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The opposition Patriotic Front-PF has with immediate effect suspended its Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa from the party’s Central Committee and from taking part in party activities for 6 weeks.
This follows a press briefing Mr Sampa held last week which the Party Secretariat has deemed to be in bad taste and highly condemned, adding that Mr Sampa disparaged his fellow party presidential aspirants.
Speaking during a media briefing held at the Patriotic Front Party Secretariat in Lusaka today, Acting Party President Given Lubinda mentioned that Mr Sampa`s briefing was entirely based on casting aspersions against other party members which the party has deemed as a recipe for anarchy and the danger to the unity of the party.
Mr Lubinda added that the decision was arrived at after a meeting was held by the central committee of which Mr Sampa was in attendance.
He said that some of the conditions of suspension include the banning Mr Sampa from participating and attending any party meetings during the said period and during this period he shall not make any public statement on behalf of the party.
“The Central Committee has been forced to invoke Article 61 of the Party Constitution to suspend Mr Sampa to set as an example to other erring party members,” he said
Meanwhile, the PF Party Secretariat has ordered a stop to any form of campaigns by PF aspiring presidential candidates as the Central Committee resolves on adopting new rules of engagement and campaigns for the forthcoming General Conference, adding that the campaigns will only resume after the party constitution is revised.
“Campaigns will only commence once the rules of engagement are agreed upon and voted by the party,” he said
And in responding to what new things the PF could have done now which they didnt do in the 10 years of being in power, Mr Lubinda stated that if the PF was still in power by now they could have started works on the Lusaka – Ndola dual carriage way and before doing that they could have started works on Kazungula because they couldn’t do everything at the same time and he added that being asked on things that they didnt do in the 10 years is like asking him if he has just become indilligent now, development is incremental which is not an event but rather a process.
“Having run the government for over 10 years, during that period there are many things that we started doing in the mining sector, and there are others that we said that when we cross 2021 there are other things we can do, for example , before 2021 elections, when gold was discovered, we said we are going to establish a company called Zamgold, for the reason of not wanting our gold to continue being exported without Zambia benefiting anything, because if you remember our Zambian emeralds where being auctioned in India where we take our emeralds to India where as even our own Zambia people travelled to India to take part in these auctions, that’s when we said this is wrong and let’s auction our emeralds in Zambia,” he said
And Mr Lubinda disclosed that the Patriotic Front wanted to establish a regulatory body to regulate the mining sector, and also ensure that the ownership of the mines is also in the hands of Zambians, because right now all the mines are owned by foreigners who do not even stay in Zambia and the Zambians are only left to run the mines on their behalf.
“The technology is amongst Zambians as they know how to mine and yet there are no Zambians who are shareholders,” he said
Mr Lubinda said that the Patriotic Front wanted to ensure that ZCCM-IH increases its share holding on behalf of Zambians, but instead theres a liquidation of their shares in some of the mines.
Lusaka Times
