Weaker souls in our party, who are hungry for money have given in to the carrot being dangled by PF, says opposition UPND secretary general Stephen Katuka.
And Katuka has disclosed that he is being approached with offers of money by the PF government in order to work with them, but he has refused to give in as that would destroy the party he was secretary general of
And Katuka said he did not anticipate that their party members of parliament Geoffrey Lungwangwa (Nalikwanda), Mukumbuta Mulowa (Senanga) and Teddy Kasonso (Solwezi West) would turn out to show their true colours in the manner they have done, but that the party will plead with no one.
Asked by Daily Revelation on what the real problems were between the party and their members of parliament as the differences were now more glaring before the public eye, Katuka said it was very difficult for weaker souls to resist the temptation of the carrot being dangled by the ruling party.
“You see they are just hungry for money. There is a carrot being dangled by PF, all of us it has been dangled but because we have our principles we have avoided it. The weaker souls when they see these carrots, you know I have been approached myself that I can reveal to you. No we will give you so much, I say no I am not interested in that money,” Katuka said. “That’s how they are getting our councillors, that’s what they have done to some of our MPs. We have information of money being deposited into their account, we have information of some of them receiving motor vehicles, we have information about them going into State House disguised.”
Asked if those involved where those already having problems with the party, or there were also other party members involved, Katuka said he referring to those he had talked about already.
“No no no no we haven’t heard reports of any other other than those I am talking about,” he said, adding that when one was weak it was easy to fall for anything.
Asked on how much he had been offered himself to work with the ruling party, Katuka said he would not disclose, only stating that he had refused, as apart from being principled, such a move would destroy the party he was running as secretary general.
On the recent revelation that Prof Lungwangwa voted with those in government to defeat the opposition on whether to allow electronic voting or have the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) conduct the voting on Bill 10 through a secretariat ballot, Katuka said Lungwangwa was just showing his true colours.
“He’s showing us where he belongs where his allegiance is, his allegiance is no longer to the UPND as a party. His allegiance is to the other party. So in short Professor is gone, that’s why he is behaving like that, it’s to show us that he is gone. That’s why he’s voting with the PF to show us that am no longer your son,” Katuka said, and was asked if this could be termed a permanent divorce between the parties. “He has decided to divorce the party, he has decided to detach himself from the party we haven’t divorced him. We haven’t thrown him out. As a party we know that he stood on our ticket and it’s because of our party that he’s in parliament.”
Asked if Prof Lungwangwa should count himself out of Nalikwanda as far as the UPND was concerned, Katuka responded: “Well that is not debatable I think. That is not debatable. it’s clear that he has decided to go against the party. If you decide that I don’t want you. If a woman decides in a home that I don’t want this marriage I am gone, what do you do…and any sensible man will let her go so that she meets her wishes. So he has decided to go we can’t stop him. We have done a lot, from the time he remained in the chamber we have not disciplined him, he has repeated it we have not disciplined him, we have not said anything. So if he’s ready to who am I to stop him? We are not forcing him and we will not plead for anyone.”
Asked if the party regretted their move to adopt Prof Lungwangwa and others, especially that they had their own members who were waiting to be adopted, Katuka said the UPND had noble intentions as they did not know that the relationship could deteriorate to this level
“It’s like a marriage when you marry you do not know how far that marriage will go. When you live together with a woman that’s when you know the true colours. We did not know who Lungwangwa was before, we just knew him as one of the MPs in that house. And western Province being our stronghold they came to us and asked for a favour that we adopt them. We had a loose alliance with them that made us adopt them,” Katuka said. “And fortunately we got the seats in Western Province which was a good move in my view. We managed to get almost all the seats in Western Province now if he has decided to go I don’t think it will be right to blame the leadership. There are so many who are with us and doing very well, who came from the MMD. But in my language there is a saying that in every village there must be a fool.”
Asked if apart from Lungwangwa, the party counted the two other, Mulowa and Kasonso as gone too, Katuka said: “You watched Mulowa on (ZNBC) TV the other day with PF Bwana Mukubwa MP. So do you expect my member to be on the group of PF members on an event like that one, denouncing my party? Those are proving to us that they are no longer your members that’s why they can go and be paraded on a television with PF members to say these are my new found friends. That’s what it shows.”
Source: Daily revelations