Fri, 16 Jun 2017 09:24:34 +0000
By Aaron Chiyanzo
IT IS an act of indiscipline for Chishimba Kambwili to refer to members of the party who are being loyal and paying allegiance to the incumbent President Edgar Lungu as bootlickers, says Patriotic Front (PF) deputy spokesperson Frank Bwalya.
Mr Kambwili, who is a member of the PF central committee, is alleged to have referred to other PF members who have been endorsing President Lungu as the sole candidate for the 2021 elections as bootlickers.
But Mr Bwalya said yesterday in Lusaka that it was total indiscipline for anyone to term loyalty to the leader of the party as provided for by the constitution as ‘‘bootlicking’’.
He reiterated that members of the PF who had been praising President Lungu and endorsing him as the sole candidate for 2021 were just showing their allegiance.
Mr Bwalya made it clear that party members should be loyal to the incumbent president.
The PF deputy spokesperson insisted that all members should respect the Head of State as the candidate who won the party’s two elections.
“It is an act of indiscipline for anyone to term loyalty to the leader of the party as provided by the constitution as ‘bootlicking’; what we do in the party is to pay allegiance, to be loyal to the leader of the party and President Lungu represents the entire leadership,” he said.
He however also made it clear that the party constitution did not stop any member from challenging President Lungu for the party presidency at a convention. Meanwhile, Mr Bwalya said that President Lungu was committed to delivering development across the country according to the campaign promises and the party manifesto.
He assured that the PF government would not give up on the fight against corruption and that it would do whatever was possible to curb the vice.
