PeP leader Sean Tembo is suffering backlash after attacking Chief Mukuni on his Facebook page, Monday.

Some of the postings read; “Senior Chief Mukuni would be well advised to spend his time doing bungee jumping lessons so that he doesn’t soil himself next time, rather than talking about issues of nationality. Senior Chief Mukuni must relinquish the throne and become Southern Province UPND Chairperson. I personally find it shameful that Senior Chief Mukuni could sink so low and reduce himself to a mere political cadre by questioning Lungu’s nationality. This country has surely gone to the dogs!”

But Tembo says his personal assistant is the one who posted the said messages and that although he endorses the rationale behind them, he believes the language was not appropriate.

Speaking when he featured on Radio Phoenix’ Let the People Talk, Tuesday, Tembo said he had suspended and reprimanded his personal assistant over the language she used.

“First of all, for you to have a personal assistant who is able to write on your behalf [and] express your mind, it takes a lot of time because the person has to understand your stance on various issues. It’s an issue which involves mentoring over a period of time. I have had my PA for the past two and half years or so. On that basis, there were some errors made in terms of the actual wording of the post, but substantively, she is a very competent person. So we haven’t fired her and we are not going to fire her. However, we have asked her to take a short leave of absence for a period of about 30 days so that I can be able to handle the accounts myself,” Tembo said.

“We have not taken down the posts for a number of reasons. A lot of people expressed their opinions on those posts. Both pro and against and there is a lot of effort that was made in making those comments. So, when we pull down the post, we are basically pulling down those hundreds of comments and opinions that people expressed. I must reiterate that, we do not intend to take down that post for various reasons. We have reprimanded that particular official and in our view I think that action is adequate. That particular post will remain where it is and we shall move forward on that particular basis.”

Meanwhile, Tembo urged Chief Mukuni to give up his throne if he wanted to join politics.

“I was disappointed with senior chief Mukuni. And at the end of the day if he wants to join politics, if he wants to be an active political player, our advice to him is that let him relinquish his throne. Because when he throws punches while hiding behind the respectability of the throne, it will be very difficult for anyone to throw punches back. Because people will be saying that is disrespectful. If he wants to throw political punches, let him come out of [the] cocoon, the respectability of a chief and let him stand as [a] political opponent so that he can be engaged accordingly. That will be a fair fight,” he said.

And Tembo said his party would stand for what was right whether it favoured the ruling party or the opposition.

“I want to send a clear message to the Zambian people to say [that] as PeP, we shall always stand for what is right. We shall never shy away to stand for what is right. It does not matter whether what is right actually favours the ruling party or it favours the opposition. We shall stand proudly and upright for what is right at any given time,” said Tembo.