Miles lives in a glass house, must not dare throw stones – Lubinda
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
I HAVE stopped referring to myself as acting president, says Given Lubinda.
And Lubinda says not hell will break loose should Miles Sampa withdraw his surety.
“Let him go ahead and as a matter of fact he can go and apply to court today. What Miles Sampa also ought to be reminded of is that he lives in a glass house, he must not dare throw stones,” he says.
Lubinda said in an interview that he and Nickson Chilangwa who was acting PF secretary general were law abiding citizens.
The statement comes in the wake of a court injunction obtained by Matero PF member of parliament and party presidential aspirant Miles Sampa which ordered his reinstatement as central committee member from which he was suspended for six weeks recently.
“The public must not worry about anything. The injunction that Miles Sampa obtained is to reverse a decision that was already made. The central committee of the party made a decision to suspend Miles Sampa and now he has gone to the court. So the court should have compelled us to reverse the suspension but the court is the one that is saying ‘yes we have reversed the suspension’ very well. Then the second is that Given Lubinda must not hold out as acting president and Nickson Chilangwa must not hold out as acting secretary general.
Now we are law abiding citizens and we respect the court,” Lubinda said. “Starting from the minute that exparte order was granted I have stopped referring to myself as acting president. And honourable Chilangwa has stopped referring to himself as acting secretary general. It means that I revert to my position. The position that I hold of vice-president of the Patriotic Front and honourable Chilangwa reverts to his position of deputy secretary general. This is only up to the time the matter is determined by the court but in the meantime, being the vice-president of the party in the absence of the president because the president is on indefinite leave, I will continue to be leader of the Patriotic Front but not as acting president. I will serve as vice-president because my boss is on leave and because there is no secretary general, honourable Nickson Chilangwa who is deputy secretary general shall perform the functions that should be performed by a person who will be called secretary general. So we are not doing anything against the order and there is no vacuum in the PF as it stands now. There is no leadership crisis.”
And Lubinda dared Sampa to go ahead to withdraw surety from him in a matter where he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
“This has nothing to do with feelings. I can be a brother’s keeper but I cannot be the keeper of my brother’s morals. I can’t, that is impossible. I cannot be a keeper of my brother’s morals. This is a matter of morality. He has chosen to go ballistic and call people names. He has gone to the extent of saying he is withdrawing as my surety as though if he takes way from being my surety, then hell will break loose. No, it won’t,” Lubinda said.
“It is his right. Let him go ahead and as a matter of fact he can go and apply to court today. I cannot stop him. If his signing a letter for surety was on the basis of me protecting him when others think he has overstepped, then it was on a very wrong premise.”
He warned that Sampa was too junior to be ranting about him.
“What Miles Sampa also ought to be reminded of is that he lives in a glass house, he must not dare throw stones. He must not throw stones. I listened to that broadcast of his and creates an impression that in the time, that time, that we have known each other I have been the beneficiary of our relationship. Now, how insincere can one be? But you see you know people by their deeds. For some people if they divorce, they will go and start giving unnecessary information to the public. Others will say, ‘we have come to the end of this journey and let us end this marriage,” said Lubinda. “I am almost 20 years his senior and he is right when he says I am his mentor. He is calling me ‘my former mentor’, you can never have a former mentor. It is the same as saying this one is my former father. I am too senior, the boy is far too young and I think he will do well to learn and I even regret that I may not have gone to the extent of really making him a mature person.”