Don’t wash dirty linen in public – Lifwekelo

Tue, 02 Jan 2018 13:17:30 +0000

By CHARLES MUSONDA

SOME perceived differences within the Patriotic Front are normal because it is the biggest political party in Zambia but we should not wash dirty linen in public, says senior member Edwin Lifwekelo.

“It is not a question of problems. For a big party like PF, which is the biggest political party in the country, generally you expect a lot of challenges within its structures. The President himself together with the rank and file of the party leadership are trying their level best to ensure they provide leadership.

“But at the end of the day you can’t please everyone. Those problems people are talking about in my view can only be addressed through internal dialogue. I totally agree that if there are any challenges within PF, the best way to go is to call for an intra-party dialogue where you can invite all those parties that are aggrieved, those that have challenges,” Mr. Lifwekelo said.

He said he knew that the main issue within the party was that everyone wanted to be employed, or to have positions, which was not possible.

“It is not possible that all of us can have positions in the party. In fact PF has no opposition, they have no enemies, and the PF are the enemy themselves. If there is competition from the opposition it is within ourselves.

“If we recognise generally that that is what it is, at the end of the day the best way to go forward, since we are a family, we need to call warring parties, those that are aggrieved, and those that have issues bring them to the table.

“That is why we have the Central Committee and there is procedure in the party. Instead of going public to issue statements, the best way is to write to the secretary-eneral of the party and in any case the party has what is called postmortems. What PF needs now is to have a postmortem of the general election and see what challenges we have. We need to sort out that before we get to 2021,” Mr. Lifwekelo said.

He said internally, he was sure that the PF could resolve issues without washing dirty linen in public.

And former Matero PF aspiring parliamentary candidate Celestine Mukandila said the PF youths would not allow any disgruntled member to push for the “indaba.”

Mr. Mukandila said the PF had already set up a programme of how it was going to operate and that President Lungu had already shown that he was willing to provide good leadership anchored, on democracy as shown by internal provincial elections held in North Western Province last year.

He said the PF remained committed to serving the people of Zambia but there were some disgruntled members that wanted to bring confusion in the party.