TONSE CAN’T UNITE IF WE CAN’T MEET – MUNDUBILE

TONSE CAN’T UNITE IF WE CAN’T MEET – MUNDUBILE

MPOROKOSO PF MP Brian Mundubile says the purpose of the gathering at Sean Tembo’s residence was to resolve the alliance’s internal problems.

On Tuesday, chaos erupted when some members of the Patriotic Front and Tonse Alliance nearly exchanged blows, forcing quick police intervention. The clash happened when Tonse members, led by Sean Tembo, Mundubile, Chris Zumani and Kelvin Fube Bwalya, among others, attempted to hold a meeting at Tembo’s residence but were disrupted by PF members who questioned the decision to hold the meeting.

But in an interview, Friday, Mundubile explained that attending such meetings was essential for settling internal issues.

“Well, first of all, I believe in unity of purpose, and unity of purpose means that people have to dialogue. I’m not a believer of exchanges in the media between fellow members of the PF and fellow members of the alliance.

So of course the whole issue has been about our attendance; us attending that meeting. But my basic response is that we can’t unite if we can’t meet. So, the purpose of attending the meeting was that if there are any issues, we resolve them in-house and not in the media. Others argued that the meeting was not properly called. If that is the case, when do you address that particular problem? If the problem is about that meeting not being properly called, when do you address it?” he asked.

“So, I think that there are overreactions over the matter, but if people have a sober reflection, they’ll realise that actually a number of us who are members of the central committee went there in a bid to resolve the problems within the meeting. The notice of the meeting was circulated by comrade Sean Tembo, who is the spokesperson.

Other members argued that he had no right to call for a meeting. So, my position was very simple: whether or not the meeting was properly called was not the issue; the issue was to go to that meeting. If at all I felt the meeting was not properly called, I should resolve it at that meeting. Even in conflict, we have seen that government, with the people that don’t agree with them, they sit down to talk. So, if we didn’t go to the meeting, the meeting would have proceeded and made resolutions which were going to affect us”.

Mundubile said leaders should resolve differences in-house, as opposed to publicising them, in order to maintain unity.

“You address it in the meeting, you first of all meet and then say okay, can we look at our founding documents, is this meeting properly called or not? So, the starting point is to meet. The misunderstanding people could have had about the meeting should not be… because you meet first and agree that yes, it is not properly constituted, can we wait until we are properly constituted.

But if you don’t meet, when do you resolve that problem? So, my submission is that as leaders, we should restrain ourselves from bringing the differences to the public. The differences must be resolved in-house so that together you emerge united,” said Mundubile.

“If what happened at Mulungushi when comrade [Miles] Sampa had a convention, because members didn’t attend, members stayed away, what resulted was that we’re in this state now because people stayed away. But if people had gone there to say look, this meeting is not called, this convention is not properly called, maybe today we would have been dealing with a different issue.

So, to stay away whilst others are meeting, others will later emerge, make resolutions which affect the entire alliance. So the only way to resolve that is to go to the meeting and argue in that meeting, argue a point in the meeting, and then later you forestall the damage that could ensue”.

Meanwhile, Chama South PF MP Davison Mung’andu said he was glad that PF MPs were now waking up.

“First of all, I’m glad that PF members of parliament are now waking up, seeing what I saw almost two years ago. If you are to ask them, I was posting about PF that members of parliament wake up and take hold of the party, they ignored. You know, politics sometimes work like cults, where some political parties, including PF at times, they operate like a cult.

I have been consistent and I was among those that said leave the late president out of politics. I said that out of love because I knew that there were some people who, in the first place, never believed in the late president, but they wanted to use his name to launder their way into PF presidency. That is the game which was there from the beginning. So for me it’s not a strange thing, and you have not yet seen anything,” said Mung’andu.

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