Differences should not destroy pact, says Simenda

Differences should not destroy pact, says Simenda
By Salim Dawood
Mon 27 Sep. 2010, 14:40 CAT

UPND vice-president for political affairs Francis Simenda has called for calmness among members of the PF-UPND Pact following squabbles which have hit the alliance. Simenda told the Post Online in an interview that the problems the Pact was facing were not enough to curtail progress being made by the two political parties.

“Obviously we are facing some challenges but that doesn’t mean that the Pact is over. As far as I know the Pact is still there but I think what we need to do is for us to come to a round table look at the issues that are creating problems so that they may be resolved once and for all so that the people can know what the future is, that is what is important,” Simenda said.

He appealed to members of the Pact at grass root to allow the leadership of the alliance to meet and resolve the bickering.

Simenda said the voting pattern in the past general elections had clearly shown that Zambians did not want the ruling MMD and observed that the opposition would not be able to unseat the ruling party if it remained fragmented.

“It is clear that people don’t want the ruling party, but because we are fragmented, we are not able to get the MMD out of power which is why we need to unite. We shouldn’t be selfish for the people of Zambia, the hardships are so big, the people are suffering, there is no management and there is no quality leadership and so on and we can be able to offer that through the pact,” he said.

“So let’s come down let’s sit on the table and iron out these issues, its better to sit than what is going on,” Simenda said.
And Simenda describes as an assumption that the PF was a bigger party in the Pact was creating problems.

“As partners in the pact, we must respect each other, we should not disparage each other, we should not underrate each other,” he said.

Simenda said he did not understand what was fueling the differences when a joint meeting had been convened at which the two parties agreed that the PF would contest the Mpulungu by-election based on its regional strength while the UPND would contest the Chilanga seat.

“You see, as a pact there was a meeting which was chaired by honorable (Jean) Kapata while honorable (Gurry) Nkombo was the secretary, they agreed that Mpulungu should be for PF, based on that regional strength and Chilanga should go to UPND that was agreed and we have the minutes. So what’s the difficulty there because the pact agreed,” he wondered.

“That is why am saying that we must be sincere with each other and honest because we meet and agree and we implement, if we agree and we go back and say we didn’t agree that is not fair and we can’t resolve these problems by issuing statements in the media,” said Simenda.