BAHATI PF chairlady Alice Chipulu says the constituency cannot turn against their member of parliament whom they elected with over 18,000 votes.

The Patriotic Front in Luapula, through what others are calling stage-managed solidarity marches in support of Bahati PF member of parliament Harry Kalaba’s resignation as foreign affairs minister, said the latter should also leave the ruling party.

Most of the women who took part in the march were said to be from Bahati constituency.

But Chipulu said yesterday that almost all party members from Bahati withdrew from the gathering after realizing that it was called to denounce Kalaba.

“People didn’t know why they were picked. Ba provincial minister [Nickson Chilangwa] wanted to give someone [from Bahati] a speech…But how can people turn against ba Kalaba now? We know what is going on. People abandoned the march when they discovered it was against ba Kalaba,” Chipulu said.

She said if Kalaba decided to leave the PF, the entire leadership and membership of the party in Bahati would follow him.

“We are all behind Kalaba. PF is going nowhere. Wherever he [Kalaba] goes, we will follow. Those women they paraded are not from Bahati. The women from Bahati are intact. Where he is going, that’s where we will go. The women who marched were picked from elsewhere and made to carry banners written Bahati,” said Chipulu. “There was no one from Bahati who said anything at their meeting. Only ba Chilangwa spoke.”

Bahati’s Myulu ward chairperson John Chabu said the entire executive of Bahati did not attend the meeting.

“Twafikana ifwe, tatwaileko iyo (we don’t want that; we didn’t go there),” said Chabu.
Hundreds of PF member clad in party regalia marched in Mansa last week in solidarity with President Edgar Lungu after Kalaba’s resignation.

Kalaba, after delivering his resignation letter at State House, took to social media where he announced that he had decided to leave the government because of corruption and poor governance style.

A key member of President Lungu’s government, Kalaba was one of the people that played a critical role in having the former adopted as presidential candidate for the PF after Michael Sata’s death in 2014.