Patriotic Front Secretary General Davies Mwila says losing his Chipili parliamentary seat to independent MP Jewis Chabi doesn’t make him a rotten politician who cannot deliver victory for the ruling party in other elections.

And Mwila has charged that Chabi is a little ignorant man who will only represent Chibili for one term because the PF was going to reclaim the seat at the next general elections.

Last week, Chabi told Mwila to stop talking about Harry Kalaba’s popularity, adding that the PF Secretary General could not win the ruling party any election because he failed to defend his seat. But the PF chief executive wondered why Chabi was responding on behalf of Kalaba.

In this verbatim, Mwila explains how he lost the seat and claims that he was a better representative of the people of Chipili.

Question: Honourable SG, the Chipili member of parliament, Mr Jewis Chabi is saying your party made a mistake appointing you as secretary general because you are not capable of organising the party at national level when you failed to organise a constituency in Chipili, what is your response to that?

Answer: You want me to respond to Chabi’s issues? But I didn’t even talk about Chabi, I talked about [Harry] Kalaba who is our member. Chabi is not a member of PF. Which party does he even belong to and what is his concern if he doesn’t belong to our party? That guy cannot even win in Chipili again because he has failed to work. So what he is busy doing, those are just the last kicks of a dying horse. He is talking about us losing [but] tomorrow we will be winning [the Lusaka Mayoral] by-elections. So what is he talking about? He’s not the appointing authority and moreover, he’s not a member of the party. So he has no right to talk about our party affairs. I served as a member of parliament for 10 years in Chipili but him he will not serve for 10 years, he will only serve for one term. I have achieved a lot in that constituency which him he has failed.

Q. But honourable, what happened for you to lose the elections to an independent candidate with everything you’ve said you have done for the people of Chipili?

A: Yes! Yes! I lost the elections…but if you lose an election, that does not mean that you don’t think or that you have committed a crime. He won the elections but what has he done? Nothing, and he knows that in 2021 he’s losing. He (Chabi) misled the people that he’s going to work with the party in government, which he has not done. So what has he done in the constituency? Let him just wait for 2021 because those are the last kicks of a dying horse. Me I am gone, but him he must fulfil the promises he made which he has failed to fulfil. And why should he talk about me, because me I never talked about him. I talked about Kalaba who is a member of the party. I didn’t talk about Chabi because he’s not our member, so it’s Kalaba who should respond not Chabi. If he has any personal issues with me, he must deal with them outside politics not within politics.

I am Secretary General of the party and I have the right to talk about the party, my party. Chabi doesn’t belong to PF and if he talks about someone else, I cannot respond and that’s how politics are supposed to be. What he’s practicing are personal politics and I don’t know why he has to do that. Ubwafya mututu sana ulya (the problem is that he is too ignorant), you tell him that he must stop ubututu. Ubufontini…katutu sana kalya. Kwaliba umuntu uulanda filya ifyabututu bututu fye (Chabi is such a little ignorant man. How is it that he is always speaking so ignorantly every time he speaks?) He must grow up, let him talk about politics and not personalities. That’s why me I don’t talk about personalities, I talk about politics. I talked about Harry Kalaba who is a member of the party so Kalaba was supposed to respond not Chabi who is an outsider.

It is Kalaba who is supposed to tell me that I am a nonentity not Chabi. And it does not mean when you lose an election then you are a rotten politician, no! How many people have lost elections? Is it a crime to lose an election? Ubututu ba Chabi ubututu, tell him aleke ubufontini (tell him to stop being so ignorant). Losing an election is not a crime, people made a decision to vote for him. But we are going to decide on him in 2021. you tell him that yes the people will decide again. We are delivering to the people of Zambia and come 26 July, we are going to win all of them. So Chabi is just jealous of PF because him he’s not going anywhere. Let him continue talking about personal issues, us we will talk about issues that are affecting the Zambians. People want food on the table not personalities. The people of Zambia don’t have confidence in any opposition party that’s why they are voting for us.

Q. But honourable, honourable Chabi also said that your party has drifted away from Mr Sata’s vision of lower taxes, more money in people’s pockets, including other grounds on which the PF was founded.

A: Which vision is he talking about? We have a manifesto as a party which we are implementing and the people of Zambia are happy with what we are doing for them, that’s why they are voting for us. If they were not happy with us, they were not going to be voting for us. So let Chabi concentrate on his constituency which he has failed to develop.