PF has fixed itself - Masebo

PF has fixed itself - Masebo
By Brighton Phiri
Sunday April 01, 2007 [04:00]

OPPOSITION Patriotic Front (PF) has fixed itself by expelling Lusaka Mayor Susan Nakazwe from the party, local government and housing minister Sylvia Masebo yesterday said. Commenting on PF's decision to expel Nakazwe yesterday, Masebo said the move was unjust and unfair because it was a deliberate action to fix her. "Those PF officials are cheating themselves if they think that they have fixed Nakazwe by expelling her from the party. They are just fixing themselves," Masebo said.

She said it was shameful for PF to expel Nazakwe for performing her civic duties. Masebo said Nakazwe did not commit an offence that warranted an expulsion from her party. "It is wrong for PF because they have been trying to use this innocent woman in their fight against the ruling MMD. They should realise that once elected, one ceases to be partisan," she said.

Masebo said the action by PF was retrogressive as it prevented the councillors from performing their civic duties. When contacted for comment on her party's central committee's decision to expel her together with councillor Boniface Musondamwaume, Nakazwe, who was in Mongu attending the Kuomboka traditional ceremony in her capacity as mayor, said she could not give a detailed reaction to her expulsion because she was out of Lusaka. "It is okay if they have expelled me...I will comment later because I am out of Lusaka attending a function," Nakazwe said.

PF sources yesterday disclosed that the central committee, which convened in one of the conference facilities at Lusaka's Gospel Outreach Centre, unanimously endorsed the Wynter Kabimba chaired disciplinary committee that recommended Nakazwe and Musondamwaume's expulsion from the party for disobeying a party directive for them not to go to Lusaka International Airport to welcome Chinese President Hu Jintao. "The meeting took place and all the members of the central committee unanimously ratified the disciplinary committee's recommendations," said the source.

And in a letter dated March 28, 2007 to Nakazwe, Kabimba informed Nakazwe about their recommendation to expel her from the party. "After considering your exculpatory statement and your oral submissions to the committee it was resolved that: 'The committee recommends to the party's central committee that councillor Suzanne Nakazwe be expelled from Patriotic Front as a member,'" read Kabimba's letter in part.