MUNDUBILE’S CAMPAIGN TEAM DISMISSES EXCULPATORY LETTERS, ‘MUKANDILA IS NOT PF SG’
MKUSHI South PF MP Davies Chisopa says PF faction acting Deputy Secretary General Celestine Mukandila is committing contempt with the exculpatory letters he’s sending to Brian Mundubile and his campaign team members.
Meanwhile, PF MCC Kennedy Kamba has called on Given Lubinda to provide leadership to the party or he risks destroying it.
Mukandila recently wrote exculpatory letters to Brian Mundubile and members of his campaign committee who include Japhen Mwakalombe, Chisopa, Kamba and Patrick Chishala.
In the letters, the members were accused of holding or being in part of divisive parallel meetings and authorised press conferences without any authority and mandate from the central committee.
The members were given seven days in which to exculpate themselves in writing to show cause why disciplinary action should not be taken against them.
Reacting to the letter in an interview, Chisopa who is Mundubile’s campaign manager dismissed Mukandila’s letter, adding that such actions would not stop them from gunning for support for their candidate.
“That’s our strategic plan, they are even lucky that we are even announcing. When you are planning a war, you don’t even announce but in our case, we are even announcing that these are our campaign committees. Remember that we are preparing today for the conference so we will continue gunning support for Brian Mundubile. We will continue, that will not stop us. And Mukandila has no powers whatsoever to even write a letter to me because we have not ratified him as Central Committee. He is not an SG not until he is ratified. That’s what the Constitution says, we have to ratify him as Secretary General, he’s not ratified. I’ve never sat in any central committee meeting where we have ratified Mukandila. So, I don’t think that Mukandila has even got the authority to write a letter to me,” he said..
Asked if he had received the letter, Chisopa responded in the affirmative adding that Mukandila was not even supposed to use a headed paper for the letters as per court injunction by Chabinga’s faction.
“Yes, yes and remember that he’s actually committing contempt. Remember, when you look at the court injunction that was gotten by Chabinga that we shouldn’t go for the conference, it’s not restricted to just the conference, it’s even talking about not using even any PF premises. He’s not even supposed to use even a headed paper, but he has gone ahead to use even the headed paper. He’s already committing contempt. So, me, I don’t want to be part and parcel
of such illegalities, we must respect the courts,” responded Chisopa.
“So, I can’t respond to him, first of all he’s not ratified, he’s not a secretary general of the party. Secondly, I cannot respond to a document that is headed and yet there’s a court injunction. Let them dispose of the court injunction then we ratify him, then we can respond to such kind of letters”.
Further asked if he was therefore dismissing the letter, Chisopa responded saying “yes, with contempt”.
Meanwhile, Kamba called on Lubinda to provide leadership, adding that suspending people supporting Mundubile was not going to build the party.
“As far as I’m concerned, Celestine is just being used because, as my colleague Mwakalombe said, our colleague, he was appointed by the NEC, which is not even in the party constitution, and they have never come back to the Central Committee to ratify that position that this person has been appointed. The Central Committee should ratify that appointment that has never been done. That is an abrogation of the party constitution here,” he said.
“Mine is just to ask Honourable Given Lubinda as our vice president, who is acting president to provide leadership, this thing of suspending people who are pro Brian Mundubile is not going to build the party, it is going to destroy the party. And we are not saying this as if we hate or we don’t love Ba Lubinda, no! We are saying this because we know that the presidential candidate who is going to get us through and form government this year is Brian Mundubile, that does not mean that our colleagues whom we are not supporting become our enemies. There are about 10 candidates and only one winner is going to emerge. Politics is a competition and if everyone feels that he can win at the conference, let us go to the conference and elect a leader. Whoever is going to emerge a winner, we are going to mend the differences and move as one”.
He added that he would only exculpate himself if the letter was not signed by Mukandila.
“If my letter is coming, I’ll receive it well and I will exculpate myself but I hope it is not being written by Mukandila, because Mukandila has not been ratified by the Central Committee. Let me check if they have sent it because they are just sending it through WhatsApp and they are failing to call for the central committee meeting. Let us go to the party conference and elect one candidate, that’s all. This issue of suspending and expelling members of parliament, members of the central committee it’s destroying PF. It’s not going to add value to Mukandila or the vice president Given Lubinda or the party. And the people are very disappointed because we are supposed to show leadership to the Zambian people. The Zambian people are expecting us to provide an alternative party now we are not providing leadership,” he said.
Further, Kamba said Lubinda had the chance to either build or destroy the party.
He added that Lubinda shouldn’t expel those opposing him.
“Given Lubinda is at the helm of the party. He can destroy this party or he can build this party, it is up to him. If he wants to destroy this party, let him destroy it. If he wants to build this party, he can do that. He is the acting president of the party. He can choose to destroy the party or he can choose to build the party. As we are speaking now, we don’t have a party president elected by the conference, we don’t have a political party or SPV.
We don’t know when we are going to the conference, and the party structures are asking for the leadership, they are asking for the direction. Even the people on the ground, they are telling us, ‘can you provide leadership over PF, can you give us direction’, which means the people on the ground have started asking us that you are not providing leadership, can we keep quiet? no,” said Kamba.
“History will judge him, we’ve got presidents who have been there before. They never destroyed the party, so if you are choosing a route of destroying the party, let him go ahead. He’s the father of the party as of now, what he was supposed to do is to call all those interested parties, sit them down.
Michael Sata used to be insulted by Silvia Masebo and Willie Nsanda. He made Willie Nsanda to be the campaign manager because he embraced them. He embraced those with divergent views. So, if you are not embracing those who are opposing you and because they are opposing you, you want to expel them from the party because you are the party president, how many are you going to expel? You are going to destroy the party. So, my appeal to him is to bring everyone on board, bring us on board, sit us down, let us talk with you so that collectively we disagree to agree”.
Efforts to reach Chishala proved futile as his phone was unreachable.
News Diggers