By ELIZABETH CHATUVELA
PATRIOTIC Front (PF) youth chairperson Chishimba Kambwili has sought the intervention of the ruling party’s disciplinary committee against Luanshya Central member of Parliament (MP) Steven Chungu for alleged insubordination.
And Mr Kambwili says he has never aspired for the party’s presidency.
Mr Kambwili told journalists yesterday that he has referred Mr Chungu’s matter to the disciplinary committee because it is unacceptable for a district chairman to attack a member of the central committee in a manner he did.
He said the letter to the disciplinary committee, copied to President Sata, was submitted yesterday.
Mr Kambwili, who is also Minister of Youth and Sport, has accused Mr Chungu of “making noise” because he is being sponsored by a “big fish” in the party.
He said a “big fish” is targeting him after allegedly managing to force a few members of the party to resign.
“I have been targeted for a long time but I will remain committed to doing my job as Minister of Sport and chairman of youth for the PF. I will not waste time to argue with a junior officer like Steve Chungu, therefore I wish to tell you that I have written to the disciplinary committee chairman to look at the issue of Steve Chungu, because this is indiscipline,” Mr Kambwili said.
“You can’t have a district chairman telling off a member of the central committee if that district chairman is not supported by the so-called big fish.
“We know these things and know who wants to destroy who, or who wants to get at who, and now it appears it’s my turn. They have found a soft spot in Chungu to try and bring confusion in Luanshya so that they can get at me,” he said.
“I want to tell them namupapata [I beg you], I do not want to be used for cheap politics.”
Mr Kambwili also said that the “big fish” will not manage to destroy him or make him resign like they did with other party members.
“I thought these squabbles in the PF had come to an end but now it appears they are targeting me, and I’m not interested. And I want to tell them that I will not be pushed out of the party, I will not resign and they will not frustrate me because I can’t be frustrated,” he said.
He also rubbished Chungu’s claims that he (Kambwili) is aspiring for the presidency.
Kambwili said this in the wake of Chungu’s claim that the Roan law-maker hates him because he has not supported his presidential ambitions.
He added that the party was built on harmony and would not allow selfish people to destroy it.
“If this party [PF] was built on squabbles, we could not have come this far. I am one of the founding members of the party and I mobilised for its growth in Luanshya,” Mr Kambwili said.
PF deputy secretary general Bridget Atanga declined to comment on the matter.
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