I KNOW things are not easy and that’s why I have taken a decision with a full consciousness that I want to join a team that I can work with in good or bad times, Mwenya Musenge said as he justified rejoining the PF.
Musenge, the former NDC secretary general, said he was aware that the PF was at its lowest but asked society to realise that people make mistakes.
“E, nabwelela ku PF. Kaili ubwafya bwakuti twalolesha five months iyi tapali efyo twalacita na agenda so twaloleshafye nati natubwelele, tubombefye nababene (Yes, I’m back to PF. The problem is that we have considered that in the remaining five months there’s nothing we can do with our agenda, so we just resolved to get back and work with them),” he said, after ditching his own party the Agenda for Human Development (AHD). “Problem iyabapo walishiba nga muli mung’anda kuti mwalaka naba wiso naba noko, wafuma ne cipyu waya. But later on, you will come back and say awe, bafyashi aba natwikale nifyo fine. Ifyakutila tubombe apa tatulemoneka kwati kuti twakwanisha so it’s better twabomba nababene (You know, it’s like in a home, you can quarrel with your father and mother, and you leave the home in anger. But later on, you will come back and say, these are my parents, let’s just stay like this. It seems we cannot manage on our own, so it’s better we just work with these (the PF).”
Musenge said he could not join the UPND because it is already in an alliance with Chishimba Kambwili.
“Nawishiba nokutila ati kulya kumbi (UPND) teti tuye. Kulya kuli umunandi, so ine naine mfwile nafwaya ukwakuya (You know that I can’t join the other side. There is my colleague there, so I should also find where to go),” he said.
Asked if the PF he criticised had changed, Musenge said, “Mwalishiba nga mwalipanga ama mistakes ma mistakes yalicitika (You know, if you have made mistakes, those are mistakes which have happened). What is important is to move on. Apa nomba kutila twalabomba shani (the issue now is, how do we work)? This is a party that we all laboured for under Michael Chilufya Sata. We worked extremely hard.”
He appreciated an invitation from defence minister Davis Chama to all those that left the PF to rejoin.
Musenge claimed that PF was his home and wondered what Sata would think to see what he and some of his colleagues did to the party.
“Like in my case, ama meetings yonse ayo twalekwata naba Kambwili (in all the meetings we had with Mr Kambwili), each and every meeting he was blaming me, saying I was the causer ati ninebo naleta ba Edgar Lungu (that I’m the one who brought Mr Edgar Lungu),” Musenge said. “So, in the end twaisalandafye ati kwena cacine (We just resolved that truly) I was very much involved, so it’s better to go and work with him.”
Musenge said it was wrong to assume that he had rejoined PF because he had no money.
“The Zambian politics unfortunately, that’s how they are…people always have stories to create but for me I don’t think that is the reason,” Musenge said.
The former Copperbelt minister said he was aware of the PF constitutional requirement on the re-admission which required one to wait for three years to be re-admitted.
He said it was up to the PF to accept him or not.
“Those constitutional requirements and demands are a PF prerogative and all I have hinted is to join PF. It’s up to the party to accept me or not accept me, but, as I have clearly indicated I am joining as an ordinary member,” said Musenge. “Otherwise, the party has a constitution and it is up to the party to make sure that they follow and abide by what the party constitution says.”