Mon, 29 Jan 2018 10:28:02 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
THE Socialist Party (SP) has launched a massive, aggressive, and spirited recruitment campaign targeted at teachers, defence and security forces with some generals and Zambia Air Force officers having attended recruitment training sessions.
Police are also being recruited to ensure that party members are alerted and protected against Government directives to deal with the party.
The party, which broke away from the Rainbow Party after some senior members fell out with Wynter Kabimba, is headed by Cosmas Musumali as interim general secretary. A named fallen media personality who has set his eyes on leading the country, is reportedly behind the party, and has been conducting training sessions for coordinators with the aim of creating nucleus cells of four people that are being planted in institutions with instructions to replicate and grow the membership.
The Daily Nation has details of meetings and people who participated in some of the training sessions held in Lusaka.
According to an insider who spoke to the Daily Nation yesterday, coordinators would be offered K60, 000 each, with a down payment of K10, 000 apparently provided by a leader of one the opposition political parties in South Africa whose party is pushing for a socialist agenda in that country.
The insider said the recruitment strategy is for every new member to host a training session at their residence during which four other new members must participate before they also host similar sessions in their residences. Such training sessions have already taken place in Mandevu, Chawama, Kanyama, Lusaka central, and Munali constituencies which are being targeted have huge numbers of registered voters compared to other provinces.
The insider also said training sessions have been held among defence and security personnel, including some generals, together with some Zambia Air Force officers and generals with special instructions to recruit their relatives. This, the source said, was aimed at recruiting as many people as possible before the official launch of the party on March 31, 2018 while the congress to elect office-bearers is set for 2020.
“At that meeting in Matero, it was revealed that 20 members of the party would be sent for three weeks training in various fields such as militancy, political education, farming, etc at the party’s Nkrumah political college in South Africa while another group would be sent in March, 2018.
“We were also told that the Government of Venezuela had offered to sponsor 10 party members or their relatives to study as medical doctors in Cuba and that the fallen media personnel himself was scheduled to attend socialist events in Ghana, Denmark, and Spain during which he will also source for funding for party mobilisation,” the source said.
The source said during the training meetings held in Matero and Kasupe area, teachers from named schools attended, together with a named non-civil service employee at State House where a call was made to members to recruit more Government employees especially female teachers, as they would be the ones to spearhead the revolution to remove the PF from power.
“We were challenged to be brave in the face of oppression, saying those that oppressed us used state machinery such as the police to maintain their dominion. We were psyched to protect ourselves against police brutality during protests against the PF Government as it is our right to protest and express our views and opinions.
“We were also taught how to make and detonate petrol bombs as a protective weapon against the police during a protest and were also urged to join those protesting against injustice and inequality perpetuated by the PF Government, as a strategy to draw sympathy from citizens who cannot appreciate the socialist ideology,” the source said.
The members were also asked to establish 40 branches in each ward with 25 office-bearers as a starting point for grassroots structures.
