PF doesn’t deserve insanity – Mukupa
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
FORMER PF chairman Samuel Mukupa says the party has gone through shocks before.
Mukupa, a PF league of elders member, told The Mast in an interview that PF was still popular.
But he says “one line of thought is that even in leadership, we should know the difference between insanity and leadership and I want to think that it is our view that we choose the latter. If there are issues you would know that this obviously is not the sane way of handling matters and I want to think PF does not deserve insanity.”
“It has gone through these shocks before. Firstly, you know that the party is a very popular organisation. Since Michael Sata got on it, it has been a very popular party and attracts a lot of people up to this point. Contestation for leadership is a healthy thing. We would have been worried if there was only person wanting to lead the party
but that there are so many jostling for the positions,” he said. “You see if people proposing love to you are just two or one, I will know as your uncle that my niece’s market is very constricted. But if they are seven suitors, the choice you make would be a good one. But also it indicates to a lot of extent that you have a good product and all you have to do is make sure it does not culminate into confusion.”
Mukupa referred to the 2014 squabbles within the PF following the death of president Sata.
“You may be able to remember in 2014 we had more or less the same number. What we need and what we are praying for is whoever gets elected must be magnanimous enough to bring on board everybody. An example of Edgar [Lungu] is a very vivid one where after he assumed office, everybody who contested together with him was brought back to government in one form or another. They were given some role to play. For me that is my prayer,” he said. “Michael Sata’s dream was that political parties work on the numbers of people and I want to think that if that legacy lives on there is no cause to worry. One line of thought is that even in leadership, we should know the difference between insanity and leadership and I want to think that it is our view that we choose the latter. If there are issues you would know that this obviously is not the sane way of handling matters and I want to think PF does not deserve insanity. So when it comes to issues of litigation like is the case now, the people will be the best judge.”
And Mukupa said it was clear that the PF and Lungu was haunting UPND secretary general Batuke Imenda.
He said in reaction to Imenda’s statement that Lungu’s “unceremonious dismissal from State House by Zambian votyers in 2021 is haunting him”.
Imenda was reacting to Lungu’s jokes veiled in innuendos against President Hakiande Hichilema on Thursday last week when he and his wife accompanied their son Dalitso to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC)
for questioning.
Imenda said the UPND were aware that Lungu was planning a come back
but that his machinations shall sink him further politically.
“Imenda’s fear about Edgar Lungu is the same fear that has gripped the entire UPND starting from the top leadership up to the last. Let Edgar Lungu rest. Bwana Imenda is being haunted by Lungu and PF ghost because it will never sleep. He knows that,” said Mukupa. “They should be ready for the people not PF, not Edgar Lungu. They know they are in this contest and the mandate is five years. Let them be answerable to the people on what they committed. What has Lungu got to do with their mandate that they have been given? The mandate that they have been given is predicated on what they promised and that is why they should be answerable to the people and not to
Lungu. Lungu is one man with a vote. They should say, ‘we are ready for the people’. So let them stop bothering about Lungu. How many votes has Lungu got? Even if you counted his family, you won’t count
more than three votes.”