By Noel Iyombwa
THE senseless political cannibalism rocking the Patriotic Front could spell total eclipse of the party if this destructive distraction is not arrested immediately, warns George Mpombo.
Mpombo, a former defence minister in the MMD government, said the devastating loss PF suffered in the last general elections had a huge negative impact on the political viability of the party.
He said there is imperative need for the PF to focus on political reorganisation.
“Infighting will severely bruise the rebranding process and make the party less attractive. This may result in members leaving the party in droves. The party should put both hands on the deck as they pick up their broken pieces. Unity of purposes is cardinal if the party is to successfully embark on its second missionary’s journey,” Mpombo said. “The party should concentrate on coming up with a strategy that will see their comeback in 2026 because so far it is the only opposition political party.”
He observed that at the moment the country has not seen a potential opposition political party hence the chance for the former ruling party to reorganise itself in readiness for 2026.
Mpombo said senior PF members should work on the party’s weaknesses following the August 2021 loss.
Mpombo said infighting over positions and other things won’t help the party but instead make things worse.
He was commenting on PF member Joseph Chirwa’s statement that the former ruling party should sober up and stop the trends that led to its downfall in the last election.
“We must change, for example, in the way we handle conflicts within the party. We are still hostile towards each other. There is still mistrust within the party. There is power struggle within the party. As we are speaking, we haven’t rebranded. We are still the same party,” Chirwa told The Mast.
Announcing his decision to contest the position of national chairperson for legal affairs at the PF convention, Chirwa said every member should be allowed to contest positions they want from the presidency going down.
“I think that I can contribute to the revival of the PF. Are you aware that I tried to contest the same position prior to the general elections but unfortunately there were no elections? People were imposed on the general membership and this contributed to the bad performance of the PF,” he said.
“The PF as a party should sober up and stop the trends that contributed to its downfall. This is the time that, as the constitution provides, every member should be allowed to contest for the positions that they want. From the president, they should allow Brian Mundubile, Chishimba Kambwili, Emmanuel Mwamba and every person to stand as long as they are members of PF.”
He said this was not a right time when a party should be run like a cartel where leaders were imposed on the people.
“The moment we impose leaders on the people the party will not survive. The party will not be revived. The party will die by 2026. We are an opposition party, the time to dictate…even the former president should not have a hand in anyone,” said Chirwa.
“Him (Edgar Lungu) is a father figure. He is a patron of the PF. So let him facilitate a smooth transition of power so that we have a new membership in PF that has been voted and wanted by the party. …You can only rebrand with new people; meaning that you have to adopt new ideas. The pomposity that we had as a party where even our songs, our conduct as if we took people for granted that whether they wanted or not we will be in power… That pomposity, that pride, that ego should be dropped. To rebrand means that you have to change. You cannot rebrand something that hasn’t changed. We have to change our philosophy. We have to change our message. The most important thing is that we have to change our leadership. We cannot rebrand with the same leaders that are responsible for the status quo that we are in. We have to change our systems and our processes, that’s the only way.”