SOUTH PF OFFICIALS DENY DEFECTION RUMOURS

By ANDREW MUKOMAFORMER ruling party, PF in Livingstone has refuted claims by the UPND that most of its senior party officials in the district have showed interest to ditch the party and join the now ruling UPND.On Tuesday, Livingstone District Youth Chairperson Gerald Kuyewana disclosed during a youth meeting that most of PF senior officials are expected to join the UPND in the next coming week.But Elias Mwila, the PF Livingstone District Chairperson said, the information was news to him and that he was not aware of any PF official who wants to join the ruling party.Mr Mwila confidently told the Daily Nation that the district leadership has visited all the 20 wards and no such information has emerged.“Moreover, the Patriotic Front (PF) is still an attractive party and people of Zambia still have confidence in us…so, that information is new to me,” he said.“We are receiving that information with a lot of question marks of those so called senior party officials from the opposition PF to join the ruling PF in Livingstone,” Mr Mwila said.He said that much as it is anyone’s constitutional right to belong to any party of their choice, the party leadership and general membership is intact.“Right now as I am speaking we are going round the wards checking on our people and we have not received anything like that,” he saidAnd Mr Mwila has said that the party in Livingstone has not yet received formal communication from the national leadership on whether or not it will take part in this year’s independence celebrations.However, he said, it’s members are free to take part just like they did during the Day of National Prayer.