FORMER NAMWALA MP ROBBIE CHIZYUKA APOLOGISES TO HH AND THE UPND
… I seek no Government, quasi-government, or constituency job in future. My commitment is to be a loyal member of the party I helped form from the grassroots
June 12th, 2023
NAMWALA – FORMER United Party for National Development (UPND) Member of Parliament (MP) for Namwala, Robbie Chizyuka, has apologised to President Hakainde Hichilema for “any or all transgressions” he might have caused during his political career which led to his suspension from the party.
On October 28, 2009, the UPND expelled Major Chizyuka for gross indiscipline after he reportedly failed to exculpate himself against the charges levelled against him for being against the UPND Pact with the Patriotic Front (PF).
Major Chizyuka then challenged his expulsion from the party and the matter is still gathering dust in court as it has not yet been disposed off, but in a letter dated June 4, 2023 addressed to President Hichilema, Major Chizyuka said he remained loyal to the party and that his opposition to the pact with the PF was derived from his inner conviction that the UPND did not need a pact to win an election, no matter how long it would take.
“This is my humble and unreserved apology to you. I also extend this apology of mine to all the UPND party organs in Southern Province and Namwala in particular, for any or all transgressions I might have made in my course of my political career which led to my suspension from my party the UPND, the party I, and other sons and daughters of our land found, particularly in Namwala District. This apology is also made on behalf of my humble family and my entire campaign teams in Namwala and elsewhere, whom I consulted before making this decision.
“Mr. President, the central reason for my suspension from the UPND lay primarily in my refusal of the UPND to join in a pact with the PF. My refusal that time was based on my strong conviction that no matter how long it was going to take, our party needed to work towards achieving its character, vision, and goal to take the reins of power of our country, independent of the PF which was at the time strong numerically and in Parliament, reads Major Chizyuka’s letter in part.
He insisted that his actions that time were innocently meant to protect the UPND and President Hichilema and that during the “tarrying time” as he awaited the conclusion of the matter, he only accepted to work with late Rupiah Banda for the sake of completing stalled projects in Namwala.
“In Ila we say buuza bulanenga. I refused to leave the UPND, the only party I ever belonged to, the party I cherished and loved so dearly, such that at its creation in Namwala, I contributed 73 heads of cattle towards its founding, mobilisation, and operationalisation. This is why I challenged my suspension in the High Court of Zambia and to date, the matter remains unresolved as those who were representing the party in the High Court would testify.
“While awaiting the conclusion of the case of my suspension, I accepted to work with your brother President Rupiah Banda when he invited me. This was to enable me complete many outstanding developmental project works in Namwala Constituency particularly the tarring of the Choma Namwala Road, the Namwala District Hospital, and the two biggest schools, among many others,” he wrote.
He regretted that consequently, by this action, he may have wronged my party and the President through his words, phrases, or actions which could have been injurious and that he took full responsibility for his trespasses and those of his campaign team members who went to campaign for the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) at the time he was frozen out by the UPND.
He said he was ready once again to journey with the UPND without recourse to political aggrandisement.
“As you consider this apology of mine, I hope and trust that you will once again believe and have faith that we can journey together through thick and thin of the turbulent times ahead in the same manner we did before and after the death of the founding president of our party, Anderson ‘Mwana Mubotu’ Kambela Mazoka.
“My undying trust and loyalty in you which I practically demonstrated during your ascendancy to the presidency of our party is still as strong. Even as I seek your forgiveness and that of my party, may I state that I seek no Government, quasi-government, or indeed constituency job in future. My commitment is to be a loyal member of the party I helped form from the grassroots,” he said