By Staff Reporter
Paul Moonga claims he is aware of the many in the PF and other political parties who who will accompany him into the Socialist Party, saying his phone has been jammed with congratulatory messages after he joined SP.
“My phone was jammed with congrats, you have done well we are all coming. That’s what we have been waiting to hear. We are all coming. My line was jammed like telephone exchange until I had to switch off my line. Phones were ringing as late as 02:00 hours. The last last person who called me was councillor Lungu in Kamwala South at 02:33 hours,” Moonga said to Daily Revelation, and that several serving members of parliament and members of the PF central committee have indicated willingness to join him in SP.
He claimed that he did not play politics when asked if he was just playing the usual political games with his claims.
However, Moonga said the PF remained strong, saying they were the biggest opposition in the country going by the constitution, with 60 members of parliament and controlling a number of councils in the country, which he said was not a joke.
He said what mattered was how they would organise themselves.
But asked why he had left the party he said was still the biggest opposition, Moonga said they may be big now but the future was pointing towards SP.
“You must look at future, future, future. I was using a binoculars like my brother Nakachinda, in your head, five senses you must have a sixth sense which shows you the future, the direction. And I am convinced that is the best direction I have done,” Moonga said. “The Socialist Party is a government in waiting. And I like the way my president (Fred) M’membe comes up with national matters. You must talk about issues and see if the party in power can get these ideas. Don’t just give an open blanket, you call off HH. What has he done? You say he has done the following, he can’t listen and by so doing our President will destroy our economy.”
He dismissed any chances of going back to the PF saying he was 64 years old now and living his last days in politics.
Moonga who still retains his affection for former president Edgar Lungu, was asked if he had sought word with him before joining SP, but said he made an independent decision.
He said president Lungu must be treated as a fountain of wisdom anyone can consult as “father of the nation.”
Asked on the fact that it was under president Lungu that Dr M’membe’s former empire, The Post Newspapers, was closed after he threatened that he would fall on them like a tone of bricks, Moonga said when other people committed errors there was always a tendency to blame the head of state at that particular time just because the wrong committed happened under their era.
“He would have said what he said (falling like a tonne of bricks), (but) some things may happen by circumstances. You tell somebody I will kill you, somebody the following day is dead,” said Moonga.
Asked how a capitalist like himself had suddenly become a socialist overnight, Moonga said the PF constitution and manifesto were pro-poor except they were not doing what they were supposed to have been doing “of late.”
