Those trusting Moonga
maybe they’re naïve – Chama
By Kombe Mataka
PF chairperson Davis Chama says former party central committee member Paul Moonga is a politician that is migratory by nature.
But Chama says those leaving the PF are not joining the ruling UPND because it is deceitful.
“They are pathological liars. And people who have integrity do not want to go to a political party that can lie with the face up. They can lie in the morning, lie in the afternoon and even when they are sleeping and dreaming,” Chama said.
Reacting to the defection of Moonga to the Socialist Party, Chama told The Mast that it was not the first time Moonga was defecting to another party and that only a naïve political party would think he was there to stay.
“You know Paul Moonga. Who doesn’t know Paul Moonga? Paul Moonga at one time left PF and he came back. Go into history of people who are migratory by nature, you will find that he left PF but he came back. So we will not be surprised that even where has gone, he will leave. If people can trust him, then maybe they are naive,” said Chama.
“They don’t understand the kind of gentleman he is. We (PF) are looking for principled people who believe in what the party’s ideology is all about not people who don’t even know what they stand for.”
He said those that were leaving the PF nine months after the party lost power to the UPND knew what was motivating them when the party was still in power.
“If you were supporting the party, there is something that you believed in the party. A few months after losing power then you think all that you believed and campaigned for in order to return power, you suddenly lose interest? Then there is something motivating you,” Chama said.
“If you interrogate these individuals, who are moving how just after nine months of losing power they just want move! If you evaluate the behavioural pattern of a human being and how you can distinguish whether somebody is principled or not, you will realise that there is something motivating them. Personally I can’t move. If I have to move, then I leave politics.”
He alleged that those leaving PF were not moving to UPND either because the party was not truthful.
“No one believes in the political party in power because it is deceitful. That is why people are not moving there. They are pathological liars. And people who have integrity do not want to go to a political party that can lie with the face up. They can lie in the morning, lie in the afternoon and even when they are sleeping and dreaming. Me personally I can’t and they are dealers and capitalists to the teeth,” Chama said.
“I have always said people express their democratic conscious to belong to a political party they think at a time… Even when we were in opposition, not now but during the reign of the late president Michael Chilufya Sata people used to move. Others, we used to Chase them. Remember when we expelled 22 members of parliament the party did not die up to now. People are migrating. You know we live in a country or society where there is this political migration. People move from one political party to another. We are also receiving members. Few days ago Dr Canisius Banda, who was a former UPND vice-president was coopted into the central committee of the party.”
He said there was plenty from the pool that all parties could recruit from.
“There also people that have never participated in politics. You know Zambia has a population of about 18 million people and if you take a sample of about four million people who participated in the last elections in terms of voting who you can deem as politically active…Out of 18 million people you remove four million, you still have about 12 million people who are independent or have not aligned themselves with any political party,” said Chama.
“For us those are the people that are joining us because they have seen what PF has done in terms of transformation of the country under 10 years. What happened under PF’s 10-year rule people are very appreciative.”