KEITH MWEEMBA AND OTHER FAILED FAZ ASPIRANTS IGNORE APPEAL WINDOW, WANT NULLIFICATION OF ENTIRE ELECTORAL PROCESS Good evening. For all its bombast, and incredible length, the letter sent by five candidates for Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) President, to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA, does little to hide shady intentions to manufacture, out of nothing, a "crisis" to frighten these soccer bodies into a hasty decision to nullify the outcome of an electoral process. Keith Mweemba, of MUZA Football Club, and four others, who were bidding to stand for the FAZ Presidency, but faltered at nomination stage, now want the whole electoral process cancelled, claiming a plethora of anomalies and discrepancies, including delirious charges of "third party interference by an employee of FAZ". For initial reference, FAZ published a detailed report of the committee which scrutinised the nomination papers of all the candidates. It showed all the requirements the candidates satisfied, and the specific items which invalidated the nominations of all candidates, except that of Andrew Kamanga. Note that these points on which the candidates fell foul of the process, were not identical, and that each individual candidate was informed about how and why the committee determined that their nomination was invalid. Since there is built into this electoral process a five-day period of appeal against the decision of the committee, it was expected that each candidate would raise his appeal against the specific points cited as reasons for his nomination being declared invalid. Nothing of that sort happened, and the five-day window for appeal closed last Friday. The question is, why did none of these candidates raise individual appeals challenging the specific issues raised about their nomination papers? For example, the Committee report says Adrian Kashala's nomination was declared invalid because he club's not have the requisite five years experience in club management, with three of those years being immediately prior to this election. What Kashala then needed to do was appeal against the Committee's decision by producing proof of having the required experience. That he did not do. And neither did any of the other four raise appeals based on their own candidate-specific findings of the committee. Instead, they have ganged up and are determined to disrupt the whole process, because they believe they can, as some of then are on record as boasting about their personal connections to the highest level of the Zambian government. But these are now desperate maneuvers by one of them, Keith Mweemba, to get the prize of FAZ President. The rest of them are simply a supporting cast fighting for relevance and recognition. But what is even more desperate, and childish even, is how they have decided to drag Simataa Simataa into the issue. According to them, in his current employment at the Zambian Premier League, Simataa has exerted near supernatural "third party interference and undue influence" on all players in the electoral process. The legality of Simataa's employment at the Zambian Premier League is a matter between him and the employer. But his job is not to manage the electoral process, and sway the, apparently mindless, independent outside lawyers who chair some of the committees. And how some lawyers can fashion conflict of interest in the set up of Simataa's job and the electoral process is simply bewildering. Simataa was working for the ZPL before this electoral process kicked in, and no issue was raised about his employment being illegal or not. When the electoral process itself was presented to all the candidates, Simataa's job was not part of the architecture. So when did his position acquire the huge influence in the electoral process that is being attributed to him? Clearly, these are just invalid candidates, raising equally invalid arguments about totally unrelated issues. Therefore, whether it is CAF or FIFA, which digs into this matter first, they should ask each candidate to answer specific questions: Why do you, Keith Mweemba feel your nomination was wrongly invalidated? And the answer cannot be Simataa told them to... Why do you, Adrian Kashala, feel being FAZ General Secretary satisfies the five years club management experience requirement, with three years immediately before the elections? (Do you understand the question, Bwanamkubwa?) And all you five candidates must surely understand that these simple questions can be answered without all this ganging up and writing letters threatening armageddon. At this point in this saga, there is one very surprising and unhelpful thing - the total silence of the General Secretary of FAZ, Reuben Kamanga. The issues now being raised concerning the electoral process are very much in the purview of the GS. How is it that GS Reuben Kamanga has maintained this very unhelpful, and now suspicious, silence, when he has the facts and authority to dispel some of the most outrageous of the claims of these invalid nominees? Is his fence-sitting motivated by a desire to position himself for the largesse of whoever emerges winner? Because the current President of FAZ , Andrew Kamanga, was himself a candidate, he has obviously been constrained to explain these matters to the public, and now to CAF and FIFA. The GS needs to do more to ensure this remains a simple contest for leadership of FAZ, managed through the electoral process, without third party interference, which, by the way, the government has already attempted using the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), the Attorney General, and the National Sports Council of Zambia. So, GS, make CAF and FIFA understand that invalidated nominee Keith Mweemba, and four other invalids, have ignored the appeal window under the Electoral Process of FAZ, and instead want the whole process annulled because they failed to get their wishes. Is that not exposure of a destructive streak in the characters of the men who wanted to lead FAZ? Get in touch with us on WhatsApp +263786654620 John 8:32 "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Goodnight. #zambianwhistleblower #zwb ©️ Zambian Whistleblower (ZWB).