By Staff Reporter
Vocal PF cadre, popularly known as papa Gunasi, says PF cadres around the country are gearing themselves up for protests against what he terms as Edgar Lungu’s moves to hijack the party through the appointment of Raphael Nakachinda as party secretary general.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Gunasi, whose real name is Kelvin Mwaba and served as a PF official in Kanyama during the PF’s time in power and a few months after they were voted out of, said “we shall protest against that appointment.”
“Without lying I want to tell you that we shall protest against that appointment. We don’t want. We want the whole central committee to sit and decide on that matter,” Mwaba said.
He said the provinces should prepare themselves to protest saying “ba Lungu, nyantukenimo amakasa muli ichi ichipani (Lungu please remove your feet from this party), you have already served your time. Please leave it to the others to rule also. So that’s what we are thinking.”
He said the appointment of Nakachinda has been rejected by the grassroots around the country.
He said the central committee, which is the highest organ of the party, did not sit to look into this critical appointment of the party’s chief executive officer, especially as word has gone round that he has been specifically appointed to help Lungu hold on to the PF presidency.
“Why is it that after Raphael Nakachinda went to Zimbabwe with president Lungu there emerged word that Raphael Nakachinda will be the secretary general with (PF vice-president Given) Lubinda as running mate to Lungu for the 2026 general elections? Therefore the people who revealed this did not lie as a few days later Lubinda has appointed Nakachinda as secretary general,” Mwaba said. “We don’t want Nakachinda to be loyal to only four people who have put him there. Most of the people are not with him as you have seen what the national chairman Davies Chama has said condemning that move.”
Mwaba said he did not know what it was that Lungu was trying to achieve, wondering whether he wants to further destroy the party which he already destroyed in the first place.
“That’s why even his former allies like Chilufya Tayali have risen up. Just be open if you say you want to stand just say so. Not where you resign, you write letters that I have resigned but then your house has become a new secretariat,” Mwaba said, saying there would be no problem if they all sat and agreed to have Nakachinda as secretary general unlike the route they have taken.
He demanded that the appointment be reversed so that the party goes to the convention first before a secretary general is appointed.
“Already eight provinces have rejected that appointment. So how will Nakachinda work?” asked Mwaba, saying President Hakainde Hichilema appointed Batuke Imenda and Vice-President Mutale Nalumango to secure votes from the regions they come from, wondering if Nakachinda could do the same.
