PICK RUNNING MATES OF HIGH CALIBRE, NOT ANYTHING WITH BRE@STS – MUMBI PHIRI
FORMER PF Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri has advised presidential candidates to pick running mates with high calibre and not “anything that has breasts”.
She argues that since former vice-president Inonge Wina was the first female running mate, many now assume the position must automatically go to a woman.
In an interview, Tuesday, Phiri said running mates should be chosen based on credibility, not just because they are women.
“And this notion which people have, because madam Inonge Wina was the first woman running mate, they automatically think there should be a woman who is a running mate. It shouldn’t be like that. We should get a person, whether [it is] a young man, a young lady [or] a woman who has credibility, not any other woman. You know that I agree with President Hakainde Hichilema [on] why he doesn’t send [Vice-President Mutale] Nalumango out of the country. Is that the calibre you would want to have another woman as running mate, of Nalumango’s calibre? Who doesn’t know what comes out [of] her mouth? Who can come from marrying her own daughter in a white wedding and start telling her friends’ children to ‘imite ufole’ (get pregnant and get paid? Is that a woman whom you can say that is somebody you are proud of?” she asked.
“So, let’s pick credible people. Look at the women we have in highest institutions of governance. Are you proud of Madam Speaker? Are you proud of Madam Chairperson for the Electoral Commission? Are you proud of the madam at the ConCourt? Let us not pick anything as long as they have breasts, no, let us pick sense”.
Phiri added that any opposition leader that would want to go alone in the 2026 elections was not representing the people but his stomach.
“You know where we are, it’s not a matter of who wins the PF presidency, no. Where we are is whoever wins has to bring everybody on board. Because at the end of the day, we’ll only have one presidential candidate. So, if it’s Makebi Zulu who is going to win, he shouldn’t look at himself as victorious, he should work hard to bring all those who’ll lose to his side so that we move in one accord. Let me take this opportunity to tell the people of Zambia that where we are, if you can see that the men of God can start insulting each other like that Bishop said to our Archbishops in the Catholic Church. When he reads the Bible and he knows that even in the Bible there are some men of God who never married, was Jesus Christ himself married? Did Jesus Christ himself have children? Then you know that we have demons in our Church leaders and you, our leaders: Kalaba, M’membe, Charles Chanda, [you] name them, please let’s have the unity of purpose,” Phiri noted.
“And Zambians, when we go into next year during filling in, if you see somebody as an opposition going alone, just know that person is not representing [you]. That person is not representing you. That person is representing his stomach and his family because where we are, a normal person cannot want to [go] alone and divide the vote”.
Meanwhile, responding to Zambezi East UPND MP Brian Kambita who said any suggestion to change government now would be disastrous, Phiri said if the lawmaker was comfortable with UPND’s conduct, then the party would continue being in government.
“If Kambita is very comfortable with the words which were used by the UPND cadre, that Bishop from Lufwanyama, insulting fellow clergy, let the UPND government continue. If Kambita is happy to reduce our children who are supposed to be intellectuals to turn them into cadres, I can give an example of my daughter, a vibrant child, to be used as a political cadre when she is supposed to be a technocrat, let that continue. If Kambita believes that Madam Speaker can go against what the Committee on Privileges suggested to Madam Speaker to let Tasila Lungu continue attending Parliament using virtual [means], and a precedent has been set that a Speaker can deny what a Committee on Privileges has recommended, let the UPND continue,” said Phiri.
“If Kambita is okay with the blackouts which are happening in Zambia where Zambians have lost businesses, they are sleeping without eating, let the UPND continue. If he believes that they rejected the same contents which are now in Bill 7, let the UPND continue. That’s the only thing I can see”.
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