RECONCILE, MILES TELLS KALABA

Mon, 15 Jan 2018 09:44:58 +0000

By CHIKUMBI KATEBE

PATRIOTIC FRONT veterans should help Harry Kalaba to reconcile with President Edgar Lungu because insolence does not pay in politics, former Matero MP Miles Sampa has said.

Mr Sampa said a reconciliation route would be the best way to handle the recent happenings in the ruling PF which has raised assertions of divisions within the party.

He advised Mr Kalaba to learn from his experience after he left the PF and had to rejoin because it was impossible to detach from the party and yet still remain within.

Mr Sampa has appealed to senior party officials to facilitate the reconciliation between Mr Kalaba and President Lungu to ensure unity and continued growth in the party. “Trustees or veterans of the party should move in and counsel Harry before it’s too late for him.

“Party and government are inseparable in that it is the party president that becomes the Republican President. He is one and the same person. Insolence does not pay in politics,” he said.

He also said Mr Kalaba had had the best opportunity to air his grievances with the President because he had direct access on a daily basis as the country’s senior diplomat.

“As Foreign Affairs Minister, Harry was the most privileged with daily access to the President and he should have raised his concerns one on one.

“Fortunately, I don’t think it’s too late for him to still seek that dialogue with the President and discuss as brothers. Insolence does not pay in politics,” Mr Sampa said. Mr Sampa said politics was about loyalty to the leader of the day, and that a party and government were inseparable in their functions.

He explained that a ruling party president was also the Republican President, and posterity demanded one to be loyal to both.

“Maybe in theory it could work, but it is not practical in reality. People like my brother Harry Kalaba should have leant from our errors when we thought it was possible to leave government and still remain in the party,” he said.

Mr Sampa explained that the Bahati MP should not mislead himself into thinking he could remain loyal to the people of his constituency when he detaches himself from the party that supported his candidature.