By CHILA NAMAIKO and STEVEN ZANDE –

.Kambwili

ROAN Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili says he will not be pushed out of the Patriotic Front.
Reacting to calls from PF youth leader Kennedy Kamba for those who have turned against the party and President Edgar Lungu to give up their parliamentary seats and stop masquerading as party members, Mr Kambwili said he would only leave at a time of his choosing.
Mr Kamba said PF youth fully supported President Lungu’s call for people that do not want to serve in Government but have opted to remain in the party to leave or remain silent instead of maligning him and the party with unfounded allegations of corruption.
Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mr Kamba described as traitors and selfish those who claimed to be party loyalists while at the same time demeaning President Lungu and undermining his Government.
“As PF youths, we won’t allow President Lungu to be demeaned by people with presidential ambitions. We fully support the President’s call for party traitors to leave our party in peace or remain silent instead of accusing the President on unfounded corruption allegations,” he said.
President Lungu on Monday questioned why some people that did not want to work with him in Government were still clinging on to the PF, the party that formed Government, both of which were under his leadership.
Mr Kamba said PF youth were also not happy with reports quoting PF Kabwe Central Member of Parliament Tutwa Ngulube as allegedly talking ill of the party that helped him to get elected.
When he swore in Joseph Malanji as minister of Foreign Affairs and Alexander Chiteme as minister of National Development Planning at State House, President Lungu said the PF was still a popular and attractive political party in the country and challenged those that felt they could not serve under his leadership to leave.
Mr Lungu’s appointments were to fill the voids left by the sacking of nominated MP Lucky Mulusa and the resignation of Mr Harry Kalaba from the position of Foreign Affairs minister.
Like Mr Kambwili who was fired in 2016 from his position as Information and Broadcasting minister and then expelled from the party – a decision that he has contested -Mr Kalaba has decided to retain his parliamentary seat for Bahati in Luapula province.
Meanwhile, the Zambian Republican Party (ZRP) has also pledged continued support for President Lungu to help him achieve his goal of improving the lives of citizens.
ZRP president Wright Musoma also said President Lungu should be resilient in the face of betrayal by some party members.
“We strongly feel that the PF is a formidable party. We also want to assure President Lungu that he has the support of more than six million Zambians, including some civil society organisations,” Mr Musoma said.
He said ZRP and a consortium of other opposition political parties would in 2021 support Mr Lungu again to ensure the PF retained power owing to its progressive policies.
Mr Musoma said those leaving the PF were not factors and should be aware that Zambia had many qualified individuals to serve in various Government portfolios where they had resigned.