By Patson Chilemba
PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile says Edgar Lungu is guaranteed the PF presidency until 2026 and will support him to carry on if party members “influence” him to.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Mundubile said he holds a similar position to that of Chishimba Kambwili, where opposition leaders need to set aside their egos of wanting to be president at all cost, so that they could unite under one candidate to remove President Hakainde Hichilema in 2026.
He said things in the country had gone to their lowest, with no single state institution that was operating smoothly, arguing that the country had now become a police state where cadres who filled the police service were making arbitrary arrests, and that every judgment coming from the Judiciary was “invoking a sense of shock” in the minds of ordinary citizens.
Mundubile said the legislature too was a very “sad story”, saying with the total collapse of the governance system, the opposition must come together by abandoning their personal positions and work towards the common good.
“So I totally agree with my brother Kambwili that as aspiring candidates, as leaders, let us look at the bigger picture, let us look at the common good so that we can drive the country forward,” Mundubile said.
But asked about his own presidential ambitions and the fact that former president Lungu had come back again to lead the PF, and if by that action he would set aside his own presidential ambitions, Mundubile said: “So I need to make one correction. When you talk about setting aside one’s ambitions, what determines popularity is an election, whether internally or outside. So what we are emphasising on, setting aside ambitions is where you go to a convention and when you are at the convention somebody wins then other people begin to go and form political parties. That’s what we are saying no to.”
He continued: “It does not mean that you don’t even want to go to a convention, you say no me it’s okay. How are you going to judge the popularity of one candidate? So competition is still going to be there. When there is a convention, we will go and compete at the convention but when one emerges as a winner we all rally behind that person.”
But asked if he would challenge Lungu if he insisted on standing at the convention, Mundubile said when presidential aspirants stepped forward to challenge for the PF presidency, they did so when President Lungu indicated he was going to resign.
“Remember that between now and 2026, it’s president Lungu’s time. So when he says he has come back, he’s basically enjoying his term up to the end. Are we together? So let’s say there is a convention two years from now, I wouldn’t want to answer what my disposition will be then, you get my point? Because a lot of dynamics would have changed,” Mundubile said. “And if the members of the party popularly influence president Lungu to say he continues we will rally behind him and support him.”
Kambwili also said that there must be sincerity and openness in the opposition that PF was the biggest opposition political party, with Mundubile adding that the PF at the moment had 58 members of parliament, and that, that parameter alone made it the biggest opposition party in the country, but that any eventual alliance would have to set its own ground rules.
He said he would not want to give positions that would jeopardise the “ongoing discussions” in the opposition ranks.
But Kambwili’s nephew Charles Kabwita said his uncle was a sellout who only thinks about himself and that youths must stay away from him.
He warned opposition leaders against believing Kambwili’s call for them to set aside their egos in order to unite to remove President Hichilema, saying the man is unstable and did not mean what he says.
But Mundubile described the same as family matters which he would not want to get involved into.
“That one is a family affair. You know sometimes your nephew can be upset with you and he uses politics to get back at you. So you know our nephews these days are very active,” said Mundubile. “I also have naughty nephews like that, who have joined other political parties and then they call me all sorts of names. So I am very careful when I get a comment from a family because it could originate from just a family difference and then your nephew goes public and he says things just to try and pinch you a little bit.”
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