By Diggers Editor, : OPINION
PF member Kelvin Kaunda has expressed concern at the decision made by the former ruling party to hold its elective conference in June 2022, saying the general membership is not pleased and would like to see a new leadership take charge sooner.
The former councilor says it is also not in the best interest of the party for former president Edgar Lungu to continue as party president.
Kelvin KAUNDA: “I want to put it on record that the general membership of the party is quite displeased with the decision by the central committee to take the Congress to June 2022. This is unprecedented, this is a move which has not been welcomed. This is something that is not in good taste.
This is unprecedented in history. You know that whenever ECZ are conducting their general elections, when we as a nation have a general election, the campaign period provided is only about 90 days.
But here is an intra-party election being announced with a campaign period of seven months. Is this progressive? The answer is no. This is not progressive. Institutions, nations, organisations and so on rise and fall on the basis of leadership. So you cannot have a situation where you have an organisation which has a leadership which is in inverted commas ‘acting’.
There are a lot of questions that beg an answer as to why president Lungu is still perpetuating his stay in office. Whatever the reason may be, the general party leadership feels that the perpetuated stay of His Excellency the president Edgar Chagwa Lungu is not in the best interest of the party.”
Mr Kaunda may not be a very well-known public figure in the political circles because of the low profile that he prefers to keep. But it is just a matter of time before the country wakes up to realise how much of a great leader he is.
We say this from our experience working with him on several corporate social responsibility programmes that seek to foster good governance, transparency and accountability.
At a time when it was not fashionable to demand accountability from the PF government, this man found a way to facilitate public discussion forums where elected government officials from his party would face the citizens to address public concerns on various issues.
It’s needless to say that he did this fearlessly while holding the position of ward councillor on the ruling party ticket. We know very few people who have a passion for this country more than Mr Kaunda.
It is difficult for anyone to disagree with his observation on the decision made by the PF central Committee regarding the succession plan for the party. How can a leadership that has been disgracefully rejected by the people still want to be running the affairs of the party for another one year after an election defeat?
This is greed! What the Central Committee members are saying, one would assume, is that if they can’t have it, no one else should. They want to take the PF with them to the grave.
There is no way the PF central Committee can justify the decision to keep the party in the hands of someone as discredited as Mr Lungu for that long after his downfall. But we also observe that this dictatorial tendency is not new.
To start with, Mr Lungu was never at any point democratically elected by the party membership to be the presidential candidate. From 2014 to 2021, the man imposed himself with help from a few disgruntled MCCs and lawyers.
Look at what transpired at the 2021 PF convention. No one voted for Mr Lungu and no ballots were cast. They put thugs at the entrance and anyone who showed interest to challenge Mr Lungu was threatened with serious consequences.
Before the convention the PF secretary general issued a statement that the central committee had resolved to endorse Lungu as sole candidate, and at the convention we were told that the President had powers to appoint members of the same party organ that endorsed him.
So in essence, the central committee appointed Lungu and Lungu appointed the central committee. And some narrow minded people in the party were clapping for that as democracy.
After those that benefitted the most from having Mr Lungu as Republican President succeeded in securing a passage for him to the ballot box, and having suffered the humiliating defeat, they have now come to a stage where they need to take a walk of shame, but they are finding that difficult to do.
Instead of giving up, surrendering and walking away with a little integrity, they still want to impose a leader of their choice, and not one whom the party members wish to elect. This is the only explanation why they don’t want a convention until June 2022.
It appears to us that these members of the Central Committee are hallucinating that a time will come when Zambians will forgive them and decide to elect them back into power. They think there is still a chance of bouncing back and they don’t want that opportunity to fall in the hands of a new leadership. That would explain why someone like Mr Lungu would still want to lead the party and even chair Central Committee meetings.
Mr Kaunda and other patriotic members are asking very important questions around democracy in the now largest opposition party. If the president has said he won’t stand in 2021, the secretary general and party chairman have stepped down, what reason do you have for not allowing those who want to take over? It’s greed.
They still want to drink from the chalice which they poisoned themselves.