VICE-president Dr Guy Scott (right) talking to Minister of Health Dr Joseph Kasonde during the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of an Adult Medical Emergency unit at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka recently. – Picture by ANGELA MWENDA.
VICE-PRESIDENT Guy Scott yesterday cast aside diplomatic decorum and shook the shaky political ground of former Defence minister Geoffrey Mwamba when he dared him to quit the PF now or face “painful” exit if he prolongs his stay.
Dr Scott has vowed to set camp in Kasama and ensure that the PF retains the Kasama Central parliamentary seat after Mr Mwamba’s exit.
“I want to challenge Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba to resign as a member of PF. Instead of doing things in halves, let him do the job properly and resign if he is man enough,” the Vice-President said.
“What we want when we are done with Katuba [by-election], we want to go to Kasama and sort out who are the leaders between us and others,” Dr Scott said.
“So, that is a very simple challenge, be honest and straightforward, resign. We want to challenge you over the governance of Zambia,” he said.
The Vice-President told a media briefing at his office yesterday that the PF is “fed up” of Mr Mwamba’s daily posting on his Facebook page pretending to be “everything”.
“We are fed up of having to read his Facebook page every morning and his pretending to be a football fan, a Christian. He is pretending to be everything. We just want to decide who is in charge of Kasama and we will show him it is us,” he said.
“If he doesn’t resign, we have a painful process, very undignified process of having to remove him by party disciplinary hearings and so on and so forth. And no doubt, it will end up in the courts, if he wants it to end up in the court.”
Dr Scott said Mr Mwamba, popularly known as GBM, is free to engage anyone to manage his (GBM’s) Facebook page.
He said the people of Kasama deserve to be “properly” represented in Parliament.
“You can’t have confusion hiding behind parliamentary membership without being loyal to that ticket.
“Let them [Kasama residents] speak with their votes, whether they are Michael Sata’s people or Geoffrey Mwamba’s. We want straightforwardness in our politics,” he said.
Dr Scott dismissed as mere wishful thinking assertions that Mr Mwamba is the only one who can fulfil the aspirations of the people of Northern Province.
He said Mr Mwamba was elected in Kasama because he stood on the PF ticket.
“Let him [GBM] stand against us so that we stop confusing people as to where the power is in this country.
“When he tried to stand in Kabwata in 2006 on MMD, he lost. In 2011 when he stood on the PF ticket, he won. Now I want to show him, we want to show him that it is the PF ticket that made him MP,” he said.
Dr Scott said regardless of the ticket on which Mr Mwamba stands, the PF will defeat him.
He jokingly said, “I will procure a short-sleeved Indian jacket [usually worn by Indian politicians from the left wing]’ and camp in Kasama to prove to Mr Mwamba that he doesn’t have the mandate that he thinks he has.”
When reached for a comment, Mr Mwamba declined to say anything.
Mr Mwamba resigned as Minister of Defence last month and recently the local party leadership announced his suspension on charges of disloyalty.
He said then that he would not leave the PF.