Tue, 03 Jan 2017 09:05:34 +0000
BY NATION REPORTER
THE Patriotic Front (PF) on the Copperbelt is angry with former Copperbelt minister Mwenya Musenge for claiming that new members in the governing party were causing confusion and have told him to go back to UPND if he did not want other Zambians to join or associate with the ruling party.
And PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri has charged that Mr Musenge’s comments were a direct attack on President Edgar Lungu and party secretary general Davis Mwila for having asked Roan member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili to exculpate himself for gross misconduct.
Copperbelt PF youth provincial secretary Christopher Kalenga said the ruling party was shocked that Mr Musenge could attack Mr Mwila for instilling discipline in the party.
Mr Kalenga said Mr Musenge had always been against the leadership of President Lungu and that his statements were often meant to please the opposition.
Mr Kalenga said Mr Musenge was a bitter man for having lost his seat to
a constituency chairman at a time he was the provincial minister and a sitting parliamentarian.
“I know Mr Musenge and I worked with him during the time of president Michael Sata. Mr Musenge is a non-performer and it was not surprising that he lost his seat to a constituency chairman when he was a minister.
‘‘If the PF was not welcoming new members, Mr Musenge would never have been a member of the party and would never have been a minister. Mr Musenge was from the UPND and he is PF because he came as a new member. President Lungu has made the PF stronger by allowing the party to accept and work with new members.
‘‘We know that he is one of those who have never supported President Lungu and we shall not tolerate that kind of rebellion,” Mr Kalenga said.
And Mumbi Phiri has revealed that the UPND in their desperate attempts to plant a wage between her and President Lungu have resorted to fabricating stories that she was working with Chishimba Kambwili to distabilize the PF.
Mrs Phiri said the UPND had manufactured a story to the effect that President Lungu was not illegible to contest the presidency in 2021 and had posted the story on the opposition party’s whasapp group.
She said she had not talked to Mr Kambwili for a long time and wondered why the UPND was so desperate to create enemity between her and President Lungu.
She said President Lungu should be left alone to assemble a team he was comfortable to work with and that people like Mr Musenge were creating disharmony in the PF and should stay away from the decisions of the President and Mr Mwila.
“I have never supported or talked to Mr Kambwili from the day we concluded the nominations for the last general elections. I beg Mr Musenge to stop dragging me into his cheap talk. The PF is a disciplined political organization and Mr Musenge cannot insult President Lungu and Mr Mwila that the allegations against Mr Kambwili are trivial and his (Kambwili) exculpation letter should therefore be withdrawn.
‘‘Mr Musenge came from the UPND and let him go back in peace if he does not want to embrace and work with new members,” Mrs Phiri said.
She said the PF won in 2011 and 2016 because the ruling party had brought a lot of new members on board.
