.KAMBWILI

By SHAMAOMA MUSONDA –

PATRIOTIC Party (PF) youth chairperson Chishimba Kambwili has dispelled harbouring presidential ambitions and instead pledged his unwavering loyalty to Republican President Michael Sata.
Speaking in an interview in Lusaka yesterday, Mr Kambwili said that he was ‘a very’ faithful lieutenant to President Sata and would always be.
Mr Kambwili, who is Youth and Sports Minister, said he would not be swayed by assertions in some sections of the media whose agenda was to create divisions between President Sata and people close to him.
Recently, Mr Kambwili was reported in some sections of the media as having claimed that he was ‘anointed’ to take over the Presidency from President Sata and that he had already started campaigning for the position.
He said the negative stories being written about him were simply aimed at trying to create division between him and the President, adding that he was not surprised that Defence Minister Edgar Lungu was now being dragged in the mud as well.
“I am being accused of harbouring presidential ambitions just because I am close to the President. Anyway here is something you need to know, Presidents are born, they are not made. So until people know that, they will not stop making noise about that.”
He gave a list of people who had become Zambian Presidents when no one expected it, and picked out the late Levy Mwanawasa and his predecessor Rupiah Banda.
Mr Kambwili said because of that he would not waste time to campaign for the Presidency as he knew that Presidents were biblically anointed.
He also said his loyalty to President Sata dated back to the days he (Mr Sata), himself and three others sat down to form the Patriotic Front in 2001 and had from that time been loyal and not aspired to be President.
Mr Kambwili said that he was among the five people who sat down to form the PF and welcomed all people that were now in the ruling party and wondered why he was now being accused of being disloyal.
Without elaborating, Mr Kambwili said the negative publicity about him was coming from people who were bitter because one of their close friends was recently fired and because of that, he understood that all they were doing was grieving.