Mpankata calls Lubinda PF purge illegal
By Mast Reporter
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) national chairman Emmanuel Mpankata has condemned acting president Given Lubinda’s decision to remove him, acting Secretary General Brenda Nyirenda, and six other members from the party’s Central Committee, describing the move as illegal.
On Friday, Lubinda announced that he had dropped Milanzi Member of Parliament (MP) Melessiana Phiri, former Secretary General Davies Mwila, and provincial Chairpersons, Chomba Chipili (Northern ), Christopher Shakafuswa (Lusaka), Abyud Kawangu (North-Western), and Tombi Tombi(Western) from the Central Committee.
Lubinda has since appointed former Minister of Lands Jean Kapata as acting national chairperson, Matero MP Miles Sampa and lawyer Celestine Mukandila as Deputy Secretaries General for politics and administration, respectively.
Mpankata said at a press briefing in Lusaka yesterday that Lubinda’s action was in no uncertain terms illegal because the PF Constitution did not allocate such powers to an acting president without ratification of the Central Committee.
“Additionally, we strongly feel the action is a clear sign that Honourable Lubinda has abandoned the soul of the party and has chosen ego over unity, ambition over selfless service and personal survival over collective decency,” Mpankata said.
He said a leader who reshuffled structures days before a Convention was bent on crippling the party.
Mpankata said as a candidate vying for the PF presidency, Lubinda should have handed over the reins of the party to the Secretary General.
“To be clear, Honourable Lubinda is vying for the party presidency at the coming convention which is seven days away from today and we cannot have another playground. We cannot have a candidate making or changing rules for other contestants. He is a candidate and if he was wise enough, Honourable Lubinda should have stepped aside so that the playing field is even for all the contesting parties,” he said.
Mpankata said he expected Lubinda to hand over the reins of the party to the Secretary-General to facilitate successful organisation of the convention.
“Mr Lubinda’s action manipulates the playing field even before the whistle is blown. He is trying to be a judge and a jury at the same time. The Patriotic Front needs unity, stability honesty, transparency and courage but instead, Honourable Lubinda is a judge disguised in administration,” Mpankata
He said the party had rejected all the changes that Lubinda had purportedly made to the party’s Central Committee and demanded that he steps aside ahead of the General Conference.
“The time has come for us to close the ranks unite and rise above the egos of selfish interests Zambia is too precious and the future too urgent to be sacrificed at the out of one man’s quest for political survival and political selfishness,” Mpankata said.
