The Patriotic Front (PF) Lusaka Province acting executive committee has summoned presidential aspirant Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) and renowned cadre Julius Komaki to exculpate themselves on why they should not be expelled from the party.

KBF became the first PF member last month to declare his intention to challenge President Edgar Lungu at the party convention next year ahead of the 2021 general elections. He says President Lungu has failed to lead the country towards economic emancipation and as such, must surrender the mantel of leadership to him.

This move has attracted a sharp reaction from the PF leadership, calling him a frustrated nonentity who does not qualify to challenge the Head of State.

Komaki, on the other hand, has been calling for the removal of Secretary General Davies Mwila whom the party youths say has failed to empower the them and to mobilise the grassroots.

In the demand letters dated May 3, 2019 separately addressed to Komaki and KBF and signed by provincial chairperson Paul Monga and his interim secretary Kennedy Kamba, the committee has given the duo seven days in which to show cause why they should not be fired from the ruling party.

The committee has asked KBF to explain why he should not be expelled for asking President Lungu to step aside.

“You being an ordinary member of the party, we find it fit as the provincial committee to write to you concerning your conduct of behaviour in the party. Recently you have been seen on several media platforms calling for His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zambia to hand over power to yourself or as you put it to ‘us.’ Your calling for the president to hand over power to you is causing confusion and instability within the rank and file of the party,” the committee stated.

“Your treacherous behaviour of calling for the president to hand over power to you amounts to gross insubordination and an insult to the people of Zambia who elected him. According to the Patriotic Front Disciplinary Code of Conduct, under offences and acts of misconduct against the party, you have committed offences number (c) and we quote ‘acting in a manner that is likely to bring the name of the party into public ridicule, contempt or disrepute’ and (i) ‘acting disrespectfully towards the party or any of its officials.’ You have continued on this path with wanton disregard to the decorum of the office of the president of the Patriotic Front who is also the Republican President. Therefore you have been given seven days to exculpate yourself. Further, you are requested to appear before the Lusaka Provincial committee on Thursday 9th May, 2019. NPPR at 10:00 hours and show cause why the disciplinary committee should not recommend for your expulsion from the party.”

The committee then accused Komaki of attempting to undermine the presidential powers of appointing when he called for the removal of PF Secretary General Davies Mwila.

“You being an ordinary member of the party, we find it fit as the provincial committee to write to you concerning your conduct or behaviour in the party recently. Currently you have attempted to undermine the presidential powers of appointing or revoking the appointment of any one individual in the party. Your thuggery behaviour of parading yourself in front of Prime TV camera and challenge the president by calling for the removal of the secretary general who the president appointed cannot go unchallenged. According to the Patriotic Front Disciplinary Code of Conduct, under offences and acts of misconducts against the party, you have committed offences number (b) and we quote ‘breach of rules of the party,’ (c) ‘acting in a manner that is likely to bring the name of the party into public ridicule, contempt or disrepute’ and (i) ‘acting disrespectfully towards the party or any of its officials,” the committee stated in the letter.

“You have continued on this path with wanton disregard to the decorum of the office of the president of the Patriotic Front who is also the Republican President and also the office of the secretary general. Your action amounts to gross indiscipline and insubordination, therefore you have been given seven days to exculpate yourself. Further you are requested to appear before the Lusaka Provincial disciplinary committee on Wednesday 8th May, 2019 [at the] National Program for Poverty Reduction (NPPR) at 10:00 hours and show cause why the disciplinary committee should not recommend for your expulsion from the party.

And asked why the party had taken such a step against people whome it claimed not to be members, Moonga in an interview told News Diggers that the duo had continued masquerading as PF members.

“Because they have kept on issuing statements as if they are PF members. So we thought of doing it like that because they are acting with impunity [and] maliciously. So the best thing to do is they should not even pretend to be our members, because they are claiming to be our members. So we thought of showing them the door. We have summoned them, and asked them to come through and we talk to them and find out from them. If they are claiming to be our members then they should behave like our members. Surely you cannot wake up one day and start claiming that your director there should be removed, whether it’s a general worker or a casual worker. I will compare these guys to be like casual workers who work without contacts. One casual worker wakes up in the morning and calls for the chief executive to be removed. What kind of nonsense is that? So I will compare Fube and Komaki as casual workers of the PF. So we thought our colleagues should be talked to and their conduct will matter most,” said Moonga.