Rainbow Party not dead – Copperbelt official

Sat, 31 Dec 2016 12:55:03 +0000

By KELVIN SIABANA

 THE Rainbow Party is going to be a surprise in the next general elections because the party has been growing and is on the Zambian political scene to stay, its Kitwe district chairperson Jonathan Banda has said.

Mr Banda has dismissed claims that the Rainbow Party was dead and gone because its leadership had gone into oblivion, stating that the opposition party had its own strategy of conducting its mobilisation programmes.

Mr Banda said all the structures for the Rainbow Party on the Copperbelt were intact and that the party was selling its manifesto and its socialist ideology to Zambians.

Mr Banda said the party was strong in different structures in Kitwe and other parts of the Copperbelt and claimed that reports that the party was dead were meant to detract its leadership from its mobilisation programmes.

Mr Banda said that some media houses were only interested in ripping apart the Rainbow Party which was celebrating its second anniversary from the time it was formed.

He said it was not the responsibility of other political players to remind the media to follow the ethics of the profession by reporting truthfully and factually to avoid misleading the public.

Mr Banda said it was unfortunate that some media outlets had embarked on a project to destroy the ideologies which the Rainbow Party stood for by reporting negatively about the party and its leadership.

He said the party had not disintegrated following its poor performance in the last general elections and that the party would be the biggest opposition by 2021.

He explained that it was only normal for some party members to have become disgruntled after the last general elections which saw some senior members such as Dr. Cosmas Musumali and Father Richard Luonde who resigned from the party soon after the August general elections.

Mr Banda told the Daily Nation that the party was intact in all structures because it had embarked on a massive programme to recruit more members countrywide.

Mr Banda said some former leaders and other members who had left the party for reasons best known to themselves should stop speaking ill of the party because they did belong to the party.

“The rainbow party is not dead and it is the party that does not dwell on negativity because it believes in the principles of socialism which can change the scope of the country,” he said.