Miles Sampa says ACTING PF LEADERS WANT TO IMPOSE PRESIDENT ON US
digger.news (Thursday April 6, 2023)
Former United Democratic Front (UDF) President, Miles Sampa says acting party leaders are making all sorts of excuses on why the convention cannot be held so that they can impose their preferred candidate on the people.
And Sampa says the longer PF takes to hold a convention, the weaker it’ll become.
Meanwhile, Sampa says PF Chairperson for Information and Publicity Raphael Nakacinda’s primary objective is to sideline original PF members like Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, Chishimba Kambwili and himself.
The party was expected to hold its convention in March 2023 but the party leadership later announced that it would not go through because it was still amending its constitution as well as awaiting determination of some legal issues before the courts of law.
But in an interview, Sampa said acting PF leaders would use all manner of excuses not to hold the convention because they had a preferred candidate.
“They will use all excuses to delay just to benefit themselves. It is all about them and not the owners of the party who are the grassroots. Why should it take two years since president Lungu resigned? Every month there is one excuse, ‘there is no money’, but we candidates paid K200,000 [each], it came up to almost K1.8 or K2 million. As far as I am concerned, that was already enough money to hold a convention. They changed that ‘no we need first to change the constitution’, why didn’t you start with the constitution first? Does FIFA start thinking of changing the rules after the World Cup has started? Why did you start inviting applications? Along the way after people apply, then [you say] ‘no we first need to work on the constitution’, they themselves were in power for seven years, they had all the time to clean up the constitution,” he said.
“I agree, the constitution of PF has always [needed] to be cleaned up like any other constitution, it has to be updated. But when we were bringing up those things when we were in power, they were ignoring. Football, you have blown the whistle, the game has started, then at half time you say ‘second half won’t start first we should change the rules of FAZ’? It means it is excuses after excuses. They will use money as an excuse, they use the constitution as an excuse. Even if we change the constitution of PF, they will come up with another excuse. The point is, they don’t want the owners of the party the grassroots to have a convention so that they elect the leader they want because they know that them they can’t be elected, so they have to impose themselves”.
He said the grassroots did not want the same leaders who were in the forefront during the 2021 general elections.
“The more it delays, the more it weakens it obviously. If we had a chosen a leader in end 2021 itself, we would had become stronger or if we had elected by March, but now they want to use the court as an excuse, they would use every excuse to say why they can’t hold a convention. So the earlier we are going to hold it and chose a leader, whoever it is, the stronger the party would have been. The longer it takes, the weaker it becomes. Their theory is not even to hold a convention until 2026, obviously because they know that if we hold it now, the people that they want won’t win. So they are hoping they delay, so they can go selling themselves but no matter how they sell themselves those, the grassroots know who they don’t want,” Sampa said.
“Bring up names of those former chakuti chakuti (titles), you will see the grassroots doesn’t want to hear about them. They want people who were not in the forefront towards the general elections, we lost. They want new names that were in reserves to be the ones in the forefront. We cannot know which new name they want until they hold elections. They will find even 20 reasons not to have the convention take place, they will be changing reasons; ‘there is no money, no we need to change the constitution, no the court case, no, next it will be raining, no it is cold season, no there is whirlwind’, they will keep having excuse after excuse. But that is why I have gone to court to stop them”.
And Sampa accused Nakacinda of wanting to destroy the party.
“First of all, any party needs new members. Remember, we beat the MMD in 2011, I know how they brutalised us when we were in opposition but we beat them. So I have no problem with MMD members that came to join PF, the genuine ones. Now there are bad ones like Nakacinda, they come, their primary objective is to step on people they found like me, GBM and Kambwili. Even the suspension of me, do you know who was insisting? It was Nakacinda. All the other people like GBM, Kambwili, all the true green were even just saying ‘the apology from Miles is okay let us move on’, but Nakacinda insisted ‘let us expel him, let us suspend him’, and we went to influence my brothers who agreed to turn against me Honourable Lubinda and Honourable Chilangwa. What is it I did that no other one amongst all candidates did not do before me to warrant my suspension while they were tolerated. It was all designed to have me disqualified at the elective Congress and have had enough of being kicked and dribbled like a football ,” he said.
“So I don’t know whether I remind the very few bad MMD origin people of Sata who they still hate so much for defeating them out power. Anybody that reminds Nakacinda of Sata, he hates them. Those are the MMD I call hijackers, him he just came to destroy and he doesn’t want anyone who looks green like me, GBM or Kambwili and that is his objective to destroy. When PF is finished, then he will move on to try and destroy UPND. Nakacinda is the one I call and others as MMD hijackers but he will not triumph, I will not allow him”.
He said the party was where it was because the PF leaders did not want to hold a convention.
“The reason I went to court, I saw that there were schemes not to have the convention by end of March. I noticed that three months ago and I started seeing all the manoeuvres that were being done ultimately not to have the convention this March, and not to have the convention by the end of the year. Some schemes were pushing not to have it at all. So my going to court is to try and get the convention to take place, for the people to choose who they want. It is not about me being president, if they choose me, well and good but if they choose somebody else, well and good. All I want is for the PF to respect own constitution by going to the convention and choose a leader according to the constitution. So I foresaw all this, all manner of excuses were being made just to make sure that the convention does not take place,” said Sampa.
“When they hear Regsitrar of a Societies they cream deregistration from the guilty of when they deregistered my party for no reason. Their narrow thinking is that the Registrar of Societies only role is deregistration. No; it also has to monitor that political parties are democratic and holding elections when due. My going to court is to try and get the convention to take place, that is why I am in court to stop all those that don’t want the convention. We are where we are because they never wanted the convention at all. I am pushing. Those rivals, I call them hijackers, they think propaganda can sustain them. That is their mentality, they abused power when they were in power. I am pushing. The convention will take place, that is my message to the grassroots and they should ignore all manner of propaganda on me. The truth is I am pushing that the PF constitution is obeyed. I am very optimistic that we will triumph and the convention will take place and the members will have a chance to choose whichever person”.