By Patson Chilemba
PF presidential aspirant Chishimba Kambwili says he will attend the women and youth day celebrations, describing the decision by the PF against doing so as being offside and must not be tolerated by members.
The PF central committee yesterday resolved against participating in women and youth day celebrations.
But speaking with Daily Revelation, Kambwili said the decision made by the party leadership was wrong, and inconsistent with the beliefs of PF, “unless we are starting another party.”
“Well as an individual yes I am going to attend. Yes me I am going to attend. I am in Luanshya here, I will attend the event in Luanshya, because you remember even when I was in opposition I attended these functions. I attended these functions when PF was in office and I want to be consistent. But this what it has done to PF, you see there is no mobilization going on in PF at the moment. It’s like the party has gone to sleep,” Kambwili said. “This was an opportunity…it’s a form of mobilisation and these international dates must be used for mass organisation functions to display how big the political party is and serious you are to national issues. What I am giving is a personal view, I am not demeaning the central committee’s decision but I am only advising that PF one of the pillars is not to boycott those functions.”
Kambwili described the decision as “offside and it must not be tolerated by members, because this will be the beginning of the downfall for PF.”
He argued that PF was created as a pro-poor party with emphasis on not doing wrong things that other political parties have done in the past, and one of them was not to be confrontational on national issues.
“From inception of PF we have never been on record of having boycotted any public event whatsoever particularly independence celebration, youth day celebration. Even in the opposition when we were so much squeezed we only resolved not to allow our president not to attend the function because of disrespect towards Sata,” Kambwili said, and continuing: “Because at these events remember, members of the diplomatic call are also invited. It is a time that you can interact even be able to see the members of the diplomatic call accredited to Zambia, to maybe make appointments and maybe interact on so many things.”
He said it was very strange the PF were doing the same thing they condemned those in the UPND for.
“If you remember me I even used to tell the UPND when we were in the alliance with them to say that ‘what will you do if tomorrow you form government and PF and other political parties boycott?’ And if your remember from that time they started attending. They attended the youth day and they attended the women’s day celebrations,” Kambwili said. “How can surely today PF sit and make a decision that we are not going to attend women’s day and youth day?This was an opportunity for PF to show the world, the people of Zambia that our women have nor defected, our youths have not defected. We are more united than ever before. Alas we go and make a decision that we should not attend these functions”
Kambwili said he could not understand PF anymore, saying the UPND were referred to as being bitter for engaging some of these activities.
“In politics we must remove bitterness and these international recognized events are not for the ruling party, are for all the citizens,” he said, saying they should not do politics for the sake of politics.
“People will start laughing at us, what is good for the goose must be good for the gander. If you wanted people to attend when you were in government you should all attend when you are in opposition. I really don’t understand,” said Kambwili. “This decision has shocked me, and I have appealed to the powers that be. It’s not too late you can make an announcement to allow the people to go and attend. Tapaba nsoni nganamulufyanya.”
The PF stated that they would not attend the youth and women day celebrations.
The statement issued by acting secretary is provided below:
The Patriotic Front wishes to reiterate that it extols the commemoration of all national holidays and national events as demonstrated by the importance we attached to these holidays and events throughout our 10 years in office.
Youth Day which falls on the 12th of March each year is an important holiday that highlights the importance of the youth to the country on the anniversary of the disturbances in 1962 that resulted in the deaths of young Zambians during the nation’s turbulent journey to independence.
Equally the International Women’s day which falls on March 8th is a special day that is normally used to celebrate women and to also highlight some of the challenges that our womenfolk face. The day can also be used to craft ways to promote gender equality in a bid to create a fair and just society devoid of gender bias.
It is therefore sad to note that barely 6 months after assuming office, the UPND is driving Zambia back to the very evils that we fought against, 58 years ago during the struggle for independence. The UPND regime is fast eroding the gains we had achieved as a nation to ensure enhanced participation and equal opportunity for our women and youths in all facets of our social, political and economic life of our country.
The UPND has completely ignored our youths and women and have relegated them to the tail-end of the social, political and economic strata. President Hakainde Hichilema has systematically excluded our women and youths from critical governance issues by deliberately sidelining them as far as appointments to key government positions is concerned.
With his failure to deal with the economy, the President and his government are pushing our youths and women further into an abyss of poverty and desperation as unemployment, cost of living and lack of business opportunities and lack of empowerment are steadily on the rise.
At Party level, the UPND regime has continued with its policy of harassment and persecution of PF members; many of our women and youths today are either in incarceration, in hiding or are facing various trumped up charges and have become victims of harassment and intimidation by the state’s investigative wings.
For the reasons highlighted above, I wish to announce to the nation that as Patriotic Front we will not take part in marching or any government planned activities on Women’s and Youth days respectively; instead we will use these days to galvanise our women and youths across the country to do community service in their various localities.
As a Party we want to send a clear message to President Hichilema and his government that we are displeased and gravely concerned with the manner in which his administration is abusing the rights of our members and how his failure to provide a clear Economic Plan is worsening the poverty levels and the suffering of our people.
