Lusaka Lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube says the bickering which has emerged in the Patriotic Front today is as a result of “nominations for the 2016 elections being rigged with a lot of corruption at a very high level”.

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

Presenting the petition on behalf of the constituency structures, Munali constituency Chairperson Forbes Mufwaya accused Lubinda, Kapata, Luo of holding dark corner meetings aimed at stopping the ongoing intra-party elections.

Mufwaya also named Chief and Traditional Affairs Minister Lawrence Sichalwe and Mulenga Kaziya among other members of parliament who were involved in the clandestine activities of some Central Committee members.

Reacting to the developments, Tuesday, KBF said he predicted such problems right after elections, hence his insistence to hold a PF national indaba to resolve the differences.

“It’s not about vindication. There is always is always intoxicating danger in having the ability to see things before they happen. And I don’t mean that in a braggish way. I mean it in a good way on the basis that sometimes as a party we must begin to see things for what they are. Some people are better placed at thinking ahead than others. I say that with the smallest of humility. But when you speak about something before it pronounces itself you will be misunderstood. Much of the time I have been misunderstood because people think I have got ulterior motives. My main call for postmortems, for indabas has always been the unity of the party because that’s what I believe in. A strong united party can never ever be defeated in elections. I have always said that. I have always cried for that,” KBF said.

“I was with my secretary general Davies Mwila on Friday attending the fund-raising ceremony for the Mutomboko ceremony. We had a good time. Dancing and laughing. For me to see what I saw yesterday where party youths come and call out names of senior members of the party and accuse them, I’m saying accuse because these are allegations. I want to be very clear, these problems go back to what I have always spoken about. If you don’t deal with problems when they show their ugly ahead, they will always come to your throat.”

KBF revealed that the 2016 nomination process was highly rigged with corruption at a high level.

“This is what Shaka Zulu meant when he said ‘never leave an enemy behind, they will always rise to come to your throat’. When there is a problem deal, with it as and when it rises. In 2014 we did not have a Presidential candidate. We went to a convention and chose the Presidential candidate. We won the elections on 20th January, 2015. The President is still there. We immediately took out a postmortem. A report was handed to the then secretary general Davies Chama and we said ‘these are the problems we encounted because of the short period we had. In 2016 lets plan ahead’. Come 2016 I was vice chairman of elections for the party. I knew some of the problems we had encounted so we avoided them. But others came in different shapes and forms, we dealt with them because we had a basis upon which we could say ‘we knew this would come’ or we had seen this before, we dealt with them,” he said.

“I called for a postmortem immediately after 2016 elections and I said ‘we should deal with these problems’ because the nominations for the 2016 elections unfortunately were rigged with a lot of corruption at a very high level, I don’t want to go into that because I know what happened. Further than that we move agenda and say ‘we promised the people of this country that we are going to have elections’ which is what’s happening now. Those elections were meant to be held then so that we could clear those problems that showed themselves to some of us who knew what the problems and the under currents in the party were. These are the problems which are coming out today.”

He advised the PF leadership to come up with a sub committee to quickly resolve the issues involving ministers, warning that if not handled properly, they would erupt like a volcano.

“Those are the problems which are coming up today. Because unfortunately what we should have dealt with then we ignored, now it has grown. It’s like a volcano, you try to put a lid on it, it will pop. If we are not careful, this is just a tip of the ice burg. Some senior members of the party are going to lose respect within the ranks of the party if they are not careful. But I say these are allegations. I know my brother honourable Given Lubinda, my sister honourable Jean Kapata, my sister honourable Nkandu Luo, I can’t speak on their behalf in terms of these allegations but all I can say is ‘they better go to the powers that be and nip this in the bud’,” said KBF.

“I think a small central committee, sub committee must be found to sit on these issues and discuss them quickly and nip them in the bud before they get out of hand because once indiscipline creeps into the party, we are going to have a problem. Because some allegations may just be because on indiscipline. Some of the problems we saw yesterday are long standing problems because of not solving problems when you should have dealt with them. I would urge my President to put his foot down, these things must not go beyond what we have seen down they must be stopped. The unity of the party is much more important that what we saw yesterday. And my brother Davies Mwila, I urge you to sit with the senior members of the party and see if solutions can be found because we can ill afford a divided party.”