PF youths say ‘No’ to rebels

Tue, 20 Dec 2016 10:22:41 +0000

By Bennie Mundando

PATRIOTIC Front youths have vowed that they will not allow the ‘‘nonsense’’ where party rebels want to hijack the PF at the instruction of the cartel because they do not command any following from the structures.

Lusaka provincial youth chairperson Kennedy Kamba charged that those parroting the top-to-bottom demand for elections were being illogical, insincere and malicious because the party had made it clear that it will hold elections for lower organs soon save for the presidency since his tenure of office has not yet clocked five years.

Mr. Kamba said Chishimba Kambwili and Kelvin Bwalya Fube’s call for a PF convention was misplaced because the party went to a convention just a year ago where President Edgar Lungu was elected as party president, saying he did not understand why the duo were championing division in the party.

“Didn’t Mr. Kambwili realise when he was challenging President Lungu for the party presidency in 2015 that we had a convention? What has changed today that he should be asking for the convention for all structures?

‘‘Who is Mr. Fube in the party? His position is not even provided for in the party constitution. These are the people who want to create problems in the party but they will not manage because they have no command among the structures.

“If these people want a convention, let them go to UPND and tell them to go for a convention because we will only elect the party president in 2021 when President Lungu’s mandate expires and those who are thinking there will be a convention to remove the president are just dreaming because he is not going anywhere.

‘‘This party is bigger than any of us and if there are people who think they own the party, they risk becoming irrelevant,” Mr. Kamba said.

He said those who were brewing trouble in the ruling party with a view to attain cheap political mileage will be disappointed because no one was interested in their rhetoric, adding that the party is preoccupied with taking development to the people of Zambia and not interested in squabbles.