SOCIALIST Party General Secretary Cosmas Musumali says it is naïve for Antonio Mwanza to call for the old guard to leave politics for the younger generation.

On Monday, Mwanza, who is former Socialist Party deputy general secretary, revealed that he would launch his own political party in January called the Democratic Progressive Party.

He said it was time for the older generation to give way to the youths who constituted over 80 per cent of the country’s population, adding that the current challenges in the country could only be addressed by the youths.

Commenting in an interview, Tuesday, Dr Musumali welcomed Mwanza’s move to form a political party, but said any successful country had a combination of both young and old people.

He also said Socialist Party leaders were aware of Mwanza’s plans when they suspended him from the party.

“We don’t speak from without, when we say things we mean it, we talk from experience. And that’s what we did. So anything we say is well researched, we have evidence and as we said that we meant it. The former comrades are very welcome to form their own party and to add also to the democratic space of this country. As a Socialist Party we feel that every Zambian that wants to participate in the politics of this country must be given a chance to do so. As citizens of the country the destiny of our people, their well-being depends on the type of leadership that emerges. Mr Antonio and many others are welcome to the political space of running political parties. There are a lot of odds against opposition parties but that should not stop anyone from going ahead. The valid reasons are that the Zambian people are suffering, the democratic space of this country has narrowed. And there’s need to do something,” Dr Musumali said.

“Coming to old versus young people, I think it’s a very naive way of looking at life. A village consists of younger and older people. Even in Zambia’s politics there’s space for young people, middle aged and the elderly people. Each group of people brings a certain element along with them. The younger people have the energy, enthusiasm that’s needed and I think in political life that’s critical. Those in the middle ages bring in a certain level of stability and that must be encouraged. With the elder generation there’s an issue of institutional memory that they bring in. If you look at any country that has done well in history it has always had a very good combination of people. Even other aspects of life”.

He added that running a country was not kindergarten and Mwanza would soon learn the hard lessons.

“We agree with the other reasons but running a country is not a kindergarten and I think our comrades are going to learn the hard lessons very soon. The Socialist Party has got a student wing, it’s one of the most active ingredients of the Socialist Party. We have a separate youth wing and it’s very active in terms of forging ahead with the socialist principles,” Dr Musumali said.

Asked if Mwanza had what it took to lead Zambia, Dr Musumali said it was up to the Zambians to judge.

“I think the issue of judging a person whether they are fit to lead a country or not should be left to the Zambians. It would be wrong for me as an individual, or as a member of a party to pinpoint and say this one is not going to lead this country. We have learnt through history, there were people in 1958/1959 that did not give Kenneth Kaunda a chance to lead, saying this man is not capable of leading, there were people who said Chiluba was not an honest person and he was not fit to lead but he ended up leading,” he said.

“There were people who said Sata will never lead this country, there were people who said Lungu did not have the qualities, he was a drunkard but he ended up leading this country. So what we have learnt is that it’s not for you as an individual to judge, it’s for the people of Zambia. And there are a lot of dynamics that people consider when they choose leadership”.

Meanwhile, Dr Musumali revealed that the Socialist Party congress had permitted the party to explore alliances.

“As a party we consulted our congress and they gave us a go ahead to explore possible alliances so we are not negative, we are not going to say we will never enter into alliances. The Congress also gave us conditions under which those alliances can take place and the condition is the party should not lose its socialist character and the critical thrust in terms of our programme to the Zambian masses. What I’m hearing is that indeed every party does not want to lose its identity when it goes into alliances. Our priority for now is let’s build a strong viable Socialist Party, we are not in a hurry. And also the history of Zambia in terms of alliances leaves much to be desired. So one has to walk with caution with the issues of alliances,” said Dr Musumali.