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UPND may be hiding its true intentions about the Pact, says Kabimba

UPND may be hiding its true intentions about the Pact, says Kabimba
By George Chellah
Sat 19 Feb. 2011, 04:01 CAT

UPND maybe hiding its true intentions about the Pact, says PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba.

Reacting to UPND secretary general Winstone Chibwe’s letter dated February 17, 2011, which was published in the Zambia Daily Mail yesterday, Kabimba - in his letter to Chibwe yesterday - stated that the UPND deliberately chose to misinterpret everything that his Thursday press statement contained.

“I would like to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 17th instant which letter was a rapid response to the PF press briefing held at the PF secretariat on the same day. It is unfortunate that you have deliberately chosen to misinterpret everything that my statement to the press contained,” read Kabimba’s letter to Chibwe in part.

Kabimba stated that PF had not at anytime declared Michael Sata as the Pact presidential candidate.

“We communicated the PF’s acceptance of proposals made to us by your member Professor Clive Chirwa. As I said to your president when he called me, I did not go looking for Prof. Chirwa. He came to me from your party,” Kabimba stated.

“I am aware that after the discussion with us he came back to brief your party. Our understanding of the UPND reaction to the Chirwa proposals both by the UPND president and his senior colleagues as contained in your letter and the press is that none of those proposals appeal to the UPND as a basis for discussion under the pact.

“According to paragraph 4 of your letter UPND is mainly concerned with ‘…fundamental social economic and governance issues that we in the UPND believe and still believe must come first before even contemplating the issue of presidency…’ what is surprising to us as PF is that the Chirwa proposals contain this very item of fundamental priority to the UPND. By PF accepting this proposal in the Chirwa document means acceptance of the UPND proposal of divine importance.

“Where then is the mischief which you loudly attribute to me? How does this constitute lack of maturity and seriousness on my part as you put it in your letter? What is indecent about PF or as you seem to suggest that it is Wynter Kabimba as an individual doing this behind PF in saying that the Chirwa package forms a good basis for the JNC meeting? Your lack of civility and even sobriety in the tone of the language of your letter and the press statements which followed would clearly show any reasonable person or reader that UPND may be hiding its true intentions about the Pact.”

Kabimba stated that he had been involved in political pacts and even mergers in the past.

“I am, therefore, experienced in determining the true spirit and intentions of parties in such an arrangement. I have in the past held several meetings with senior members of UPND all in a bid to ensure that the Pact succeeds to form an all inclusive government for the people of Zambia,” Kabimba stated.

“This is the information you have as UPND conveniently decided to withhold from the general public about my commitment to this cause. What I have refused to accept is that I should belong to a political party on ethnic, religious or other leaning. Such a doctrine offends against my personal character and beliefs.”

In his letter to Kabimba, which was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail, Chibwe stated that the proposals were Prof Chirwa's personal views. He stated that it was important to show maturity and seriousness in the handling of the vital national exercise.

He stated that their last letter to Sata dated January 20, 2011 had an enclosure of the UPND press statement that contained fundamental social economic and governance issues that the UPND believed and still believe must come first before even contemplating the issue of presidency.

Labels: CLIVE CHIRWA, UPND, WYNTER KABIMBA

posted by MrK @ 7:47 PM