POLITICAL DEFECTORS SLAMMED

By SANFROSSA MANYINDA IT is unfortunate that it has become normal for some politicians to ditch former ruling political parties days after losing power, a development activist Wesley Miyanda has said. He advised Zambians to discard “political prostitutes” stating that the political system would never change if the country continued tolerating this kind political tradition. Mr Miyanda noted that after losing power to UPND, many PF and other politicians had ditched their parties, publicly or privately announcing their resignations. He described such acts as political childishness and immoral, stating that they must be condemned by all citizens and patriots. Mr Miyanda said in an interview in Kitwe that allowing this to happen would be unfair to the voters, who wanted change of leaders. He said Zambia must not be held at ransom by the same rejected leadership getting back into ruling parties. “We have individuals who have no shame to jump from a losing ruling party to the new governing party. What moral or political justification is there for these people? “This act has seen ruling parties have the same people who get rejected by citizens, hence, our call to the new government not to accept them. Let them just re-unite and become a formidable opposition party,” he said.  Mr Miyanda added that instead of ditching losing parties, genuine leaders must stick around to rebuild their political organisations. He also advised the church, civil society organisations and all citizens to rise against the ugly tendency or else the country’s democracy would be a mockery to the electorate. Mr Miyanda said Zambia needed leaders who were stable, predictable and trustworthy as well as leaders who should anchor their political support in philosophies and ideologies.