Hon. Miles Sampa’s PF party presidency bid statement

This morning at about 10:35am, Friday 14th November 2014. Hon. Sampa walked into a conference room at Pamodzi Hotel in Lusaka packed with supporters. He began by stating that:

“Following the announcemnet that the Party Presidency will be decided at the General Conference in Kabwe and that invitations for applicants for Presidential aspirants is open, I wish to announce that I have received a lot of submissions from the Youths, PF party officials countrywide from various Constituencies, Districts, Provincial structures and ordinary citizens urging me to stand as a Presidential candidate.

Consequently, I wish to take this opportunity to announce to this gathering and through you to the general public, that I have accepted the challenge. I stand before you this morning to announce that I will contest as a Presidential candidate at the convention. It is my democratic right and urge all those with divergent views to respect my decision. I also undertake to respect all those with counter views, I encourage all potential Presidential candidate to come forward and exercise their right as well, they should not be intimidated. Our beloved late PF President Michael Sata taught us to be brave and to always stand up and be counted. He personally told me that in the same way that I was an elected Member of Parliament, to always respect elected party officials in the lower structures if I wanted to advance in Politics. This view from the late President is evident in the PF constitution where real power in the party lies in the ability to elect a party President was placed in the grassroot structures through the National Council and not in the top narrow structure of the Central Committee.

The late President always encouraged people to seek the mandate of the people through an election and he was not one to favour or impose anyone one on party members. That’s why the assertion by some that they were anointed by him is a shame and embarrassing to the late President’s name. He is not there to confirm or defend himself and therefore people should not put words in his mouth or mind.
When we asked the late President in one of the meetings to indicate to us who his preferred successor is, he said and I quote “Mukasala mwebene” (you will chose on your own). So he did not have a preferred person and all essential PF members in the structures whom he loved so much, he left them, all of us, with the platform to replace him if we convinced bonafide PF officials in the lower structures. So those playing the “Anointing song” are wasting their time, rather they should urge their preferred candidate to campaign to the delegates on what they have done for the party and citizens in their Constituencies and more importantly on what they have done for the Youth so far and what they intend to do if elected. If they keep talking about the so called “Anointed One”, ask them to produce a letter that the President left to prove that assertion. In the Bible, Leviticus 25:10 states: And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

The President believed in Letter writing to confirm his wishes or directives. To him, when he did not put anything in writing, then it was not his official position. Those who judge people by their age, should know that at 44 years, we have done huge developmental projects in Matero that have benefited both the youth and indeed the much older citizens. Age is not a factor in producing results to uplift the living standards of our people. After all, I stand to be corrected but I gather our founding father Dr Kenneth Kaunda was only 40 years when he became the first President of Zambia and the USA President Barrack Obama was only 43 years when he went against all odds, he became the President of the United States Of America. As we go on this campaign journey, I undertake to evoke a clean campaign based on issues and not personal attack on other opponents.

Zambia Daily Mail