PF member of the central committee Paul Moonga says acting party president Given Lubinda should “get out” since he has failed to mobilise money for the general conference scheduled for June.

In an interview, Moonga said the party should put someone in charge who could talk to well wishers and organise money for the conference.

“Right now as a central committee member, I don’t have a copy of Lubinda [being] appointed as party president. If you put Lubinda as acting president, let him find money for the conference. You can’t be masquerading as party president, you can’t mobilise money for the party, then you are not worth it, get out! Get out!” Moonga exclaimed.

“How can somebody tell me that there is no money, what are you there for? Just to speak nice English? Get out! Let us put somebody who can organise the money, who can talk to well wishers, if you have no connections, get out! If honourable Lubinda calls himself president, he can’t look for K2 million, he can’t make a budget, get out! I have respect for him, but unfortunately when you tell the truth you are being hated.”

Moonga claimed that the party lost the recently held by-elections because Lubinda failed to organise money for party structures, adding that an election couldn’t be won on an empty stomach.

“The loss in the by-elections is all on the so-called acting president Given Lubinda. He failed to mobilise money for the party structures. You can’t win elections on an empty stomach. We should not be crying as cry babies, ‘no HH went there for a by-election’, so what! We just lost power a few months ago and we are crying that the ruling party had four choppers, so what, [do] choppers vote? Why did we fail to get four choppers ourselves? The office of the incumbent, he enjoys the privilege of using state machinery, which we also used to do. We shouldn’t cry foul, let us just organise ourselves and we can bounce back. We should not become cry babies. So honourable Lubinda, wake up and look for the money, open the floodgates and tomorrow announce ‘all those who would want to become president can you apply’. Call for a central committee meeting,” he said.

Moonga said it was unfortunate that a party which ruled for 10 years was struggling to find money to host a general conference.

“The central committee including myself are also to be blamed. We have failed to show direction and leadership in the party. When you are talking about the June Conference, by now, we as members of the party would have announced the exact date and the venue. The party has been in power for 10 years, we can’t be struggling to find money for the venue. As a member of the central committee, I don’t know the date of the conference. How can PF not have money for the venue? You have been in power for 10 years, how? Who believes that nonsense? What have you been doing for 10 years? Our members are anxious to know the date of the conference. If the central committee had shared the date, we would have stopped all the anxiety of our members. So we really want to go to the conference and give them a leader,” he said.

“So the earlier the secretary general of the party calls for an emergency meeting of the central committee, the better. Also the party has no money, we can still do provincial conferences, a K100,000 per provincial conference, each one of the provincial committees [can] vote and give us a president. I like Davies Chama, he is a cool old man, by now we should have come up with a road map from the same committee. Up to now they are talking about what to do, dos and don’ts, what we need now is the party president period, he is the one who is going to be there to rebrand the party.”

Moonga said it was nonsensical that the party was trying to rebrand without appointing a party president.

“In politics, there is no rebranding, it’s not Coca-cola. A party rebranding is simply putting one leader as the president. Then a new president will come with their own ideas on how best the party [can] be run. Politics there is no rebranding, it is not a business. So what rebranding are you talking about? That word is being misused by people who are so ignorant. There is no rebranding in PF, what we need as the PF is to come up with a new president, not this nonsense of rebranding, I just look at it, it’s so nonsensical. So the earlier we have a date for the conference, and people who want to stand [are identified], people will now talk,” said Moonga.

“For now I don’t know who qualifies to become PF president. We are quiet, this is April, when are we going to open the floodgates for those who want to stand as president? We are now losing quality, young dynamic [members] Kelvin Kaunda, who was born the same year with my second born son. We are just losing people, where are we going? So it is sad that we would lose Kelvin Kaunda, owner of Eden University. He is among the youngest guys in the world who is running his university.”

But when contacted, Lubinda declined to comment on the matter.