By Patson Chilemba
We have got an indisciplined membership, says former Works and Supply minister Sylvia Chalikosa.
And Chalikosa dismissed information that she, PF acting president Given Lubinda, Professor Nkandu Luo and Jean Kapata had to ‘scamper’ for safety after the party’s Kanyama ward chairman Kelvin Mwaba sent a voice note on WhatsApp that he was on his way to sort them out at the secretariat for presiding over “illegalities.”
Speaking with Daily Revelation after thousands of PF members and structures defied the party leadership against participating in women and youth day celebrations, Chalikosa wondered how those in PF would move together if members did not respect their own leadership.
“Yeh indiscipline. That’s all it’s saying that our membership is indisciplined. What else can you say? Because you are supposed to respect what the leadership comes up with, whether you agree with it or not,” Chalikosa said. “How are we going to move together if we are ignoring each other like that? I have explained the reasoning behind that decision but people don’t want to listen. They still want to ignore and pretend all is well. It is not well.”
Asked if there were serious cracks and infighting in the former ruling party, Chalikosa said: “As you can see I will leave that for you to judge.”
She said people must come to terms with the way nonpolitical activities are commemorated, saying a match past is not the only way to celebrate.
“We did not stop the women from engaging in any other activity and I think we sent word to our women that we were going to commemorate this day in a different way which is by doing charity work, clad in our party regalia. But if people think that celebrating is gathering and drinking and dancing no worries about that. There is nothing wrong with that they can do it as long as they are celebrating,” Chalikosa said. “But the question must be what is it that we are celebrating. What exactly are we celebrating? Are we celebrating that we have achieved what women have been fighting for all these years? Gender equality, have we achieved that? And when we are matching, what is our message to the people, what are we saying?”
Chalikosa said she did not understand what a match past meant, and what it says about women’s existence, saying personally speaking, by not participating in the match past she was giving solidarity to the women who are being persecuted within the party.
“I mean what is there to celebrate if someone is in jail, if someone is being harassed, someone is being accused of doing something which they didn’t do? There is nothing to celebrate right now. If you want you can say PF is bitter that is your opinion. I mean being out of government hasn’t stopped me from living. I am still living,” Chalikosa said. “I am still managing my life. I am still able to get to my day to day existence but for a larger meaning of women’s day I think we need to celebrate what the country has done for women if at all anything. This is not just about government but it is at household level. Do the men appreciate the women? Has the issue of GBV reduced…early marriage? What are we as women doing about those issues and are we getting the support?”
But asked what has changed now when they used to match during their time in government and when Michael Sata was the leader of the party in opposition, Chalikosa said “what has changed is that we feel we are being unfairly treated by the UPND government.”
But asked on her fellow central committee member Paul Moonga’s assertions that the party leadership could not infringe upon their members rights with what he termed as political nonsense, Chalikosa said: “What right? The right to match? You can match in your yard if you want.”
Chalikosa said the leadership advised members to celebrate in a different manner, and if they felt that they wanted to match there will always be next year and the years after.
“Because they don’t understand, they have not identified with our logic so I mean they are entitled to their own opinion. But if we are going to maintain discipline in the party we have to be together. For as long as we are not on the same wavelength then we will be viewed as a party of indiscipline, a party of arrogant people, a party of people who cannot be controlled,” Chalikosa said. “And that’s exactly why we lost power in the first place because of this arrogance and free for all. What’s wrong with us coming together and reasoning and saying, okay this year we are going to do this in this way. Why not?”
Asked on information that she and the other leaders had to flee for safety after Mwaba sent a voice note on WhatsApp that he was going after them at the secretariat for “presiding over illegalities”, including proposed increments in the number of executive committees and consideration of names to be appointed as interim executive committee for Lusaka Province, Chalikosa said that was not true, saying the real story was that “we had a lot of things on our agenda. We did not finish (and) we were moving late into the night so the chairperson decided to adjourn the meeting.
“As for whoever is threatening violence against us, that is their right also. But what they should know is that they should face the law and every action has consequences. So the fact that we are not responding doesn’t mean that we don’t have rights ourselves. Everyone has rights, it depends how you used those rights. So we had a lot of things on the table and we are yet to conclude those items on the agenda. I am not aware about that voice note, personally I am not aware,” said Chalikosa.
