There is growing tension among Patriotic Front (PF) members in Lusaka and major squabbles are brewing after the appointment of party secretary general Wynter Kabimba as Acting President during President Michael Sata’s sudden “working vacation” to Israel.
Ruling party members interviewed in Lusaka expressed anger and resentful feelings regarding the appointment of Wynter Kabimba as acting president.
The members said Kabimba had given himself too much power and was using Michael Sata’s name to make in roads towards becoming president.
On Sunday, acting government spokesperson Mwansa Kapeya announced to the nation that Wynter Kabimba would act as republican president during the period that Michael Sata would be away from the country.
But this message did not settle down too well among PF members who consider Kabimba to be a treacherous fellow who is working with other invisible hands to take over power and control the reins of government.
According to sources, there are some senior PF members who are opposed to the appointment of Kabimba as acting president.
According to the PF members talked to, Kabimba was not the right man to entrust with power because he was ambitious about becoming president even when he was not popular to win an election.
There have been numerous calls across the PF membership in which the individuals and groups were calling for the expulsion of Kabimba for distabilising the party.
Mwape Kuluneta, from Kabwata constituency said Kabimba was not supposed to be handed power because he was now using the temporal position to assert himself as the Michael Sata’s potential successor.
“There are camps that have emerged in the party. Some people are almost messing up in their pants because of Kabimba’s acting position. He has some people such as Chishimba Kambwili and Jean Kapata who can melt once he becomes president. Kabimba is a wrong man to have at the top. Jyust wait and see the events that will unfold with Kabimba at the top. There will be a lot of things that will happen within the party,” he said.
And Patricia Mwanangombe from Lusaka central said it was wrong to have Kabimba in the position of secretary general, Justice minister and now acting president, because he was looking at himself as a powerful man who was untouchable.
“It is dangerous to have too much power in one man’s hands and this is what we are overlooking inWynter Kabimba’s case. He will destroy the party. He is not popular within the party. He uses lies and tricks to get to the president. They president should have allowed another person to act on his behalf and not Kabimba. We have a problem with Wynter Kabimba because of the lack of intra party democracy. Kabimba should have been subjected to an election and we should have just listened to the people who said we cannot have Guy Scott as vice president because he cannot act in the absence of the republican president,” she said.
According to Mwanangombe, Kabimba was a pompous and arrogant individual who did not want to take other people’s advice.
A check at Wynter Kabimba’s residence along Independence Avenue in Lusaka showed an increased presence of security personnel guarding his house. Kabimba was seen being driven to his office in a large motorcade with tight armed security of policeman.
In normal situations, an acting president is accorded a reasonable amount of security, but in wynter Kabimba’s case, the matter has been exaggerated by inflating the size of the security both on the motorcade and at home.
Vice president Dr Guy Scott is not able to act as president because of constitutional provisions that do no empower anyone with foreign parents to be president of Zambia.
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