HE’LL EVENTUALLY ALTER TERM LIMIT – MUNDUBILE

Lusaka – Wednesday, 16 April 2025.

MPOROKOSO PF MP Brian Mundubile says President Hakainde Hichilema cannot be trusted because all the allegations he is denying pertaining to the constitutional amendments are true.

On Sunday, President Hichilema said allegations that he wanted to amend the Constitution in order to increase his term limit, remove the running mate, among other things, were very unfair.

But in an interview, Tuesday, Mundubile said President Hichilema was slowly moving towards achieving all of those things.

“All the allegations that he is saying no to remain true because of the manner in which he wants to handle the process, they remain true that he wants to remove 50+1 later, he wants to remove running mate, he wants to remove term limit and so on, that is his intention, he is playing chess, he doesn’t want to win on the first move, the first move should help him secure 2026 and then when he comes back all those clauses he was denying [will be amended] because remember, it is the same President who would say ‘today people are lying, they are saying that we want to give KCM to Vedanta, that’s a lie’, a month later, he comes to say we are glad to announce that we have found an investor, we have cancelled court cases, KCM is going to Vedanta, that’s the President, that’s President HH,” he said.

“He is not one who would shy away from turning around completely from something that he said previously, these are things that we know, even constitutional amendments he said we won’t [make], he is at it now, KCM we can’t give it to Vedanta, it’s now with Vedanta”.

Mundubile said even though President Hichilema was refuting the allegations, he was pushing a constitutional amendment agenda aimed at gaining majority in Parliament.

“What is of concern is that it’s the President who is justifying himself over the proposed amendments, it’s the President who is denying allegations over the constitutional amendments. In a constitutional amendment process, that should not arise, even the defence he is putting up, he is just digging himself deeper into the hole because why is he saying ‘I am not amending the Constitution for this’, that statement alone tells you there is something wrong because the Constitution says we the people give unto ourselves this Constitution, so there should be no time when an individual says I am not doing this because of this, he is already admitting that he is doing something wrong,” he said.

“He is admitting that he is the one amending the Constitution. The arguments we have is that it should not be him to amend the Constitution, it should have been the people to propose constitutional amendments so even if he is refuting those allegations, what we know is that he is pushing that agenda to gain the majority in Parliament through delimitation in strongholds, through nominations and if he can get two thirds just from his side, then after the elections, he will now come back and amend those other clauses that he has shied away from”.

Mundubile said the proposals, if implemented, would give President Hichilema an unfair advantage in 2026.

“He pushes for amending some of the clauses now that will give him an advantage in the 2026 elections because why should you tie the amendments of the Constitution to an election? They are the ones who are saying before 2026, why are they tying the elections to it? That is one question, meaning the amendment should give them an advantage in the 2026 elections and then thereafter, because of the many things that have happened in his first term, he will not then remove 50+1 going forward, he will remove the running mate going forward, he will remove the term limit going forward and so on. We have seen these things happen before in other countries so he must understand that there are a lot of people that read, there are many people that can see him in his tracks,” said Mundubile.

(Credit: News Diggers)