FORMER PF secretary general Davies Mwila has wondered why the church cannot condemn President Hakainde Hichilema for the unnecessary foreign trips he has been undertaking.

And Mwila says the continued persecution of senior PF members will not affect the process of choosing a credible party president at the general conference later this year.

President Hichilema is today expected to leave for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the African Union Heads of State summit which will be his 10th international trip since September 2021.

In an interview, Mwila said President Hichilema was doing the exact thing his party was condemning former president Edgar Lungu for.

“Archbishop Mpundu and Fr Chikoya, even before elections we said that they are sympathisers of UPND. So we are not surprised with what they are saying. Why is it that Archbishop Mpundu and Fr Chikoya cannot condemn President Hakainde Hichilema for the unnecessary foreign trips he is undertaking because he is just wasting taxpayers’ money? How can you go to South Africa to launch a book for Bobi Wine, a presidential candidate for Uganda? He is compromising the security of this country,” Mwila said.

“How will President Museveni feel to hear that President Hakainde Hichilema met the opposition leader in South Africa? The South African disputed when they said that he is on [an] official trip to see President Ramaphosa. We should know that it was a private visit. It is the same people who were condemning former president Edgar Lungu for travelling outside the country most of the time. What they were condemning is what they are doing now.”

And Mwila said the arrests of senior PF members would not affect the process of choosing their party leader because it was just a phase.

“It will not affect us when choosing a party president. It is a process and it is a phase. We have passed through this. They have been in government for five months, who else have they taken to court and is found guilty of stealing? They told the Zambian people that PF Ministers and government have stolen from government coffers but no one as at now has been arrested. That is why they are ashamed because that is why they can even call us to find out the source of funding for political party campaigns. They do not have anything against us. But I can assure the Zambian people that we are strong and we are very much ready for them,” he said.

Mwila said the UPND would be more brutal than UNIP because government had failed to maintain the tenets of democracy.

“We are not scared and that is the strategy for the UPND. They do not want any political party to survive before 2026. Us as senior members of the PF, we are very much ready for them because we have gone through this before. So this is not new and all of us are getting more. I have said before that the UPND will be more brutal than UNIP because UNIP was a one party state and that was no democracy,” said Mwila.

“I can tell you at the rate we are going. Look at the people that are supporting them, other political parties and NGOs are shifting their support because of their wrongdoing. They do not want to maintain the tenets of democracy. They want to silence anyone that talks. We are not scared and they can call anyone. The recent calling of Given Lubinda is not new to us because we knew that they are hunting for us. So we know that more will be called.”