PF member Charmaine Musonda says everyone makes mistakes and it is not unusual for politicians to rejoin political parties they left at some point.

And Musonda said she was invited by UPND to rejoin the party.

On Tuesday, angry UPND supporters evicted Musonda from the party national secretariat when she attempted to rejoin the UPND.

Musonda, who was Chilanga constituency UPND aspiring candidate in 2018, joined PF when she was not adopted to contest in the August general elections.

In an interview, Musonda said someone sponsored some UPND supporters to cause confusion and block her from rejoining the party.

She asked those who blocked her defection how many political parties Daniel Munkombwe had joined in his life.

“Part of the supporters that were at the secretariat started to insult me and calling me a hule (prostitute) and that it is too soon for me to be back in the party. That is basically what happened. But you see, these things come with a territory. People will be sponsored by other people to cause that sort of noise. That is what we do, and it is part of politics I suppose. I only went to rejoin my party. I have just seen a video that was sent to me and these are women I do not even know, which is also surprising. My political life was launched in the UPND. I have always been in the UPND apart from the month I was away with the PF. The video I have watched is a woman saying my coming to the party will make the youth and her children suffer because the party will give me priority,” Musonda said.

“I have not gone to rejoin the party seeking for a job. It is a service that I do and I do not make money in politics. I have a passion to help people and that is what made me even leave my job the time I used to work at The Post to go into politics full time. Unfortunately now with my party winning, it has become about jobs. I have not gone back looking for a job. I have gone back to my home to a place where I believe in the UPND. I believe in the manifesto and that is why I stayed so long in the party but it is human to error and to learn from your mistakes. I am not perfect but look at Daniel Munkombwe may his soul rest in peace, how many parties did he join and rejoin? It is part of life.”

And Musonda also expressed disappointment at the manner in which she was treated by fellow women at the secretariat.

“I was invited and it is not like I just went there to force myself onto people, no. I was invited and that is why I went there at a time when there was a press briefing. I did not know what the party was planning because I was invited to rejoin the party. I would rather not share who invited me but just know that I was invited to rejoin the party. The management of whatever happened, I will tell you that like any other politician, everybody will pay somebody to make noise. So I am sure people were sponsored to make the noise they made but that it is water under the bridge,” she said.

“If I do not join publicly how then will people relate to me? For me to have gone to join publicly, first [was] so that people know that I have taken this direction. So I will wait to hear from the party and see the way forward. I am yet to hear from the party myself and then we will take it up from there. For me, the only disappointment is where we as women cannot support each other. And for me the only thing out of all that was that it became unpolitical, where you are calling another woman a prostitute or whatever it is and this is based on politics.”

Musonda said she did not regret joining the PF because she had valid reasons at the time.

“I think if you remember, as a country we cried so much about the PF. But here it is now, you have your own members who have struggled for so long to form government and then you go and start treating fellow women in that manner. I am a mother and to be called a prostitute because I am coming to rejoin the party that for me was the only thing that was shocking. I never do anything and regret but what you do is learn from the mistakes you have made whether good or bad. You cannot live with regret because I had my reasons at the time,” said Musonda.