Mongu Municipal Council Mayor Mushiba Kaumba and his deputy Frank De-Santos exchanged heavy punches on Thursday last week in the council chambers.
The incident happened after 14 councilors led by Mongu Deputy Mayor De-Santos, who is also PF Lealui ward councilor, moved a motion to impeach the mayor who is PF councilor for Imwiko ward.
According to councilors who attended the full council meeting and members of the public in the gallery, the mayor got incensed after she was accused of failing the council.
But when contacted for a comment Mongu Municipal mayor and PF Imwiko ward councilor Mushiba Kaumba accused her deputy of scheming to hound her out of the office for her refusal to append a signature on a letter where he was requesting for help from well wishers.
Kaumba said it was unfortunate that the deputy mayor beat her in full view of other councilors in the chambers when she refused to append a signature on his letter.
“I did not insult him, why should I insult him? I just told him that I cannot sign or date stamps his letter where he was asking for help from well wishers. I was surprised that he brought up a motion to impeach me in the house and the motion was allowed but they failed to get the numbers to have me impeached. Only 14 voted for, 7 were against the impeachment and 12 abstained,” she said.
And Mbangu Mbangu, one of the members of the public who was in the chambers’ public gallery listening to the deliberations, expressed shock at the behavior of PF councilors who fought each other in the chambers.
Mbangu said that it was disappointing that members from the same party would scheme to impeach each other over unknown reasons.
He said discipline was lacking in the PF leadership, which had led to the infighting in the area.
“It was a sad situation where PF councilors exchanged punches. Actually the deputy mayor grabbed the mayor‘s shirt and hit her before she was rescued by other councilors who intervened and whisked her into another office. All these things happened after one group of councilors who wanted to impeach her failed to garner the needed numbers of 22 members before they can proceed with the impeachment motion,” he said.
And when contacted for a comment, Mongu Town Clerk Enock Kandigwa refused to comment on the matter and referred all queries to the affected parties.
“Call the mayor or the deputy to find out on that matter because I really don’t know what happened.”
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