UPND Deputy Secretary General Getrude Imenda has challenged Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe to name his candidates who have been bribed by the ruling party instead of making “empty claims”.
Dr M’membe recently indicated that his opponents, both from the ruling party and other opposition political parties, were bribing his party members and candidates to withdraw from the political race.
Commenting on this in an interview, Sunday, Imenda said she was not aware of anybody from the Socialist Party who had been bought by the UPND.
“I’m not aware of anybody that we have bought. I’m not aware that we are buying people. Those are empty claims. As a party, I’m not aware. If he claims, let him give an example of a particular member that we have bought, who can come and say, ‘yes, UPND gave me so much so that I will withdraw’. Otherwise, as a Deputy Secretary General, I’m not aware of anybody that we are buying. I think he is just frustrated because he has seen that his members are leaving, a sign that they are not happy with his leadership. Either a sign that they are not happy with his leadership, or that they’ve realised that the UPND is the way to go,” she said.
“Like when people came to join us in an alliance, would you say that we bribed them? No. We are surprised. If we receive a phone call from…I don’t want to mention their names, but you know the ones who came to join us. That we want to talk to you. And we say okay. They come and they talk, and then they say, ‘no, we have realised that this and this, we want to form an alliance so that we move together in one direction’. ‘We move together towards the election’. So should we tell them ‘no, we don’t want?’ No. We sit down and talk and say, okay. So what is it? Why have you realised that you want to join us? And they’ll tell us. And then when we make it formal and public, we tell the people when they are joining publicly, and they will tell the people the reason. They tell us the reason”.
She cited the example of PF’s Miles Sampa, who said he had decided to join the ruling party after seeing the good policies that had been put in place.
“For example, I think you were there as News Diggers. Mr Saviour Chishimba and Miles Sampa [joined us]. Yes, now the one I recall was Miles Sampa, who said, ‘I was a very poor child when I went to school, and I used to walk and so on with an empty stomach and things like that’. ‘The only time maybe when I would have some money for break and transport would be when I decided to say, let me go to Kabulonga where my uncle, Michael Sata was staying to get some money’. But otherwise I would walk, because that was the time when there was no free education. So this time, when there is free education, I want to be part and parcel so that I can help children like me when I was a child. So that they can go to school, they don’t have to suffer, go through what I went through. So did we go to hunt for him? We were also even surprised. Isn’t it? But we said, ‘no, there’s no problem, this is a party for everybody, the people’s party’. ‘You want to be in an alliance, no problem’. So what should we do? Bribing somebody. Let him [Dr Fred M’membe] have order and stop blaming us,” she said.
Imenda advised Dr M’membe to revisit his leadership style and policies before pointing fingers at others for his members’ decision to leave.
She added that the UPND was a welcoming party ready to take in anyone who wanted to join them.
“We don’t send anybody away. Why? Votes. Politics is about numbers. If that one withdraws and says maybe he’s going to vote for us, that’s an extra vote. We can’t say, ‘no, go away, after all, your president has been very critical of us’. ‘Go away, go away’. No, we don’t do that. In politics, you don’t do that. Every vote counts. So now see, if the leader of that particular individual hears [that their person has joined us], they shouldn’t accuse us of having bribed them,” said Imenda
“Maybe he had seen he was just wasting his time. And maybe he’s not providing that candidate with proper resources to enable him to campaign. And maybe when he goes to campaign, wherever he goes, he finds that people even turn away, they don’t even look at him. But says, ‘I’m wasting my time here, there’s nothing for me here’. ‘So what do I do?’ ‘Let me just withdraw’. And then when he withdraws, he says, ‘no, UPND has bought them’ . They’ve realised that UPND is the way to go. They’re happy with the UPND policies and things like that. And they seem to have expressed confidence that UPND is going to win”.
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