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The Patriotic Front (PF) has warned that it would stop recognising President Hakainde Hichilema as head of State should the ruling party continue disrespecting its elected leaders such as Mayors, Council Chairpersons and Councilors.
Given Lubinda, the PF acting Vice President, said the UPND was free to ban all the Mayors, Council Chairpersons and Councillors from welcoming President Hichilema or indeed attending any of the events at which the Head of State was going to be the guest because the civic leaders were not obliged as it was not one of their civic duties.
Lubinda said soon after the PF left government, he had advised members of the former ruling party, its leadership, the civic leaders to accept defeat and accord Mr Hichilema the respect of head of State unlike what the UPND did while in opposition.
He recalled in an interview on Saturday that Hichilema and the UPND never respected and recognised former President Edgar Lungu as Head of State for the seven years he was President of the Republic of Zambia.
“If the UPND is going to use our respecting President Hichilema to start demeaning our elected civic leaders, the Mayors, the Council Chairpersons and councilors, then we may as well learn from them, we may as well emulate them by not recognizing Mr Hichilema as President and head of State.
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“And we shall not be doing anything strange because the UPND and President Hichilema led the way by refusing to recognize President Lungu as head of State.”
“President Hichilema and the UPND in opposition refused to recognize Dr Lungu as President of the Republic of Zambia and Head of State for seven years but as the PF, we have been civil but they must not push the door too far and may break the hinges and cause a stampede,” Lubinda said.
Meanwile, Lubinda has told all the civic leaders elected and serving Zambians through the PF to remain resolute and never to be intimidated by the governing party.
Lubinda said the PF was in guard of its civic leaders and that shall protect them from any form of harassment from the UPND which he accused of having the propensity of haranguing Mayors, Chairpersons and Councillors only for reasons that they were serving through the opposition party.
He said the harassment of Kitwe Mayor, Mpasa Mwaya, by Copperbelt Minister Elisha Matambo was unacceptable and should never be tolerated in a democratic dispensation such as Zambia.
Lubinda explained that as much as it was known that local authorities were answerable to the central government, it did not have to follow that the central government could with impunity abuse Mayors, Chairpersons and Councillors serving the country through the opposition political parties.
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