PF TAKES OVER UPND

…as Miles, Guy Scott endorse HH for presidency

SENIOR Patriotic Front (PF) leaders including Guy Scott, the architect of the Patriotic Front (PF) under president Michael Sata, have endorsed UPND president Hakainde Hichilema who branded him (Dr Scott) Muzungu Wopusa.

Miles Sampa, the Matero PF member of Parliament, has also endorsed the candidature of Mr Hichilema and declared he will campaign against the PF and President Edgar Lungu in the August general elections.
Dr Scott, the former PF and republican vice-president, and Mr Sampa, have vowed that they would never go back to the PF because the ruling party had been invaded by the MMD which was removed from power because of corruption.

Dr Scott has also claimed that most of the serving PF members of Parliament would not be re-adopted because the current leadership in the ruling party had allegedly embarked on a massive purging of all the members who were loyal to late president Michael Sata.
Dr Scott yesterday attended the UPND press conference where he claimed that the current PF was ‘‘bogus’’ and asked President Lungu to keep the membership of the MMD in the ruling party to the minimum if the party was to continue championing the original beliefs of late president Sata.

He said the MMD had ‘‘colonised’’ the PF and he had found himself a stranger in a party he suffered for together with former President Sata.
Dr Scott said he was leaving the PF with a heavy heart, stating that he was not the only PF parliamentarian who was not going to be considered for adoption but that many others should be ready to be abandoned in the August general elections.
He said he was also angry with the Grade 12 certificate clause in the amended Constitution which he claimed had knocked out many Zambians from participating in the political affairs of the country.

“What is happening now is that the MMD is colonising the PF and I know because some woman came to me and told me she was the MP for Lusaka Central and needed my blessings. I want to warn the other serving MPs in the PF that they will be rooted out and will not be re-adopted.

‘‘I will never go back to PF because the current ruling party is bogus where we have Dora Siliya and Michael Kaingu who tore to pieces President Sata’s speech to Parliament. But my advice to President Lungu is that he must keep the MMD invasion of the PF to a minimum,” Dr Scott said.
But attempts to implicate Mazabuka MP Garry Nkombo as one of the senior UPND members against embracing defectors particularly from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) has backfired.

Yesterday, Mr Nkombo was alleged to have complained of what was going to happen to the old and faithful UPND members as a number of senior PF leaders were allegedly said to be planning mass defections from the ruling party and were being warmly welcomed by the UPND leadership.
Mr Nkombo has distanced himself from the Facebook posting and branded the massage as nothing but propaganda to defuse the ever-growing popularity of the UPND which he said was now attracting what he termed ‘Big Fishes’.

And Mr Sampa, who is Matero PF member of Parliament, said he could not continue pretending that he was happy in the ruling party when party cadres were allegedly ‘‘the law unto themselves without respect and regard for the rule of law’’. Mr Sampa also declared that he had left the PF and was never going to return because, according to him, the PF had died the day President Sata died.

He said he had decided to team up with the UPND so that the two parties could work together to dethrone the PF from Government and remove President Lungu from State House. He said the alliance between the Democratic Front (DF) (de-registered) and UPND was to avoid a rerun because, according to him, the UPND was going to win the August general elections on the first count.
Mr Sampa said Mr Hichilema was not a man he thought he was and was impressed to discover that the UPND president was a humble leader whose desire was to change the economic fortunes of the country.

“The UPND is going to win in the first round of the count of the vote and change the country for the better. The PF has been accusing the UPND of being tribal when millions of Zambians enjoy intermarriages. I am Bemba but married to a Lozi woman.
‘‘Tribalism should be condemned and it has become a cheap campaign message for the PF. There is no tribalism in the UPND and I have realised that Mr Hichilema is a humble and down to earth man. He is genuine and with him as a presidential candidate, change is certainly inevitable,” Mr Sampa said.

Meanwhile, Mr Hichilema said Zambia was seriously divided and that there was need for the country to have a leadership that would unite the country.
Mr Hichilema said the UPND would protect citizens from a second vote by winning the general elections in the first count because there was a danger that violence would easily erupt in a rerun.

ZAMBIA DAILY NATION