Solwezi West UPND member of parliament Teddy Kasonso has vowed to work with the ruling Patriotic Front to bring development to his constituency saying his party is aware of this decision.

But UPND secretary general Stephen Katuka says Kasonso has proved that he is not a genuine member of the opposition party.

According to Smart Eagles, Kasonso, who last year defied his party by not walking out of the House when Bill 10 was re-introduced, vowed to work with government.

Mr Kasonso revealed his endorsement of working with government when the Provincial Minister Nathaniel Mubukwanu paid a courtesy call on district Commissioner for Kalumbila District.

He said that people of Kalumbila district could only see development when they elected leaders, councilors, council chairpersons and members of parliament who are ready to work with central government in lobbying for funds to develop the constituencies.

“Let’s put politics aside and work with Central government and the entire Republican government for the benefit of local people,” Smart Eagles quoted Kasonso as saying.

He further applauded government for releasing Constituency Development Fund (CDF) on time, saying in 2017 and 2018 Central government released K700, 000 and K1,600,000 respectively, to Forster developmental projects.

Kasonso said Kalumbila prioritized projects in education and health sectors and opened the district with infrastructure development.

The MP added that he had no apology to make to anyone for deciding to work with the government because he already informed the UPND provincial and national leadership of his decision.

Kasonso said he made it very clear to his party that he would fully work with the current government for developmental purposes in his constituency.

But in an interview, Katuka said Kasonso had not communicated to any party member that he intended to work with the ruling party.

“There is no leadership that is aware of his position and in leadership, there are many people. I don’t think there is any [of us who know]. For us where we meet to discuss that issue, we believe that while it is appreciated that everybody must lobby for funds from government, it must be done in a manner that will not put the party in disrepute. And he can’t say I owe nobody an apology because he is coming from a background where he was one of the two who remained in the Chamber over the Bill 10. So he is just adding salt to the injury, he is proving a point to us that he is working with the PF. We get his statement and I think for us, we will leave it at that. But he has exposed himself now that we know where he belongs,” Katuka said.

Katuka said the party would count Kasonso and his Nalikwanda counterpart Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa out of the MPs who would vote against Bill 10.

“He is trying to justify his position so even Bill 10, we cannot rely on a person that is already compromised. We have those two that sat in the House when everybody walked out and that is coming from them now, you can see that there must be something that meets more than the eye. The President said we will not waste time on those two, we have a lot of better things to do. But for now, he is an MP on our ticket so we will still try to counsel him. It is our duty, it is like a parent, you talk to all your children even the tyrant ones and see if they can see sense. However, with such statements, you can see that the fellow is gone,” said Katuka.

“Those are the signs. We have had a lot of experience with that. We dealt with [Richwell] Siamunene, [Dawson] Kafwaya, [Grayford] Moonde and those are the similar sentiments we were getting that time. So when your allegiance is compromised, that is what comes out of our leaders. We can see that the man is no longer a true red, he is not a genuine member of our family. As a family, we work together and make collective decisions. If he has declared he will work with those guys meaning that he is not with us. So if he has decided to go that route, good luck to him.”