WASHING PF DIRTY LINEN IN PUBLIC IS CHILDISH – MUMBI PHIRI

WASHING PF DIRTY LINEN IN PUBLIC IS CHILDISH – MUMBI

FORMER PF Deputy Secretary General Mumbi Phiri says she will not join the “childishness” of discussing internal party matters in public.

Phiri says any party grievances should be discussed internally, as the PF is a family of people who are on speaking terms.

On Wednesday, Given Lubinda reminded members that he has powers of the party presidency, which he can use to create offices or dismiss members he thinks are a threat to the party’s security.

Earlier, some party members, including presidential aspirant Greyford Monde and Christopher Shakafuswa challenged him to provide evidence for his claims that the party had no money and that he had been using his own funds to finance by-elections.

Asked to comment on that in an interview, Phiri said as a cultured woman, she believed in resolving issues through closed-door meetings.

“And as you rightly said, I’m one of the old members of the Patriotic Front and one of the oldest members of the Central Committee. By the way, in case you didn’t know, I was the first national youth chairperson of the Patriotic Front and my secretary was Eric Chanda.

Honourable Chishimba Kambwili took over from me and I was the deputy secretary general when we were ruling. These matters, I don’t want to join a bunch of childishness to be discussing bedroom matters in public. The matters which you have asked me, I have direct access to Honourable Lubinda and if I have any grievances or if I have any concerns, I talk to the people concerned directly,” she said.

“I’m a woman who is cultured. You don’t resolve problems in the public domain, you solve problems in closed-door meetings. So, I will not join the bunch of childishness of those who want to comment, I’m not a kid. I’m a wife, I’m a mother and I’m a grandmother.

Even party matters to me, they are the same. We are a family as Patriotic Front and if there are some grievances, they are not to be discussed in public. We are all on talking terms, I would rather talk to the people concerned than me coming to the newspaper and washing dirty linen in public. I will not be part of that”.

She added that although there were issues within the PF under Michael Sata and Edgar Lungu, there was no washing of dirty linen in public.

“Being a cultured wife, a cultured woman, a cultured mother, a cultured grandmother, I will not join the childishness of those who want to wash dirty linen in public; I refuse. There were so many things which were happening underground, under the leadership of Michael Chilufya Sata.

And most of you know that I was very close to him. Just as much as I was very close to the late Edgar Chagwa Lungu. You never saw us washing dirty linen in public. We can talk about those things privately. And me, I refuse to be part of the people who are discussing sensitive party matters in public. I will not lower myself to that,” Phiri said.

Meanwhile, Phiri advised party members to remain calm and help choose the direction for the party by selecting a leader.

“To the party members, I call upon them to be calm. Where we are now, it’s the party members who should choose the direction we should go. It’s them who should give us a leader whom they want.

Even me, when I was deputy secretary general, it was because of the membership we had. That’s why I was called that. If there is no membership, there is nothing. And in our Bemba saying, we say, for a river to flow, there have to be stones. When a chief is saying, ‘I’m a chief,’ it’s when there are people,” said Phiri.

“When there is nothing, you can never call yourself a chief. You can never call yourself a president; you can never call yourself a king. So where we are, as we start 2026, the people themselves have to decide. It’s not the amount of money; it’s not the amount of wisdom. It’s not about how long somebody has been there, it’s the people’s choice”.

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