PF media director Sunday Chanda says the opposition alliance is comprised of UPND president Hakainde Hichilema’s lapdogs.

And Chanda says claims by UPND that the ruling party wanted to buy off their Sesheke candidate is merely an excuse for their impending loss.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s Lusaka Star program, Wednesday, Chanda said the opposition alliance was merely a group of Hichilema’s useful idiots.

“That alliance is [a] Hakainde Hichilema alliance, all the other opposition parties are his lap dogs, that’s what they are, who else in that alliance has a councilor? Who else in that alliance has a proper executive committee? Those are just lapdogs,” Chanda said.

“Abanensu abasungu [our friends, the white people] describe such as useful idiots, it’s not an insult, if you are pushing a political agenda, you don’t understand, you are a useful idiot, someone is using you to push an agenda. So wakolongaka abaiche ati iseni tutembe [you ask] Edgar Lungu so that we win in 2021, it doesn’t work that way. What that alliance tells you is that it exposes the UPND’s desperation, because they know that on their own they, can’t win an election, Hichilema knows. And the options he has are quite laughable, you can’t go and pick ‘nashala neka parties’ ati we have a coalition of 10 political parties, that alliance is not going nowhere, it is a brought in dead case, that alliance is manyengwe (child’s play)!,” Chanda said.

And Chanda challenged DP presidential candidate for 2021 Harry Kalaba to state if he is president of that party so that the PF can know what to do with him.

“I am not sure if my brother Harry (Kalaba) has pronounced himself as DP President. I know in some circles he is being quoted as DP presidential candidate for 2021 but we would want him to come out in the open and tell us that he is president of the Democratic Party and we will have no problems with that, we are going to look at what must follow in the aftermath. Any dialogue must be well structured, we are not going to have renegades, rebel MPs, because for me, that’s what I call them. Mr Kambwili, the fact that he has gone to court, remains a rebel MP, Hon. Kalaba remains a rebel MP, however one wants to look at. You rebel against your own party and you can do whatever you want to do, abuse democratic processes, abuse the court processes, it doesn’t change the fact that you are a rebel MP. You cannot hold on to a PF seat and yet insult the PF day in and day out,” Chanda said.

Meanwhile, Chanda refuted claims by UPND that the PF wanted to buy their Sesheke candidate, saying that was merely an excuse for their impending loss.

“The PF is the party of choice in Zambia at the moment, and when people come with conditions to join and arm-twist the PF so that they are given the adoption certificate, they will create all these stories. Just in Chilanga we heard of a candidate who disappeared before nominations and it was blamed on the PF, you have opposition candidates that won’t show up during nomination and it is blamed on the PF. The UPND candidate in Kasenengwa disappeared, he didn’t want to stand and the PF had nothing to do with his disappearance. If Mr Kangombe is making those claims that we have heard, that sounds like a broken record, that’s the song that UPND will play repeatedly. It’s either they are mourning about the loss that an election was rigged, or that we are trying to buy off their candidate. We have no reason to buy UPND candidates, we have very capable members in the party,” said Chanda.

“We were in Mangango and the UPND were busy talking to Honorable Putu, they wanted him to be their candidate but he said ‘no, I can’t stand on the UPND ticket, I want to contest on the PF ticket’. The UPND through Mr Garry Nkombo said they would take the matter to court, alleging that he has no qualifications, but when they were following him, didn’t they realise that he had no qualification? But when we looked at his papers, we were sure that the man was qualified and had complied with all the electoral requirements. So we have heard these cries from the UPND and we are accustomed to them.”