Former FDD spokesperson Antonio Mwanza says he has nothing but love for his former boss Edith Nawakwi.

And Mwanza says there is nothing which has changed about him, he is still the same politician fighting for people’s well being.

Mwanza was reacting to Nawakwi’s remarks on his defection where she wondered how he would switch from calling PF officials thieves to defending them.

Nawakwi had also complained that he only informed her of his decision through a WhatsApp message a few hours before he defected.

But Mwanza said he would never disrespect the leadership of the FDD because they had become like family to him.

“All I want to say is that I have a lot of love and respect for president Nawakwi. I have known her for a very long period of time, from the time I was University of Zambia Students Union president and she was a member of parliament. We have shared a lot and we have become a family and what we share is an unbroken bundle of love and respect for each other and it will be unfair for me to say anything against the leadership. All I can say is that I am very thankful that they gave me an opportunity to lead and I learnt quite a lot from the entire leadership and I wish them success as they move forward,” Mwanza said.

And asked how he would switch from denouncing the PF to defending their policies, Mwanza said nothing had changed about him except that he had chosen the ruling party as the best platform for him to serve the Zambian people.

“My message was very clear even when I was defecting. I said it very clearly that this country is bigger than us, this country is bigger than the ambitions that I have as Antonio Mwanza or of any other person who wants to be president or a member of parliament. I think Zambia is bigger than all of us. The collective good of the Zambian people is what needs to be defended and I am in PF simply to provide solutions to the many issues that I have continued to raise and that has been my message that I am not going to PF for anything else but to contribute to what the Patriotic Front is doing or is supposed to do in terms of providing service delivery to the people and making sure that our people’s lives are improved. I am there not to be a silent block but to ensure that I contribute. I have a lot to contribute to the development of this country and I want people to always remember that we have different platforms which we can use to further the development of this country, that platform can be through the church, through the ruling party or through the opposition. There are different platforms. These political parties that we have are nothing but the vehicles that we have to espouse our aspirations as a people and also to epitomize the aspirations of the people so there are no permanent enemies and friends but there are permanent principles and permanent interests and the interest is that we have to serve the people of Zambia and for me, that is the only interest that I have,” Mwanza said.

“So if I feel that being in the Patriotic Front helps me to raise the issues and have them addressed, that is the best platform for me to use to ensure that the issues that I have always raised, not under the PF but throughout from the time that I started politics 15 years ago, I have raised these issues, under president Levy Mwanawasa, president Rupiah Banda, president Michael Sata, President Edgar Lungu, there is nothing new. I have been a freedom fighter, a fighter for economic good for the people all my adult life. I have dedicated myself to that so this is simply a platform that has been accorded to me to continue to raise those issues concerning the problems that the people are having so I am very confident that I will be better off, in the next three years, working with the government in trying to deal with the matters that are affecting our people and also to explain government policy. It is a platform for me to serve the Zambian people, nothing more, nothing less. It is a continuation of where I am coming from.”