By Staff Reporter
PF national chairman Davies Chama says “it was expected that the general conference would be held in June”, and that if the party can raise the funds within the “next one week, two weeks” they will be ready to hold the event.
And when asked whether the PF would remain the same with or without the conference, Chama said the party will not die as it has 60 members of parliament, the central committee, other structures plus the general membership.
Chama also said fellow PF member Paul Moonga has his own reasons “why he probably cannot be questioning UPND as a member of the PF.”
Speaking with Daily Revelation on assertions by former PF Lusaka Province youth chairperson Kelvin Kaunda, who recently joined the Socialist Party that his former party had only managed to raise K10,000 of the required K5 million needed for the conference and that they would soon call for a meeting to postpone the conference, Chama said he had no information on what Kaunda was talking about.
But asked as the person in charge of organising for the event if the party would go for the convention in June and if they have managed to raise the required funds, which would not require them to postpone the holding of the conference, Chama said: “You know the conference was set by the central committee of the party sometime back and it was expected that the conference would be held in June, assuming that all things being equal.”
Chama said “once the money is raised as far as we are concerned the conference is set for June.”
“We can raise the money tomorrow, we can raise the money next week or early June and we are still in June. We can hold the conference at the end of June. If there will be any new developments, I as chairman for the planning committee of the extraordinary general conference I cannot make an announcement that we are postponing,” Chama said. “There are a lot of factors that will be considered. If there will be any postponement it’s not up to me or my committee, the planning committee. It’s up to the central committee again to revisit.”
He said he wanted to be optimistic that the funds would be raised as quickly as possible.
“If we can raise the money within the next remaining days, within the next one week, two weeks for me we are ready to go,” Chama said.
But asked that the manner he was coming out indicated that the money was not even there in the first place, Chama said he was scheduled for a meeting this evening where he would be updated on how much money has been raised.
“But we cannot make a decision whether the conference will be postponed or not. That is up to the central committee to make a decision and there should not be any apprehension whatsoever about this matter. But it’s our desire and the desire of the central committee and our planning committee and the general membership that we should hold a general conference as soon as possible. All things beings equal we hold it in June as earlier planned by the central committee,” Chama said.
Asked if the PF would remain the same with or without the conference, Chama said: “We can’t die. We have 60 members of parliament, we have functional structures of the party. We have got functional structures of the party throughout the country. We have a functional central committee in place. We have got functional executive committees in place. We have functional district executive committees in place. We have got functional constituency executive committees in place…ward committees in place. And we have also active members of the party. So the party will not die. The party doesn’t die like that. Even UNIP has not died. Even MMD has not died. PF is a living organism and it will evolve.”
Chama’s fellow central committee member Paul Moonga in reaction to Chama, said that he did not know what was motivating President Hakainde Hichilema and those in government to make the decisions they were making, as even those in PF never knew what Chama was doing at Ministry of Defence during his time as minister there, and therefore it was not warranted for him to refer to the President as a puppet of the west, unless he justified those assertions.
Moonga further urged acting PF leader Given Lubinda to seek audience with President Hichilema on important national issues, and avoid “these stupid things of running to the press just as a way of talking, and going further to admonish Raphael Nakachinda to tame his tongue in relation to how he addressed the President, Chama said if Moonga was comfortable not to attack or question the decisions of the UPND, that was okay.
“So if he thinks that we should not be questioning UPND he has his own reason why he probably cannot be questioning UPND as a member of the PF. I don’t know what is motivating him not to question the activities of UPND. It’s a big question. Only time will tell,” said Chama.
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