Mon, 03 Oct 2016 11:13:32 +0000
MULENGA Sata is regretting having abandoned the Patriotic Front (PF) to join the UPND and has been meeting senior Government officials pleading with them to appeal to President Edgar Lungu to forgive him for having betrayed late president Michael Sata, Edwin Lifwekelo has disclosed. Mr Lifwekelo said many UPND members were shocked when Mulenga renounced his membership from the PF and joined the UPND campaign team because he was the last person they expected to leave the governing party which was founded by father.
Mr Lifwekelo said many alliance UPND partners were regretting having forged a political marriage of convenience with Hakainde Hichilema and have gone silent because they did not know how to apologise to the PF and President Lungu. He said he was aware that Mulenga Sata was making frantic efforts to rejoin the PF and that he had been meeting some government officials whom he had asked to appeal on his behalf to President Lungu so he could be pardoned and re-admitted into the ruling party. Efforts to get a comment from Mulenga Sata failed as his mobile phone went unanswered. Mr Lifwekelo stated that Mulenga Sata was brought to the UPND by former vice-president Guy Scott and it was likely that the former Lusaka Province minister was misled so that he could be used to kill the party that was founded by his father.
He said many of the former PF members who left the party had discovered that they had been used by the cartel that almost hijacked the PF following the death of president Sata which attempted to block President Lungu from taking up the presidency of the governing party. “I know and it is true that Mulenga Sata is regretting having abandoned the PF, the party that was founded by his father. He has been meeting senior government officials asking them to plead on his behalf to President Lungu so he can be forgiven and be re-admitted into the PF.
Many UPND members were surprised that Mulenga Sata could leave the PF because he was the last person expected to abandon the ruling party especially that President Lungu had appointed him State House Minister before transferring him to Lusaka Province in the same capacity,” Mr Lifwekelo said. And Mr Lifwekelo said people like former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa had completely distanced herself from the UPND and had allegedly gone quiet because she knew the opposition party did not mean well. He recalled that Mrs Mwanawasa was the first UPND sympathiser who quickly congratulated President Lungu after his victory and had since gone quiet for good reasons.
Mr Lifwekelo said when he resigned from the UPND; a lot of senior members including those from the party’s national management committee indicated that they would soon be following him to the PF.“For me, when I was joining the UPND, my blood remained PF and my DNA is still PF.
Former first lady Maureen Mwanawasa is quiet and it will not be surprising if she would soon announce her support for the PF and President Lungu because she knows the Head of State means well for the country,” Mr Lifwekelo said.
