PF deputy secretary general Mumbi Phiri says some cabinet ministers and PF MPs are sponsoring controversial party youth Julius Komaki to oust party secretary general Davies Mwila.

Mumbi has threatened to name the said ministers and MPs if they challenge her.

Speaking in a phone interview on Hot FM’s Red Hot Breakfast, Wednesday, Mumbi who is also a nominated member of Parliament, said some ministers and MPs who had overstayed in office were plotting to oust Mwila and replace him with their puppet who will adopt them in 2021.

“You know what has been happening? In Bemba we say ‘ifilala fyamunda yanama’ (nothing can be hidden forever), you can be doing something thinking that others are not seeing. I have looked at leadership and I am a good example of leadership. Do you know that I never dreamt that I would be an MP? I was raised by God, but if you have ambitions that you want to be this or that, it will not come to pass. This time when we have been going to the NDF, we saw Komaki and his colleague, they were the two of them, they met some of our ministers and our MPs. Let me be challenged, you know me I don’t fear and I speak the truth, let anybody challenge me and I will name them, and they know, I don’t fear, I only fear God,” Phiri said.

“And if you are a member of the central committee, someone is calling for the resignation of the SG who is a presidential appointee like you and then you are busy meeting with that person, what does that mean? Can Komaki raise any point against any minister who is a Presidential appointee? The SG, deputy SG, national chairperson for women, for youth, these are positions which are a prerogative of the President just like he appoints ministers and other people, you cannot not question, that’s the prerogative of the President. If he wanted, he could have written to the President quietly than what he is doing. And I feel sorry for him for being used by us finished politicians to curtail his political career.”

She said the ministers and MPs plotting Mwila’s removal had outlived their usefulness as they had been MPs for too long.

“We are not going to see the division because these people started a long time ago, they even had a meeting in the grounds of State House with some of our youths who refused to succumb to what they were demanding for. ‘Nabaloba ilyauma’(they have hit a snag) and the fortunate part is that these are people who have over lived their usefulness just like it was with [Dr Kenneth] Kaunda, he was not a bad person but people got fatigued with their leadership. Everyone in leadership must leave when time comes, let’s learn to serve and move on and leave for others, not fighting,” Phiri said

“You know, we have this scenario in African politics; people don’t realise when they should retire and there are very few people who talk about retirement like me, because I believe I have to leave the stage for somebody else to take over from me when people are still clapping. Why should I be an MP for 20 or 30 years? Am I the only person? So we have this group of people who are not wanted in the areas where they are. So they want to pick individuals who will keep them like eggs, so that when there are adoptions they will pick them, which is very wrong.”

Meanwhile, Phiri said the central committee of the party was waiting for recommendations from the Lusaka Province disciplinary committee with regards to what action to take against Lusaka lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube and Komaki.

“We have written to them (KBF and Komaki), that’s the procedure, they should appear before the Lusaka province disciplinary committee and us as Central Committee, we will wait for their recommendations. And for ba McDonald Chpenzi, ‘teti tusendefye umuntu nangu tali mu electoral college ya party, nangu afuma mucitele cankoko nangu kumabala, twasenda ati tiyeni kumulungushi’ (we cannot just pick any person who is not even in the party’s electoral college, even if someone just comes out of a chicken run or from the farm that let’s go to Mulungushi), that’s anarchy. I am encouraging my brother KBF to go and stand for an election at whatever level he would want, then he will be part of the electoral college. You have to come from somewhere; section, branch, constituency, district or province, Fube is nowhere in the party structures,” said Mumbi.

“That’s why I am advising that since we are having primary elections now, this is the right time for him to come through the ranks of the party, then he will qualify. We have heard, even the President himself has allowed anybody who is part of the Electoral College, even me if I want to challenge him I can, he has not stopped anyone. And people are misunderstanding, as a party, we have endorsed President Lungu as our candidate but that does not stop anybody who is part of the Electoral College to contest.”