Sesheke UPND member of parliament Romeo Kang’ombe has charged that the alleged defection of 1020 UPND members to the PF last week was staged as they were already members of the ruling party.

But Patriotic Front Western Province chairman Charles Mututwa says more people wanted to defect to the ruling party but they were threatened by UPND cadres.

In an interview, Monday, Kang’ombe said the defections were fake and that the Patriotic Front had only picked drunkards to defect.

“What I know is that, that was a fake defection because the people that went to PF during their defection ceremony that they had; were actually their own members. I am saying they were their own members because even the time there was by-election in Sesheke, those people were under PF. The one who was leading the defection, a Mr Mulowa, was one of the people that wanted to contest for the Sesheke under UPND but he couldn’t penetrate on the ground, he was told he was late and that UPND already had a candidate. He himself wrote a letter that after going round in all the wards, he was advised that the people of Sesheke had already settled for me. His defection has no impact whatsoever! Because if the PF have received real members from UPND, they would have even picked one or two to contest in the by-election but not even one,” said Kang’ombe.

“The district is intact, the constituency is intact, all the wards are intact, all the branches are intact they just picked drunkards those that were drinking beer if you want I can even send you the video you see for yourself, as far as I am concerned, my constituency is intact. It’s okay, Mr. Mulowa who has gone, he went long before we had an election, even before I had my nomination he was not there! He was already campaigning for PF.”

But Mututwa said PF would have attracted more defectors but they were threatened by UPND cadres.

“Apparently, we received about 1020 defectors from the UPND and one of them is a very senior official who was a coordinator and unfortunately, we would have received much more than that but they were threatened by UPND cadres, Yes! They were told that if you go we are going to beat you, but these other guys just said whether you are going to beat us or not, we have decided to leave UPND,” said Mututwa.