ZUMANI WANTS TO DIVIDE PF – LUBINDA
PF faction acting President Given Lubinda has accused former President Edgar Lungu’s Political Advisor, Chris Zumani Zimba, of trying to divide the PF
And Lubinda says there is talk within the Tonse Alliance suggesting that the PF should not be the anchor party, a position he says goes against the earlier agreed conditions.
Speaking when he featured on Prime TV’s ‘Matters Arising’ programme, Saturday, Lubinda said the effect of Zimba’s activities was meant to put him in harm’s way with members of the party.
“I do not know what his (Zumani’s) agenda is. What I know is the effect. What is the effect? The effect is dividing the Patriotic Front. I haven’t entered his head for me to know what his motive is; I can only talk about the effect of his activities. The effect of his activities is, number one, putting me in harm’s way with members of the Patriotic Front. You have already said yourself that there are some members of the party who are siding with him and not siding with me or the central committee of the party. They are siding with Zumani. What does that mean? It is a divisive activity. SG Raphael Nakacinda and I are being portrayed as the ones stopping people from being appointed,” he said
Asked what Zimba’s interest could be, given that he had support from some PF members such as Mumbi Phiri, Lubinda said those siding with Zumani were appointed by him.
“The ones that you see going along with Zumani are the ones whom Zumani appointed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lubinda said the party had tasked Makebi Zulu and FDD president Chifumu Banda to review the document which initially stated that the PF should be the anchor party in the Tonse Alliance.
“Remember, on Tuesday, the meeting I referred to was the Council of Leaders meeting. In that meeting, a very conducive meeting, everybody was happy with the resolutions because we were talking about pressing the reset button and resetting the environment. We also agreed that one of the major challenges we were having was that the document governing us was, unfortunately, a moving document, that document has been changing with time without the changes being presented to all members of the Council of Leaders. You are taken unawares in one meeting; you are told that the person responsible for discipline is someone else, which was not in the original document. Now, there is even talk that PF is not meant to be the anchor party, and yet one of the conditions under which the PF agreed to participate in this alliance was that PF should be the anchor party,” he said.
“All the members of the Tonse Alliance agreed to that position, but now the goalposts are shifting. Because of that, we resolved in the last meeting, and had already agreed in an earlier one, that the president of FDD and Makebi Zulu, deputy chairperson for legal affairs in the PF, together with another lawyer who was part of the initial drafting team, must revisit this document. They must use the original document, namely the terms of reference and rules of engagement that were produced by PF, so that they can regenerate a workable document. Unfortunately, members of the Alliance did not provide any input in that process. So, in the last meeting, we asked them to re-energise themselves so that they can come up with a working document,” he added.
Asked why he reported Zumani to the police, Lubinda said he did so because of the publication of a false conversation that did not exist on his phone.
“On Tuesday, I spoke about reconciliation and being honest and sincere with one another. On Wednesday, I was confronted with a big challenge. Zumani Zimba wrote on his Facebook page, claiming that he and I were in a WhatsApp conversation where I approved a list. He concluded by saying, ‘Who is it that is destroying the legacy of Edgar Chagwa Lungu?’ He even attached what appeared to be a WhatsApp screenshot showing a conversation between him and me, complete with my profile picture, dated March 3, 2025. When I saw that, I was shocked, especially because just the previous day, I was appealing to everyone in Tonse to be honest and sincere and to treat one another with respect. I, who was preaching that, and still am, was faced with that allegation. So, when I saw that, I asked myself: should my reputation, which I have built over such a long period, be slaughtered at the altar of political expediency?” he asked.
“Should I just lie back and, because I am preaching peace and unity, allow the whole world to run with the story that I am such a blatant liar who engages in fake online conversations? I want the police to give me a warrant to go to ZICTA because if I just show you my phone, you could say I manipulated it. But the ones that keep authentic records are at ZICTA. I would like ZICTA to produce evidence and say, ‘Yes, Lubinda, we have this conversation between you and Zimba,’ because that conversation does not exist on my phone. It doesn’t.”
Lubinda said he was ready to do anything to protect his reputation.
“You are thinking like others that it is okay for Lubinda not to have any reputation for as long as you achieve the goal of forming government. Lubinda’s name can be destroyed, my legacy can be destroyed, because you want to form government. I will not allow anyone to destroy my reputation, no matter what the end is. It is my duty to protect myself. Because I have been silent on many things people have said, some have taken me for granted.
Even if you fabricate lies, that man will always go quiet because he wants to hold us together, no. Enough is enough. Had Zumani only spoken those words and not printed them, I would have said, ‘These are feathers, they will fly away.’ But the fact that he put it in writing on the World Wide Web makes it a record that will outlive me,” said Lubinda.
News Diggers