FORMER Petauke district PF secretary Katongo Moses Mutale says there is a pressing need for the governing party to come up with an alternative presidential candidate ahead of next year’s elections.
Mutale says the issue of saying that Lesa akasonta (God will appoint) is misleading those in the PF.
“What it is is that it is us who choose and then God blesses and anoints the one we have chosen. An example is him [President Lungu]; he was not chosen by God. He can’t tell us that Lesa alinsonta (God appointed me). No!” Mutale argued. “It is ba Sata who chose him and then God came to endorse that choice. So, let him also choose someone to take over from him and then God will anoint that person.”
He served as the district secretary from 2004 to 2013 and to date, he is still a PF member.
Mutale called The Mast from Petauke on Wednesday afternoon and said: “people are saying our president (Edgar Lungu) doesn’t qualify to contest for elections next year.”
“That is an indication that should make us [to] wake-up as a party. Sometimes things can just happen the way these people who are fighting us are saying. What are we doing on our side as a party? What have we prepared?” Mutale asked.
“Before Michael Sata died, we saw him piling positions of leadership on one individual which is Edgar Lungu and he left the instruments of power with this person. That’s how we went to support Edgar Lungu at our general conference in December 2014.”
He said now that some people were still arguing about President Lungu’s eligibility for 2021, the PF should have come up: “with a person who we can start selling to the people of Zambia.”
“It is not a crime to come up with a person whom the President can also anoint and start moving with, to sell him to the people of Zambia,” he said.
“Suppose on that day (filing in of presidential nomination papers) it happens the other way, that person can come in as the PF candidate. That way, we’ll not be stuck as a party. We’ll have a way forward.”
Mutale charged that there was a penchant for fear and bootlicking in the PF.
“What I have seen in our party [is that] there is a tendency of not telling ourselves the truth. There is a tendency of fearing each other. There is a tendency of bootlicking; thinking that when I speak like this, I’ll be hurt, I’ll be reshuffled, I’ll be stoned,” Mutale explained. “We are a united party and let’s come up with an alternative candidate who we’ll need to sell, come next year – suppose our President is disadvantaged. We need to have another name on the ground. As I’m talking right now, we have the ward structures in place, which is good. We have constituency, district and provincial executive structures. But we don’t have a central committee.”
He continued: “those people who are in the central committee are there illegally.”
“We need to choose another party president and if we are not going to do that, come next year we’ll be caught unawares. Immediately we are caught unawares, we’ll lose the election,” Mutale cautioned. “We need to face reality. The margins of winning elections in 2015 and 2016, the difference was just too minimal. This is the time to put our house in order.”
He further said he knew the people who have been deceiving President Lungu, “telling the President ‘all is well’.”
“I know them by name and if at all I was given the chance to remove these people who have been deceiving the President, I can sort them out. They are less than 15 – those who came to destroy our party,” he said. “We can easily park them and win again the confidence of the Zambians.”
Mutale noted that the issue of saying that Lesa akasonta (God will appoint) was misleading those in the PF.
“What it is is that it is us who choose and then God blesses and anoints the one we have chosen. An example is him [President Lungu]; he was not chosen by God. He can’t tell us that Lesa alinsonta (God appointed me). No!” Mutale argued. “It is ba Sata who chose him and then God came to endorse that choice. So, let him also choose someone to take over from him and then God will anoint that person. If at all he cannot choose, let him give it to the party members to choose somebody whom we should pray for and put in the hands of God.”
He added that God works through people.
“God used Michael Sata to give ba Lungu the instruments of power. Let it be known to us members; why should we be living as if it’s a blind party? PF is not a blind party. Let him (President Lungu), who is the father of this party, come out with a name,” said Mutale.
“We can’t continue going on and saying ‘God will choose.’ Where have we met God? Let him not keep on producing those statements to say Lesa akasonta. No! No! No! Even Church leaders; how do we choose them? We don’t see God coming to appoint them. It’s human beings who choose them and then they are prayed for so that God can endorse and accept them.”