By Merlyn Mwanza
Charity Banda says presidential aspirants Chishimba Kambwili, Emmanuel Mwamba and Brian Mundubile met today to unite and show solidarity against what she termed as acting PF president Given Lubinda’s divide and rule tactics.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Banda, who was the elected Lusaka provincial chairlady in the dissolved committee, said Lunte member of parliament Mutotwe Kafwaya was also due to be part of the meeting, but was attending to other pressing matters.
Banda charged that Lubinda was engaged in “ifyabupuba, ifyamungulu” by making central committee appointments unilaterally.
“They (PF presidential aspirants) met for the betterment of PF. Lubinda has a hidden agenda, he was once UPND. He wants to destroy PF so that come 2026 there will be no credible opposition,” she said.
Banda said former PF secretary general Davies Mwila may have his own weaknesses but he did the right thing by walking out on the meeting which was being chaired by Lubinda over what he described as unconstitutional unilateral appointments.
“They asked him in the central committee whom he had consulted to make those appointments and he said ‘I did it on my own’, which is unconstitutional. And when he was asked why he had not appointed the other presidential aspirants into the central committee for the sake of unity, he said ‘I don’t want confusion and that it doesn’t mean that when one aspires for the presidency then he has to be in MCC, and that I want the party to move’,” Banda narrated. “He has added people who are irrelevant and he has no powers.”
Banda said Dr Scott did not make any appointments into the central committee when he served as acting president to the degree Lubinda is doing.
But when contacted to get his comment over being removed as PF chairperson for legal affairs in favour of Chisanga, Mundubile, speaking with Patson Chilemba, said he had voluntarily opted out, saying Lubinda had in fact consulted him on whether he wanted to continue, but that he told him that the burden at parliament was too heavy.
“And looking at what is happening now with the party members it requires proper dedication. So I was consulted and I opted out,” he said.
Asked on the meeting with Kambwili and Mwamba given what is happening, Mundubile said they all belonged to the same party and that besides the three of them there were many other party members that were consulting within themselves.
“I think there is a lot that is happening in the political space, happening against our party members to do with the police, so it was a wide range of issues that we were discussing,” he said.
Asked if he thought the conference would be incident free looking at what was emerging, Mundubile said they were very clear about that position and that was the reason why those intending to contest did not find it difficult to sit down and discuss issues
“So as regards violence or any harassment that we can guarantee there will be nothing like that,” he said.
Asked to comment on what others are highlighting in terms of Kambwili and Mwamba’s eligibility, and how their members would respond in the event they were stopped, Mundubile assured that there will be a level playing field, saying the party has decided that a level playing field would be prepared for any player intending to contest.
“So there will be no one that will be isolated based on technicality,” said Mundubile.
Efforts to talk to Lubinda failed as his line went unanswered.
