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Chimumbwa regrets leaving PF

Chimumbwa regrets leaving PF
Written by Ernest Chanda
Sunday, December 07, 2008 6:34:12 PM

FORMER Nchanga Patriotic Front (PF) member of parliament Charles Chimumbwa has said he regrets leaving the party he was very passionate about.
And Chimumbwa has attributed his loss in the Nchanga parliamentary by-election last year to what he termed some useless ministers and deputies who allegedly de-campaigned him for some unknown reasons.

In an interview in Lusaka on Tuesday, Chimumbwa said it was painful to see the PF being invaded by chancers.

"I regret leaving the party because I left the party which to me was like my own baby. I did what I did because I had a conviction. I did what I did in the name of Mr Sata who I believed in all those years," Chimumbwa said.

"The people that I trained; I trained teachers, I trained nurses, I trained boiler makers, I trained welders. All those people that I put in the market by giving them money to start tuntembas, I never gave out money as Charles Chimumbwa. I gave out money in the name of Michael Sata, because he was the person that I believed in. He was the person I went in to support."

Chimumbwa said it pained him to note that people who had ridiculed the PF in the beginning had now joined the party in search of some political fortune.

"When we went in to support Mr Michael Sata, most of the people that have surrounded him now were busy insulting him. They were perched on the rooftop, singing or swearing at him, saying here is a mad person with a mad party. I personally believed in him and wanted to show the people of Zambia that he was a different person from what they were saying, and, fortunately or happily we achieved what we wanted to achieve," Chimumbwa said.

"So I don't regret doing that for the party. And I regret leaving behind a party that I loved so much after being forced out of the party, because I loved the party so much. I believed in the party and the president, but he was the one that stood up to make sure that I was hounded out of the party. Whatever he was told that I had done, up to today I don't know."

When asked who he thought could have initiated his ejection from the party, Chimumbwa suspected some of his fellow parliamentarians and some party leaders.

"I had a minor difference with a fellow MP at Parliament. Now at Parliament he [Sata] had people that probably wanted to become secretary general or vice-president or the people who were threatened that I was going to become vice-president. They started feeding him with wrong information. When I stood up on the floor of Parliament to debate, it was misinterpreted.

"People left the chamber to go and phone him [Sata] and say 'Chimumbwa is on the floor of the House, he is MMD he is not PF'. So I don't know what happened, maybe that could have been the reason why he [Sata] blew up the way he did."

Chimumbwa said it was unfortunate that Sata was now surrounded by wrong people whose motive was to use his name to gain political mileage.

"Maybe for their own sake I better caution them, by doing what they are doing they are wasting their time if they think they are going to hound him [Sata] out of the party. If they want to get the party from him, they have to sit down with him and agree, because you see what the people in PF shouldn't forget is that to the majority of the people that support PF on the grassroots, PF is Michael Sata and Michael Sata is PF," Chimumbwa said. "So whoever wants to take over from Michael Sata must have Michael Sata's shadow behind him. Otherwise they will never get it from him; they are wasting their time."

Chimumbwa said Sata had the ability to explain policies clearly to a common person.

"What the voters see in my view in Mr Sata is that he [Sata] is able to interpret or to zero in, explain policy - the policy from formulation to implementation in a manner people believe is the best possible way for them to understand, because you see when you talk from the roof top, people think you are a boss. But when a boss climbs down from his perch to mingle and talk one-on-one; good morning, good morning people believe you are one of them and you are amongst them, you are theirs," he said. "Now even now the majority of the people that have surrounded Mr Sata don't have the ability to help him do what he does best, most of them are mere chancers."

When asked if he could consider reconciling with the PF leader, Chimumbwa said he could not go against his principles.

"You see, reconciliation is relative. We differed on policy he [Sata] is still my elder brother just like [President] Rupiah Banda is my elder brother. Now when it comes to party affiliation, I left, I believe in the MMD now. If there is anything I can do to contribute to the political well being of this country I can do it in the MMD, not in PF," he said. "I still have a lot of friends in PF including the old man [Sata]; he is still my elder brother."

And Chimumbwa said he lost the Nchanga parliamentary by-election last year because some ministers and their deputies decampaigned him.

"Now unfortunately for me and the MMD and late Levy Mwanawasa, may his soul rest in peace, the problem was that the people he gave me to go with for campaigns they were a handful of people who were genuinely campaigning for the party and me. There were a few useless ministers and deputies who were de-campaigning me seriously, please don't alter that word - a few useless ministers and deputies who went to de-campaign me in Nchanga and they made sure I didn't make it," Chimumbwa said.

"When I lost the by-election, they came back and told Levy Mwanawasa that we had a wrong candidate that is why we lost the election. They were scared. I don't know what Levy told them, they went there to tell everyone that if he went through he was going to become a Cabinet minister. I don't know who told them that."

Chimumbwa won the Nchanga parliamentary seat on the PF ticket in the 2006 general elections but one year later, he resigned and joined the MMD, citing harassment from the leadership.

When he re-contested the seat on the MMD ticket in November last year, Chimumbwa lost to PF’s Wilbur Simusa.

Labels: CHARLES CHIMUMBWA, PF, POLITICS

posted by MrK @ 6:33 PM