September 11, 2013
The Patriotic Front risks disintegrating and crumbling should President Michael Sata not run for a second term, Minister of Defence Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba has predicted.
Mwamba, who is popularly known as GBM, has charged that those who were against the endorsement of President Sata for the 2016 polls should know that the ruling party would easily crumble without the leadership of the President.
Mwamba told the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday that his crusade of endorsing President Sata as a sole candidate for the 2016 general elections was meant to save the party from what he termed as “political scavengers.”
He said under PF, it was only President Sata who could give the ruling party another victory because the President still enjoyed massive support and popularity from Zambians because of his determination to create employment and develop the country.
Mwamba said President Sata constitutionally deserved a second term and that those who were against him recontesting the presidency were being politically mischievous.
He said it was too early for President Sata to leave the party he had worked so hard to build for over a decade adding the PF would never be the same without the Head of State.
Mwamba said the ruling party would only allow President Sata to retire after he had served the second and groomed his successor that would be easy to sale to the electorate.
Mwamba said he would continue appealing to the Head of State not to abandon his own boat stating the clique that was scheming to unseat him would never succeed because the President was aware of their dealings.
He said Zambians were talking about the PF because they knew that President Sata was at the helm and that it would be risky for the party to participate in the 2016 elections without the President.
“If President Sata left the party now, it would easily crumble and disintegrate because it is the President who is holding the party together. And because of this, I will continue endorsing President Sata for the 2016 general elections and those who are against the President ruing for the second term are mischievous. Under PF President Sata is the only candidate who can give the party another victory because he is still enjoying massive support from the electorate,” Mwamba said.
Mwamba launched the President Sata endorsement campaign in Kasama and the campaign has since spread to Luapula, Eastern, Lusaka, Southern, Copperbelt and Western Provinces with each region declaring that the President would have to run for the second term.
[Daily Nation ]
