Chishimba Kambwili says dismissed Community Development minister Emerine Kabanshi is a decent woman who can’t even kill a fly, but she has been sacrificed to protect the real criminals in government.

And Kambwili says a group of Cabinet ministers working with PF Secretary General Davies Mwila, calling itself Luapula United is mobilising to oust President Lungu at the party convention.

On Wednesday, President Lungu fired Kabanshi who is the PF Luapula member of Parliament following revelations of embezzlement of UKAid amounting to over US$4 million under her ministry.

But Kambwili who is Roan PF member of parliament and former Chief Government spokesperson, said President Lungu’s decision was a joke of the year.

“It is the biggest joke of the year that Emerine Kabanshi has been fired over the cash transfer saga and it is betrayal of hard working and innocent people to continue being fired, leaving the actual thieves in government. I can vouch for Kabanshi that Kabanshi is a very clean woman. She has no skeletons whatsoever, she is not a corrupt woman. Just like I can vouch for the young man Vincent Mwale, just like I can vouch for ba Inonge Wina. Kabanshi has been used as a sacrificial lamb to show the donors that the President cares. In any case, if you talk about corruption in Zambia, the first person to resign should be President Lungu because he is corrupt individual number one,” Kambwili charged.

“Kabanshi is a clean woman and even if they investigated her, I would be vindicated that the woman is so clean. Obviously I can only blame her for having not taken action when she heard that there was this scandal to the cash transfer. But knowing how Cabinet works, I know that the woman must have reported to the President. The President has already told us that he had instructed the Secretary to the Cabinet to take administrative investigation. Now if he had instructed the Secretary to the Cabinet, it simply means that the minister had reported to him that Zampost had actually misapplied donor funds. So to fire her just to please the donors is extremely unfortunate. I hope and trust that my colleagues who have remained in PF are seeing how inconsistent and untrustworthy President Lungu can be to people who work hard.”