UNIP LEADERSHIP WRANGLES DEEPEN

IDID not commit perjury when I told the court that no party asset has been sold by the leadership, UNIP administrative secretary Welfare Mfune has told the Lusaka High Court.

Muma submitted that no party assets have been sold, claiming that all assets which were being referred to by the 11 UNIP members who have sued the party leaders, do not belong to UNIP but a company called Zambia National Holdings Limited.

In this matter, 11 UNIP members have sued the party president Tilyenji Kaunda and other party leaders for allegedly holding their positions as Members of Central

Committee illegally, claiming that their mandate expired in 2005.

Mr Fackson Njovu and 10 others are seeking among others, an injunction to restrain Kaunda and the others from performing functions of MCCs, an order for an account of all party assets sold from 2000 to date and an order that the outgoing MCCs and the recognised interim MCCs follow the Registrar of Societies directive to jointly organise and hold a congress by forming one working group.

Mr Njovu sued Kaunda, UNIP vice president Njekwa Anamela, secretary general of the party Alfred Banda and Administrative secretary Welfare Mfune, on behalf of 10 other party members.

Last year, Lusaka High Court Judge Alfred Muma restrained Kaunda and his group from performing any functions of the party until the determination of the matter.

This followed the injunction filed by 11 UNIP members.

But in an affidavit in support of notice of intention to raise preliminary issues, Banda, the party secretary general, claimed that the lead plaintiff in the matter, Fackson Njovu, was no longer a member of UNIP as he defected to the MMD after he sold a party building in Chaisa and he never applied for re admission to the party. He claimed that the other plaintiffs were also not genuine members of UNIP as they had been moving from one party to another especially, the ruling parties of the time while others were not in good standing with the party due to various disciplinary cases at different levels of the party structure. He also disputed the other claims by Njovu, stating that the plaintiff had failed to indicate what type and how many vehicles were received on behalf of UNIP and that there was no document to show that the shares in Kwenda Zambia Car Hire Limited were held on behalf of UNIP.