Fri, 20 Jan 2017 12:30:43 +0000
By Bennie Mundando
CHISHIMBA Kambwili has denied ever declaring that President Edgar Lungu will not be a sole candidate for 2021 general elections because the Head of State will be challenged at the party’s general conference in 2020.
Mr Kambwili is alleged to have blasted Ndola district commissioner George Chisulo on the telephone on Tuesday for organising a solidarity match for President Lungu and his endorsement for the next general elections.
The former Information minister admitted phoning Mr Chisulo but denied he had declared that President Lungu would not be a sole candidate in the 2021 general elections, stating that the allegations were nothing but ‘‘excellent lies’’.
But Mr Chisulo told the Daily Nation yesterday that Mr Kambwili told him that President Lungu would be ousted as Patriotic Front president at the general conference in 2020 because the PF faction led by Mr Kambwili had sufficient numbers to defeat the Head of State.
Mr. Chisulo said he received a call on Wednesday morning from Mr. Kambwili just before PF members in the district gathered for a march to endorse President Lungu as sole candidate for 2021 elections, telling him that the endorsements were ‘‘rubbish’’ because there was no sole candidate in the PF.
Mr. Chisulo said the call was aimed at instilling fear in him so that the planned solidarity march would be aborted, adding that Mr. Kambwili threatened to ‘‘fire’’ the DC once he formed government.
He said Mr. Kambwili told him that President Lungu would not succeed at the PF convention because Mr. Kambwili’s camp had the numbers to wrestle the presidency from him and that Mr. Chisulo should prepare to get fired because he and his cohorts were championing President Lungu’s sole candidacy in the 2021 elections.
“He called me at exactly 08:29 in the morning after he caught wind of the party members’ planned solidarity match for President Lungu’s 2021 candidacy and he told me that what I was organising was rubbish because the PF did not have any sole candidate for the next elections because it was going for a convention.
“He told me that he would fire me and all those who are championing President Lungu’s sole candidacy in the 2021 elections because he will win at the convention due to the numbers he is commanding in the party and then form government. I was so disappointed with Mr. Kambwili because I never expected that from him,” Mr. Chisulo said.
But when contacted for a comment, Mr. Kambwili described the allegations as “excellent lies”, saying he only called Mr. Chisulo to clarify rumours he had heard that he (Mr. Chisulo) was organising people to discredit him.
Mr. Kambwili doubted the story, saying he was in “very good books” with Mr. Chisulo and that there was no way he would issue such a statement.
“If he has said that, he is lying and I don’t think Mr. Chisulo can say such a thing. I doubt it. That is an excellent lie. I have said this and I want to say it again that what we need is to build a party not to destroy it. I called the DC because the information I got is that the DC had organised people to go and issue statements to castigate me and I called him in a good way to tell him that we are one family.
