I’LL NOT BACK DOWN, IT’S TIME TO TAKEOVER PF – MUNDUBILE.

I’LL NOT BACK DOWN, IT’S TIME TO TAKEOVER PF – MUNDUBILE.

PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile has assured his supporters that he will not back down from campaigning for the party presidency.

And Mundubile has expressed confidence that now is the time for him to take up the party’s leadership as he has been fighting for the presidency since 2022.

On Saturday, PF faction acting secretary general Celestine Mukandila charged Mundubile for gross indiscipline, accusing him of forming parallel structures and directed him to exculpate himself before the disciplinary committee within seven days.

On Friday in a statement, Mundubile stated that he had withdrawn from Conclave meetings as there was what he termed as underhand methods not to allow him to contest the PF presidency.

Commenting on Mukandila’s letter in an interview, Mundubile said no one should prescribe him on how to campaign as it was his campaign strategy.

“As regards the letter, I will obviously respond to each and every charge that has been raised in the letter, but for purposes of this interview, I would want to speak to what others are calling parallel structures. You see, we are in a campaign, we are in a presidential race. In this particular race, we are employing various strategies to win support of the delegates. Others are printing T-shirts, others are printing banners, others are doing all sorts of things on social media and so on. What I believe in is grassroot mobilisation. I believe in grassroot mobilisation. Now, if you look at the history of our party as regards the convention, it’s been ongoing since 2022. At this stage, nobody really knows when that will happen,” he said.

“So, my strategy has been that I mobilise right from the grassroot. So that I also get support from others, other than the 1,000 people that are coming to the convention, it’s a strategy, that’s my strategy.

Whenever my campaign managers are announcing those committees, if you’ve been following, they have been very clear to say, these are not parallel structures. So, they have not left anybody in doubt.

They have said, this is a campaign committee, and it’s not a parallel structure. So, for those that think those are parallel structures, well, that is a misconception. For me, it’s a campaign strategy. And I don’t think that anyone should prescribe to me how I should campaign. So, if the party constitution had stopped the formation of campaign committees, then I would have understood. There is no such provision in our constitution that stops us from making campaign committees”.

Mundubile assured his supporters that he is still in the presidential race for the party and encouraged them to continue supporting him.

“I’d like to assure the people that I responded to your call for me to vie for leadership. We started walking together almost four years back. We only went on a break when president Lungu came and continued with the journey. So, I want to assure the members that I will not back down. I will remain in the race until a leader has been voted. So, I still remain in the race. I also want to take this opportunity to tell the members that pulling out of the conclave did not mean I pulled out of the presidential race. I’m still very much within the presidential race and I will continue campaigning until we’ve been to the conference and the leader has been elected,” Mundubile assured.

“My supporters will not give up. They started offering this support back in 2022. So, you can see how long they’ve waited. We’re in the election year now, they’re not ready to give up, they can’t give up now because we are almost getting to elections. Something that they started supporting three years earlier. I’m speaking to my supporters that’s why we have all these campaign teams. Because I cannot speak to the whole country. You know there are no rallies now, at every meeting we are chased around by the police and so on. So, this campaign can only happen through structures. You’ve got to have a system. So our capacity to mobilise structures across the country as campaign teams should not offend anyone. It’s just our campaign strategy”.

Asked if he felt it was the right time for him to take over, Mundubile responded in the affirmative, adding that he had taken a lot of time to marshal for support.

“Yes, in fact, it’s long overdue. Well, I have been in this race from 2022. You and others have covered me on several occasions. I have taken a lot of time to marshal for support across the party structures. You will know that if you go through the past four years, you will find that because I was fighting and campaigning for this presidency, I went and supported almost every by-election there was, whether it was in Chavuma, whether it was in Luwingu, whether it was in Kasama, Petauke, Kabwata, Kawambwa or Pambashe. Because as a candidate, I needed to lead from the front. And the support you are seeing from the people right across the country is not coming from without,” he said.

Mundubile added that he started campaigning in 2022 and only stopped when late former president Edgar Lungu announced his return to politics.

“I have been with the people in very difficult times. When it was not fashionable to speak against the UPND, I did. When it was not fashionable to send lawyers to go and rescue youths who had been arrested because I was a candidate and I needed to lead from the front. So that support that you are seeing is not from without, it’s coming from hard work. Having interacted with the structures right across the country. That is the response and that is the feedback that you are getting from those that are supporting me. Many may not have this history, they may only think this thing has started now,” Mundubile said.

“I would like to remind you that when we started this journey, early 2022, until October 2023, when the late president decided to come back to active politics we pulled back. But by the time I was pulling back, there was two years’ work already in there. So, when we lost our president and we decided to resume, I was starting from somewhere. I was not starting from zero. So, for those that may have wondered where this support was coming from, this is work that was done over a long period of time. And it’s therefore surprising that things surrounding this particular campaign, everything around my campaign has become acrimonious. So, to answer your question, I’ve been at it for a very long time”.

Meanwhile, Mundubile said other party presidential candidates had campaign teams which they had not announced publicly.

“So, I will answer to those charges, but I think it’s important for people to understand that even those that haven’t openly announced their campaign committees, they have campaign committees. Otherwise, how are they campaigning? How are they campaigning if they don’t have campaign committees? So, whoever is participating in this race, I want to believe they have a campaign committee. That is how they are managing to campaign. We are all in Lusaka, how are they talking to the people in Kaputa? They are talking to them through campaign committees. If for some reason they don’t want to announce them, that’s not a problem, it’s their strategy also,” Mundubile said.

“But it must be known that every candidate has a campaign committee. And some of the members of those committees are known because we see them travelling with this particular candidate. So, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with me announcing my campaign committee. All I want them to do is to have a bit more authority as they go to campaign for me because I’ve recognised them. So, campaign committees, every candidate has a campaign committee. Otherwise, if they don’t have [one], how are they competing?”

On why he was the only one being targeted when others also had campaign teams, Mundubile said he was not aware of the reason, but wondered why some of his supporters were removed from the central committee.

“Just like I don’t know [why] all those in the central committee who were shown to be aligned to me were all removed from the central committee, [I don’t know]. So, there must be some reason [but] I don’t know why. But all those who were aligned to me, even in the central committee, you know that they were removed, including the chairman of the party. So, it’s not the first time that this is happening to me insofar as this race is concerned. I lost six people, including the provincial chairman for Lusaka, Honourable [Christopher] Shakafuswa, the chairman for the party who was accused of being aligned to me, he was removed,” said Mundubile.

“Honourable Melesiana Phiri was removed. MCC Abuid Kawangu was removed. And the chairman for Northern Province [Chomba Chipili] was removed, Brenda Nyirenda, acting DSG then, was removed. They were all removed without any reason, without due process. The only reason was that they were aligned to me. So, even the comments regarding the campaign team does not come as a surprise”.

(Credit: News Diggers)