PF member Kelvin Kaunda says it would be insane to think that PF can make a difference with the same leadership which Zambians rejected last year.

And Kaunda says if PF doesn’t act on this quickly, the party will be buried and go into oblivion.

Commenting on PF’s election loss in the Kabwata by-election, Kaunda said PF needed new leaders, arguing that one cannot expect to win an election where there was an absence of leadership.

“I want to agree with assertions by the general membership of the party that there is something more urgent for us to be able to attend to now [which] is the issue of the convention. The rest of the issues can now be put on hold, you can’t expect to win an election where there is an absence of leadership. If president Edgar Lungu still loves the PF, I think the reality now [which] has dawned is that we need a new set of leadership in the Patriotic Front. Some of us are on record calling for a convention as early as last year, immediately we lost an election, but people decided to misunderstand us. We know for a fact that an institution cannot succeed without credible leadership in place. The success and the failure of an institution is dependent on the quality of leadership in place,” he said.

And Kaunda said warned that the party would go into oblivion if the current leadership was maintained.

“Our lack of victory in last year’s August general election is nothing other than the absence of leadership. What the Zambian people rejected was the leadership at the time, so we cannot make a difference with the same set of leadership, no we can’t! That will be insane for us to think like that. They say insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. So how then can we continue with the same set of leadership and expecting different results? In fact, if we don’t move quickly, PF is not going anywhere and before we know, it will be buried, it will go into oblivion. It will join the other political parties that have gone before us,” he said.

Kaunda said the PF should concentrate on reorganising the party and not the “nonsense” of rebranding.

“For me, the issue of rebranding doesn’t even exist. I think there is misuse of terminology to a greater extent because when you talk about rebranding, rebranding speaks to the identity of an individual or an institution. So the issue of rebranding is neither here nor there. So the issue of rebranding doesn’t exist. I am not careful enough to actually agree with the leadership, those who are advocating the issue of rebranding, unless they are telling us that they are intending to change the name of the party,” said Kaunda.

“So there is no rebranding taking place, what we must be discussing now is the issue of reorganising. I think this is what the general membership is looking forward to, it is us being able to reorganise ourselves. So it is the reorganisation of the party which the general membership is expecting and not the nonsense of rebranding. So if there are those who are still entertaining the nonsense of rebranding, they may as well form their own political party.”