Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:45:20 +0000
Senior members of the Patriotic Front Central Committee have disclosed that they will defend Foreign Affairs Minister Given Lubinda against the decision to expel him during next months meeting.
The party members who sought anonymity told the Daily Nation that the Wednesday meeting at which it was anticipated that Mr Lubinda’s disciplinary case would top the agenda revealed that over 75 percent of the central committee were ready to defend Mr Lubinda in order to stop the nonsense that was going on in the party.
They said it was surprising that when President Sata chaired the meeting Mr Lubinda’s case was last on the agenda and judging by the mood of the conveners he said that there was no enough time to discuss the case.
They said President Sata deliberately spent more time on the other matters and when time for Mr Lubinda’s case came, he did not say much and instead deferred the matter to next month.
They revealed that reports that Mr Kabimba was part of the meeting were untrue because he had already left for Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to attend the African Union meeting.
The team, they said want Lubinda to resign on his own whilst they know that the allegations levelled against him were not true.
“This is a tactical move. We know they are pushing Lubinda so that he could resign and Mr Sata is pretending as if he did not agree with the Edgar Lungu led committee but we know he is in agreement with Wynter.
“We expected that the disciplinary case against Mr Lubinda would be first on the agenda but they did the opposite and did want to spend more time on the matter.
“When the President mentioned the case, he could see that 75 percent of the members were geared and ready to defend their colleague. So he just said that he was running out of time and that this case would be heard on the 28th of next month.
“We won’t let this happen to our friend because they have differences with the secretary general. Wynter is not the party and the party is for patriotic Zambians. We are aware of the plan to have Lubinda resign on his own, but we have told him to hang on,” they said.
According to the sources, a strategy was planned to have Lubinda resign, but as friends to Given and the party, the majority of the central committee members refused to be bulldozed into taking such a stance.
“If this move is pushed Sata knows, it would leave a dent on the party. It was not about time but the President knew what the people of Kabwata want. We are aware that he had a report on how their decision would affect the party and that if not handled properly they will leave to regret their decision because Mr Sata knows that Kabwata people are for Lubinda.
“Even us in the Central Committee we don’t know why Lubinda is being charged. It is only Wynter Kabimba who has the reasons for the case but what is sad is the treatment that the President is giving Lubinda. Mr Sata is pretending as if all was well and yet he knows that a decision was already made.
“But it is also good that the people he had sent to do investigations have told him the truth and hope they will do what the people want. We know for sure if this works on Lubinda, Wynter will have an upper hand and use it on all his enemies,” the said.
