FORMER MMD national secretary Maj Richard Kachingwe says he has not returned to the UPND to seek for government jobs, saying at his age, those are “for our children and young people”.

In an interview, Wednesday Maj Kachingwe said the PF had become inactive in the past seven months and he was therefore becoming irrelevant in the political scenario.

“First of all, I didn’t defect from anywhere to anywhere, I rejoined and I am happy with my decision, I consulted widely. Mostly what prompted me is that first of all, I am a practicing politician. I am still active, I am an active politician. What I can’t participate in at my age is to fight for jobs which are supposed to be for our children and young people, but politics I am still a participating and an active person. When you sit, seven months down the line no activity, you can be confined to history in politics,” he said.

“So there was literally no activity and I am a practicing politician. Our colleagues you just see them amongst themselves, no one picks a call to say ‘there is a programme, what are you doing, where can we fit you?’ Nothing! It ended at elections. So it became difficult for me. I was becoming irrelevant in the political scenario, so I wouldn’t want to do that, I am still an active politician. So I can’t force myself on people if they don’t want to play with me.”

He said despite leaving PF, the party had good people, including former president Edgar Lungu.

“You know who I am, I was national secretary of MMD, at that time my colleagues accused me ‘he’s PF’, I said ‘I am not PF’, of course the people who accused me were the first people to go. I remained behind and I tried to wrestle the party from Nevers Mumba, until I ended up being beaten. So I stood firm to try and save the party but my colleagues did not support me. UPND came to court me, Vice-President [Mutale] Nalumango and late [Request] Muntanga came to me to ask me to join them,” Maj Kachingwe said.

“I joined them and I was very happy until later, you know what happened, that confusion over my son. So I stopped, if you remember, I didn’t even resign, I just said that the relationship will not be attainable. When you reach certain levels, even if you are moving from one place to another, it becomes difficult because people become uneasy, that is what happened I think when I went to work with PF. Ideally, I was just working with the boss, but they were good people, ECL was a very warm man.

Maj Kachingwe said other than UPND, other political parties were not attractive.

“I am not looking for a job in government, I have been very specific, jobs are for our children, our nephews and you young boys. Last elections, someone was asking me, ‘are you not standing’, I said I was an MP in 2000, I should not be fighting with my children. That is unacceptable, but politics, I am still active, I can participate at any level. What I don’t like myself is you wake up and form your political party. If I wanted to, I would have joined any other political party but they don’t attract me. So I thought the best way to continue is to go back where I belong. Some of my colleagues called me yesterday to find out, I told them my piece of mind and they are respecting my views and I wish my colleagues the best of luck,” said Maj Kachingwe.