PF member Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba says while people might call them corrupt, there is a lot they did for the country unlike UPND which he doubts has even built a toilet in its eight months of being in office.

And Mwamba says PF needs to avoid sidelining the “old guards” during the rebranding process.

In an interview, Mwamba said PF was still an alternative party which could bounce back into power.

Asked whether he was considering contesting for the PF presidency, Mwamba said his priority was on growing the former ruling party.

“You see, I will tell you something, for now that is not my priority, looking at how the Zambians are suffering. I think my priority is to see that we strengthen our party PF. PF as at now it is still the alternative party which can actually bounce back into power. If you look at Zambians today, they are actually crying for PF. Because in PF today, you can actually point at something which they did for years. Though they call us to be corrupt, they may call us to be corrupt, but we can show something that we did for this country. Look at UPND, the eight months they have been in power, I don’t think they have even built a toilet,” Mwamba said.

Asked to comment on the new central committee appointments made by acting president Given Lubinda, Mwamba said PF was democratic and that the party could only be stronger by bringing in people of influence.

“Let me tell you, PF is a democratic party. Whoever wants to participate should participate because we feel like we are still the strongest opposition party. By the way, you can only build a strong party by bringing in all the people that have influence. If you look at Miles Sampa, he has got influence, he has got support. If you look at Makebi Zulu, he has got influence, he has got support. Those are the people that we need in the party, we have to grow. Mind you, we are in the opposition. We were in the opposition before UPND came into power, we grew the party because we were united. We unified everybody to come on board, so even now, we need every Jim and Jack to come on board including the so called [Chishimba] Kambwili, the [Emmanuel] Mwambas who want to become president, they are free to participate, it is a democratic party,” he said.

And Mwamba said although the party was undergoing a rebranding process, there was need to avoid sidelining certain individuals.

“Rebrand or no rebrand, we need to just get united, UPND never rebranded for 23 years, you understand, finally they got into power. Even ourselves, let me tell you, in as much as we are going to rebrand, that does not mean that the old guards will be out of the party, no! Because without the old guards, the party cannot succeed. We still need the young ones, yes the young ones are needed, we still need to rebrand but certain characters cannot be rebranded or replaced, they ought to be there in order for the party to achieve what we want to achieve come 2026,” said Mwamba.