United party for national development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema should own up and accept the truth about the demise of the Patriotic front-UPND pact and formally move on to seek a way forward for his political career.
Chief Mwanachingwala of the Tonga speaking people in Mazabuka district has said that Mr Hichilema risks his political career going into extinction if his party does not quickly forget about the pact and look for a way ahead.
The traditional ruler told the Sunday Times during the week that Mr Hichilema should own up and star looking at ways in which her can enhance his chances for his political future.
The Chief said that from inception, he had advised Mr Hichilema that he would be duped by Mr Sata but that Mr Hichilema had decided to disregard his counsel.
He said that the UPND on its own would not achieve much politically because it was a regional party just like the PF, hence the need for Mr Hichilema to work with others.
The chief said it would be prudent for Mr. Hichilema to work with president Rupiah Banda to secure his political future and enhance his chances for 2016.
He said Mr Hichilema still had a chance to make it in politics because he was young but that there was need for him to position himself especially for 2016 by which time he would have ripened fully politically.
“There is completely no pact there, Mr Hichilema should work with RB (President Banda) if he wants to have a chance for State House in 2016. For now HH should forget about State House and instead he should support RB,” the outspoken traditional ruler said.
He said that as a traditional leader he had been interacting with the people at the grassroot level all over the country and he knew what they wanted.
He said that politicians should be realistic and identify their weaknesses instead of always pretending to be stronger than they actually were.
Confusion and acrimony has engulfed the PF-UPND pact with officials from both sides issuing statements that are at variance with the originally stated mission for the pact.
Officials from both PF and UPND have asserted that their respective parties were more popular than the other countrywide, this has created doubts as to weather the parties will follow the format where they don’t contest elections in the same constituency but give chance to which ever party appears stronger in a particular area to contest elections.
But Chief Mwanachingwala said that both political parties were not strong enough to match the popularity of the MMD because they did not have a national character.
“We should be sincere when we talk about this, UPND can’t make it alone just like my friend’s party the PF.” he said.
And former Patriotic Front member, Mubanga Chileshe said the intentions of the PF in forming the pact were to destabilizing the UNPD structures in the country.
Mr Chileshe, who was mobilization chairman for the committee of founders of the PF, said PF leader Michael Sata wanted to weaken the UPND structures by claiming to be popular than his counterpart Hakainde Hichilema after the two had been seen to work together.
“This is why you have heard that he is already claiming to be popular in Chilanga constituency where the UPND came second in the 2006 elections.” he said.
Mr. Chileshe said time had come for the UPND leader to immediately pullout from the alliance before he was tossed out at the eleventh hour by Mr Sata.
“In the case of the pact, Mr Sata will do everything to frustrate HH so that he (Mr Hichilema) pulls out of the pact and he remains alone after destroying the UPND party structures.” Mr. Chileshe said.
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