UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema has announced his party’s withdrawal from its ill-fated pact with the Patriotic Front (PF) and declared that he will stand as presidential candidate in this year’s elections under the UPND.
Mr Hichilema said the UPND will also field candidates in all parliamentary constituencies and wards during this year’s general elections.
Featuring on Joy FM Radio’s Tikambilane live programme in Lusaka on yesterday, Mr Hichilema wondered what he should be doing in the PF-UPND pact when “somebody” has already killed it.
“The issue of the pact does not arise any more. I mean, if somebody has decided to kill the pact, what should I be doing?” he asked.
In an apparent reference to PF president Michael Sata, Mr Hichilema said it is unacceptable and inhumane in the modern world for someone to bully and intimidate his colleagues, and that political leaders with such behaviour should not be allowed into public office.
He condemned the PF’s unilateralism, and described as disgusting accusations by Mr Sata that he is a tribalist during the recent Mporokoso parliamentary by-election campaigns.
“I read an article in the press where my pact partner was saying Hakainde is a tribalist. That was disgusting; that is propaganda meant to discredit,” Mr Hichilema said.
He said the pact was formed with the main aim of uniting the people of Zambia, winning this year’s elections and the provision of better services to the people.
Mr Hichilema said Zambia belongs to all its citizens, regardless of where they live and it is important for people to understand one another because it is the only way to maintain peace in the country.
Responding to callers who wanted to know why a pact presidential candidate has not yet been chosen, and why this was not done from the alliance’s inception, Mr Hichilema said people should understand that there is always need to work with one another by learning to tolerate one another, and not to dominate or bully others.
[pullquote]“Instead of sitting to talk about how the pact government is going to run the country, somebody only agrees to meet on condition that he is going to be made pact president. I think that is talking upside down,” he said.[/pullquote]
The UPND president said there is a lot of propaganda going on against his party, orchestrated by the PF, which has made it difficult for the pact to make progress.
“Instead of sitting to talk about how the pact government is going to run the country, somebody only agrees to meet on condition that he is going to be made pact president. I think that is talking upside down,” he said.
Mr Hichilema said there has never been commitment from the side of Mr Sata and his party to talk about serious national issues for the good of the country.
He said it is unfortunate that the people who are now expressing disappointment on the problems brewing in the pact want to also pile the blame on UPND when they know well that such problems are coming from the PF.
Mr Hichlema said there is no way UPND can go into government with PF without first discussing and agreeing on how the two parties are going to run the country because the two parties will be quarrelling everyday and will become a nuisance to Zambians once in power.
He said UPND recently received a letter from the PF saying it was not going to deal with its pact partner if the former did not discipline its national youth chairman Joe Kalusa.
“Now, should I write a letter back that we won’t deal with PF until you discipline Wynter Kabimba? Should I write a letter like that? I haven’t written because that is degenerating matters,” he said.
[pullquote]“Now, should I write a letter back that we won’t deal with PF until you discipline Wynter Kabimba? Should I write a letter like that? I haven’t written because that is degenerating matters,” he said.[/pullquote]
Mr Hichilema said there is need to get to the table and talk things through instead of writing letters of that kind.
“There are a lot of undisciplined people in PF. They are known, and if I respond in that manner, we are destroying the pact,” he said.
“We have now come to conclude that our colleagues did not want us to discuss how we are going to run the country. By 2010, we should have had a common manisfesto on how we would run the country,” he said.
Mr Hichilema said even if the issue of presidential candidate was to be tabled at the very beginning of the pact, it would not have been possible to make progress because PF has never shown commitment to dialogue on the matter.
“So, even if the people want us to choose the candidate, how can we do it? You stand up, if you’re talkative, if you’re a bully in a meeting and say I am the president from now own, is that what you wanted?” he said.
He said Zambians must understand that whatever politicians do should be done with seriousness, mutual respect and with a mind to serve the people rather than serving themselves as leaders.
“And for me, as Hakainde, I won’t be part of the team that wants to be in government if they are not willing to agree on how they will run to serve the people of Zambia. What do they want to do in government? They want to do what they are doing now?” he asked.
[pullquote]“And for me, as Hakainde, I won’t be part of the team that wants to be in government if they are not willing to agree on how they will run to serve the people of Zambia. What do they want to do in government? They want to do what they are doing now?” he asked.[/pullquote]
When contacted for a comment over the matter, both Mr Sata and Mr Kabimba said they will react to the UPND’s withdrawal from the pact when it writes their party an official notification.
On the issue of the PF demanding to have Mr Kalusa disciplined as a condition for working with UPND, Mr Sata said all his party asked for in its letter was an apology and nothing else.
“There was nothing for them to dramatise the Kalusa issue. We shall react when they are brave enough to write to us,” Mr Sata said.
[pullquote]On the issue of the PF demanding to have Mr Kalusa disciplined as a condition for working with UPND, Mr Sata said all his party asked for in its letter was an apology and nothing else.[/pullquote]
Mr Hichilema’s remarks have literally dealt the final blow to the tottering PF-UPND pact, which has for months been on life support.
The two partners have been embroiled in endless wrangles over a number of issues, including the choice of a common candidate and how to harmonise their manifestos.
Recently, Mr Sata wrote the UPND saying his party had stopped dealing with it until Mr Kalusa apologises to him for allegedly insulting him in the media but the former has refused to force its official to meet the PF leader’s demand.
Before that, the PF dramatically revealed contents of a letter written by UPND chairman for international affairs Clive Chirwa in which he made a number of proposals, including that on the pact presidency, at a press briefing.
Mr Hichilema refuted the proposals the same day, and accused Mr Kabimba, who had addressed the briefing, of being mischievous.
The PF hit back by backing Mr Kabimba, saying his press briefing had had the full backing of the party.
The UPND has also written the PF, asking for a national council meeting to iron out contentious issues, but the latter has rebuffed the overture, saying it will respond to the letter at its own pace.
The two parties have been openly campaigning for their respective presidents separately for this year’s presidential elections, while Mr Sata has also announced that the PF will field its own candidates in all the constituencies.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
