Rainbow Party General Secretary Wynter Kabimba says disagreeing with fellow opposition leaders does not mean he is defending the ruling party because there is no alliance because they cannot all think the same.

And Kabimba has challenged Chishimba Kambwili to provide evidence for his theft allegations against him or stop spreading falsehoods.

In an interview, Kabimba said he was not a mob thinker and vowed to continue speaking on principle even if that meant disagreeing with fellow opposition leaders.

“I have a serious problem with this principle that all of us as opposition should be thinking the same, I refused that even in PF. I am not a mob thinker, I think on my own and I determine what I think is right and what I think is wrong. It maybe wrong and when I am wrong I do accept. If Kambwili thinks that what I said is wrong, he has the right to say it. But for him to just start talking about my farm which is completely away from the argument… he started talking about how people jubilated when I was fired and how they sympathised with him. But he doesn’t tell you that there is a letter in the media of how I stopped him when he was Minister of Youth and Sport, when he was trying to collect money from mining companies under the pretext of running the youth desk and I wrote a letter to the mining companies saying ‘don’t give this man the money, this is not government policy’,” Kabimba said.

“So I have produced evidence, I did not just accuse him. That’s my style of doing things. So if he has evidence of all those [PF] well wishers and how I financed my farm, surely he must have the names of all those well wishers and he can tell you the amount which was given to me. Why didn’t he say all that when he was in PF? He was a member of the PF central committee, so why didn’t they make a resolution that Wynter has run away with money?”

And reacting to Kambwili’s allegations that he stole party funds to use for his personal business at his farm when he was PF Secretary General, Kabimba demanded evidence.

“Ask him (Kambwili) for evidence. This is what I was saying the other day on radio that when a person likes that makes a statement like that, you ask him ‘what evidence do you have sir, so that we complete the story?’…Kambwili says to me that I was getting money as PF SG and buying ostriches for my farm. But I have had that farm way before I joined PF, it’s a commercial farm. Ask Given [Lubinda] he’s been to my farm, you can ask Jean Kapata, Guy Scott, they have been to my farm…so when somebody says that I was getting money to buy ostriches, I don’t even know what to answer because I have got people out there that have been to my farm and you can ask them ‘when you went to Mr Kabimba’s farm did you find a decent house there with electricity and some Zebra animals?’ They will tell you ‘yes’. If you ask ‘was that the time when he was minister?’ they will tell you ‘no’,” Kabimba said.

“If you ask me, ‘is Guy Scott your friend?’ yes he’s my friend. I have known Guy for 20 years. I was with Michael in MMD but left the party and he remained but we still remained friends… I was telling someone the other day that today, even if Michael Sata was alive he would still have been friend even after firing me, because I had a relationship with him which stood 30 years. So you can’t say am defending PF, if I say Edgar was my classmate, is that defending Edgar? Do you want me to lie so that I can be a good member of the opposition?… why do you need to get statements from everybody who is not producing evidence in order to run a paper? I don’t think that is fair. I told Kambwili the other day that there is no coalition of opposition political parties, there is no alliance of opposition parties. So I have got the right to disagree with HH, I have the right to disagree with Mulongoti and if I disagree with them, the logic that that necessarily means that I am supporting PF shocks me.”

Kabimba wondered why Kambwili was so concerned about the Rainbow Party being a failed project when he was not even a party member.

“What is his problem if Rainbow is a failed project? It is not his project, the members of Rainbow party and former members will say it. If Rainbow is a failed project, you can ask [Robbert] Chikwelete who is a member of the party, he’s the right person qualified to make that comment. When the NDC candidate run away in Chilanga, did you hear me make any comment about it? Did I ever say that NDC is a failed project? I didn’t. Because I know that people criss cross… how many councilors has UPND lost in the last three to four months? Many! Is UPND a failed project? No! It is a subjective thing. So I don’t take what Kambwili says seriously. Kambwili has announced that he is no longer a member of PF and he confirmed this in an article with the Zambia Daily Mail. But in the meantime he is applying for a stay, please let’s get serious,” said Kabimba.

“For me Mr Sata told me that I should continue as member of parliament after I was fired, but I refused and I resigned from PF. That’s what honour requires someone to do. But to put a foot in PF so that you can continue getting an allowance and a salary from Parliament and then again call yourself a consultant of another political party… you lose the case, then you appeal… I just get confused myself about such leadership.”