By CHILA  NAMAIKO –
THE Southern Province Rainbow Party chairperson has resigned to join the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and pledged to mobilise new members to help strengthen the party ahead of general elections next year.
Simalonga Siachoona has cited intimidation as the reason for his resignation.
Mr Siachoona ditched the opposition party at the weekend.
He was reported to have been suspended from the Rainbow Party on allegations of gross misconduct which he denied and that he was suspended without being given a chance to exculpate himself.
He said in Choma that he felt derided over the decision by the Rainbow Party leadership to suspend him without having committed an offense and was joining the PF to give a thriving mobilisation input.
He claimed that he was also shocked that one of his party sympathisers, only sent him a phone text message, informing him that another member in Livingstone was appointed to act in his position.
“In this case, I feel that the trust between me and the leadership is no longer there and to some extent there is some mental torture to keep me in suspension without a written charge on which I can exculpate myself,” he said.
He claimed that he was a political bulldozer who could not continue aligning himself with an opposition party at the expense of PF delivering progressive policies to the people of Zambia.
“I am going to aggressively help PF to mobilise itself in this province because I am a political bulldozer,” he said.
Mr Siachoona pledged to vigorously help mobilise the ruling party structures in the province on the basis of the many developmental programmes that the Government was implementing.
PF Choma youth information and publicity secretary Obrain Buumba said Mr Siachoona’s defection from Rainbow Party signified that PF was progressing well and would continue embracing new comers.
Former PF Sinazongwe political secretary Rueben Munyati called on Zambians to support President Edgar Lungu’s developmental agenda for the betterment of all citizens.