Our readers would be left behind if we went ahead to share our opinion on the confusion and disorder that is building up in the Patriotic Front. So today, we will try to explain what we know about the story behind the scenes.

On Monday, PF supporters from the seven constituencies in Lusaka presented a petition to Secretary General Davies Mwila, demanding that disciplinary action must be taken against Justice Minister Given Lubinda, Lands Minister Jean Kapata and Higher Education Minister Prof Nkandu Luo, for dividing the ruling party.

The bearer of this message was some youth called Forbes Mufwaya, and going with the title of Munali constituency chairperson.

“Mr Secretary General Sir, we are shocked that some of your colleagues in the central committee are holding dark corner meetings for their own selfish motives. These people have an agenda to disrupt the ongoing intra-party elections because their agenda of imposing their stooges has lamentably failed. The main culprits driving this agenda Sir, are Honorable Given Lubinda of Kabwata constituency, Professor Nkandu Luo of Munali constituency and Honorable Jean Kapata of Mandevu constituency. They have been having secret meetings at very late hours at Honourable Lubinda’s residence and we have evidence to that effect,” said Mufwaya.

In response Mr Davies Mwila said, immediately after the gathering, he was going to rush to State House to bring the matter to President Edgar Lungu’s attention for possible action.
To start with, those in the party who may claim to know this Mufwaya man cannot explain where he could have gotten that level of power and influence to send the Secretary General of the PF into an urgent meeting with the Head of State over this petition.

We need our readers to understand that there are more influential youths in Munali Constituency who are always raising concerns about the happenings in the Patriotic Front leadership. But we know that if they organised a petition, the secretary general would not care to give it such a publicised audience that would end up as headlines; even in the State House-controlled newspapers.

If by any chance the youths managed to present such a petition to the secretariat, the most we would expect from Mr Mwila would be to say that an investigation would be launched into the matter to ascertain the veracity of the allegations.

But the Secretary General has treated this particular petition organised by mighty Mufwaya with unprecedented urgency. For a very peculiar reason, Mr Mwila is not doubting the allegations against the four Cabinet Ministers and he wants this information passed on to the President immediately.

The PF leadership wants us and our readers to believe that Mufwaya and his youths have such an effective intelligence wing through which they did not only see Kapata, Prof Luo, Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Lawrence Sichalwe and Matero PF member of parliament Lloyd Kaziya enter the Justice Minister’s house in the night, but also succeeded to get evidence of the deliberations of that ‘treacherous meeting’.

We are not that foolish, and neither are our readers. These ministers are chairpersons of sub-committees in the PF Central Committee and the Secretary General could not allow this humiliation of top officials under his watch, unless it already had blessings from the top. So we know what is going on here and we can say with confidence that it has nothing to do with the petition or the concerned youths. This is the old politics of Michael Sata at play. Divide and rule is what President Lungu is doing.

In fact, this issue is deeper than the sabotage of elections that Mwila and his stooges are trying to ride on. We figured out in January that the status of these ministers was highly precarious when youths booed Kapata and Prof Luo in front of the Secretary General during a meeting in Chongwe. It was very clear that the uprising was sponsored, just like the Forbes Mufwaya petition.

The PF leadership also doesn’t trust Lubinda and this is evidenced by the disparaging remarks expressed within their circles when the Justice Minister went offside to officiate at the ZCID event recently, a gathering which apparently should not have involved any government official. Coupled by past allegations of treachery under Sata’s administration, this minister, just like several others, is equally hanging by a thread.

This is the story behind the scenes that we would like the people of Zambia to appreciate, and it extends to State House staff. Tomorrow, we will share our opinion on this confusion and demonstrate that what has befallen the Patriotic Front is the dawn of self-cannibalism, sponsored by the Head of State.