Why I have never held Miles Sampa responsible for PF leadership wrangles

By Kellys Kaunda

Lest we forget, Miles Sampa didn’t just wake up one morning like a mentally-ill patient and called for the ‘convention’ that ‘elected’ him PF leader.

Some people would want to promote this narrative and blame the man for all that has gone wrong with PF.

The action by Miles Sampa was a symptom of problems that were already brewing within the party.

Objectively appraised, Sampa’s ‘convention’ was a product of frustration at some forces within the Central Committee who were delaying the convention to elect a new leader to replace Edgar Chagwa Lungu for reasons that were not disclosed to others.

He was not alone in this regard. There were other party members that felt the same way.

What those who were dragging tne convention didn’t anticipate was the ruling party’s exploitation of these frustrations and to what extent.

I don’t even think that this was a premeditated act.

After noticing its initial success which met no public backlash, the UPND government began to grow bold in its disregard for the rule of law.

Unfortunately, UPND has grown so reckless, it has become its own greatest enemy. It has outdone itself.

Unfortunately, by its own naked ambition, the UPND government now owns PF problems.

If it had learnt from previous governments who didn’t legitimize internal party wrangles, UPND would not have been linked to PF problems.

In fact, the speed with which the courts threw out Longwe’s case against the UPND a few days ago is the same way that the Miles Sampa Convention would have been dismissed as illegal.

In the first place, the State would not have even deployed police to guard the ‘convention’, and the Registrar of Societies would not have even changed the names for office bearers.

And the matter would not have reached the Speaker’s office.

Imagine, once again, if the state had interfered in the controversial UPND conference which elected Hakainde Hichilema following the death of Mazoka!

That may have weakened the opposition so much, this country may have had a political and electoral environment systematically and automatically engineered in favor of the ruling party as it is today.

So, for the foregoing reasons, I don’t blame Miles Sampa for the current state of affairs in the PF and by extension, the rest of the opposition unless someone wants, for reasons best known to themselves, to rewrite history.