 Honourable members of the Central Committee, I would like to welcome you to this very important Central Committee meeting. This is a Central Committee meeting which is going to continue with the process that we started a few weeks ago, which is to review our party constitution. As all of us are aware, the process of reviewing our party constitution is aimed at preparing ourselves and preparing the party to go to the elective extraordinary conference. This is something that all of us are waiting for. All of us in the party are eagerly waiting for that very important day when we shall convene the elective extraordinary conference. There is no one person in this party that I know of who is not desirous of having an elective extraordinary conference. All of us are eager to have that extraordinary conference. In the meantime, it is my duty as acting president to bring new members of the Central Committee up to speed on a number of issues that are happening within the party and outside the party, but impacting the party. The first issue that I would like to address is the issue of threats on us as a political party. Some of you may have heard, others may have read, others may have done both, read and heard the threats that have been issued against the patriotic front. Government officials have threatened the patriotic front as being pervers of mischief. Yesterday, some of you listened to the alarming statement that was made by a person who holds an office that is totally irregular, director of media in the ministry of information and so on and so forth, who mentioned the patriotic front as being an entity that is circulating seditious material. And you heard the minister of home affairs also referring to it and this is in reference to a letter that is making its rounds on social media, a letter that is purported by president Haga Indehidema where he is instructing the containment of the church, particularly the Catholic church. Colleagues, such antics have been heard about many, many times in history. Feld governments always find someone to blame. Feld governments always look at rivals and want to blame them for sedition. I want to assure you that no one in the leadership of the patriotic front has anything to do with the authorship of that letter. However, the position that the leadership of the patriotic front takes is that the contents of that letter are not different from the statements we have heard being made by the UPND government. What they have said themselves is akin what is in that letter. As a matter of fact, they have said much more verbally than what they have written in that letter. How can we doubt that letter? The letter which is saying contain the Catholic church, contain the archbishop of Lusaka. How can we doubt it to have come from them who have called Alec Banda Lucifer? To threaten us in the patriotic front will not achieve anything. All it is doing is actually to justify those who are saying this letter was authored by them. The position that the leadership of the PF takes is that we are going to stand strong to defend the church of Zambia. Not any particular denomination but the church of God. Be it SDA and I'm referring to SDA because the president of the Republic of Zambia is an elder in SDA. I hear my colleague saying he claims. I don't know. But at least he wants people to believe that he is elder in the SDA church. We shall protect and defend the SDA church. Some of our members here are leaders in the SDA church. We shall defend the UCZ church. We shall defend the RCZ church. We shall defend the Catholic church. We shall defend the New Apostolic church. We shall defend the Pentecostal churches. We shall defend the body of Christ. And whoever, whoever, whether in writing or in word attacks the church of God, is attacking us. And the threats against us will not stop us from exposing the evil that they are introducing in this country. We have to remind Zambians that this country has been blessed so far. We have had six presidents. Six presidents. All of them who have truly shown to us that they are good theory. Of all the six presidents, they have all shown us that they have love for their creator, their God. Never in the history of Zambia have we ever heard any particular president or any particular leadership referring to any leader of the church as a son of the devil. There can be no worse demeaning of a person of God than to call them Lucifer. We will continue to condemn the devil. And remember, it is not those people who say those words, who have said them, it is the devil that is using those vessels. And we being a party that has held Zambia's covenant with God shall continue to stand with God. I would like to enjoy all members of the party, the patriotic front. Even when you condemn these people, don't condemn the person, condemn the devil because it's the devil that they have brought into the country and the devil is using them. I would like to invite all of you, my dear brothers and sisters, wherever you are, as long as you are a member of the patriotic front, use your knees to pray for this great country. And remember, it took God himself to come down to earth. It took God himself in the form of his son to come to earth to redeem us. But even God himself was tempted by the devil. This is a temptation on you and me and every Zambian. Let's not look at this purely as a political issue. This is a spiritual fight. Make no mistake. We are not fighting human beings. We are fighting a spiritual war. All of us, let us be on the guard. Let us be prayerful for our country. It is very easy to change the mindset of our people, especially of our children. Is there any wonder that now you hear people tanging themselves on the issues of immorality such as lesbianism, gazing. In public they say one thing. In private they do another. The leadership of the patriotic front stands behind the statement that was made by Edgar Chagualungu, our president, our sixth republican president, when he said, if you want us to follow LGBTQI for the sake of your money, keep it. We shall remain with our poverty, but with our culture and our religious values. We as a party shall continue on that journey. We cannot afford to destroy our country. Make no mistake. The devil is at work. The devil is working. And the devil is attacking you, the patriotic front particularly. This is the reason why you are the ones who are being condemned for leaking letters. How can you leak a letter you never wrote? Are you in government to leak a letter? What they must be doing is to go to handwriting experts to go and prove whether that signature is not genuine instead of condemning us. Why are they condemning us? Why is it us that they are condemning? You are the party that stands firm. The party that looks to the cross of Christ. So let's remain steadfast. In whatever we do, let us put Christ first. We know the forces that worked against us before the 2021 elections. We know the forces that were in this country working against us. When Edgar Chagualungu refused to embrace LGBTQI rights, Edgar Chagualungu decided to adopt the manifesto which said we are going to zambianize the mines. When Edgar Chagualungu said we want now in our second term to go and give power to the zambians and take it away from the foreigners, then we provoked the powers that are around this world. My dear brothers and sisters, on your behalf, soon after elections, soon after the first UN General Conference that President Hagainde Samihidzidema attended, where Biden castigated us, on your behalf, I wrote a letter to the U.S. Embassy where I said we didn't take kindly of the statement that was made by President Biden. We have not withdrawn that letter because that letter was written from the depth of our hearts. You will recall that some officers from the U.S. Embassy paid a KTC call on us at the PF Secretariat. And my reaction as your acting leader was that there was a pending issue between the U.S. and the PF. And the pending issue was the letter I had written to them. I told them I would not meet the U.S. before they respond to our letter. That failed meeting was reported in the press. Ever since then, the party has not had any interaction with the U.S. Except when we delivered a joint letter which was written by ourselves and our friendly opposition political parties. Demanding explanations on a number of issues including the Africa and including issues to do with LGBTQI rights. After that, dear colleagues, you may have read in the press that the current U.S. Ambassador to Zambia, Michael Gonzalez, had written to the Secretary General requesting to pay a KTC call on the acting president. We agreed to meet with him two weeks ago and we told them we would meet him on a Thursday. I want to report to you so that you don't ask me questions and you don't ask any person questions. And so the public is made aware that that meeting failed to take off. The reason it failed to take off is that the U.S. Ambassador after requesting to pay a KTC call on you it was not on me. I am nobody. I am but only your representative. When he asked for a KTC call on me he was asking for a KTC call on the party. And when we told him we would be ready on Thursday he sent his officials to write to the SG asking the SG who will be in the vice president's delay who will be in the vice president's delegation tell us the names of the people in the vice president's delegation give us their NRC numbers and we'll be expecting you at the ambassador's residence where has anyone paid a KTC call on somebody in their own house? You say I want to pay a KTC call on the PF but bring the PF to my house. No. Even if my house is a hut if you want to pay a KTC call on me you come to my hut. You don't say I want to pay a KTC call on you but please I can't come to your house come to mine. Is it me paying a KTC call on him? No. I may be humble but when it comes to the patriotic front I will not humiliate you I will not reduce your stature I will make sure that even in your poverty even when your opposition you are considered as a political party in Zambia whether you have a secretariat or not if anyone wants to pay a KTC call on you it will be at your place not theirs. If Michael Gonzalez wants to invite me for a drink at his house I have no problem but you tell me come to me and pay a KTC call on the patriotic front? No. We are not going to allow ourselves to be demeaned to that extent. On your behalf I therefore refused I said we are not going to pay a KTC call on a diplomat in our country. It is he who should pay a KTC call on us and let me make this clear to all of us members of the central committee let me make this very clear now all of you my dear colleagues shall not be seen shall not be seen to engage with the Americans on their terms they must engage with us on our terms at what point are we as Africans going to stand up and say we are human beings equal to any other how is it was going to be dictating terms to us time has come my brothers and sisters for us to show our Africanism and the time is here in poverty or in wealth we have a duty to our children to bestow honor on our children we cannot continue to be treated as colonies of any master we are masters of our own destiny we have been friends to everybody what has been the result at this particular moment we have questions about the decisions that Haga India has made with regard to the security of Africa you yourselves have complained about how we as Zambians are moving from what Dr. Kenneth Kawanda left to us the spirit of non-alignment why should we today as a political party be swayed you are at liberty to meet anyone you want but please when you do you are not carrying the PF flag no you are not how can an ambassador to Zambia decide to meet members of parliament of the patriotic front even before they meet the leadership of the party how it's uncouthful for Gonzales for as long as he has not honored his status equal on the patriotic front none of you shall meet him as a member of the patriotic front if you do you are meeting him in your own private capacity we ought to stand united we must not compromise ourselves my dear colleagues another matter I'd like to address today is the frustrating and humiliating manner in which our members of parliament are being treated I've been a member of parliament myself for two decades 20 years in my 20 years of being a member of parliament never ever have I seen any member of parliament being demeaned in the manner that our members of parliament are being demeaned today there is a provision in the law that a person can be given bond on their own cognizance on cognizance in respect of a person having fixed the board and being a citizen of respect and not being a flight risk which other citizen of Zambia can qualify for being given bond on their own cognizance not an MP a person elected by the people of Zambia through a constituency when they are arrested even for a civil matter deputy chairman for mobilization was arrested on a transaction that he entered into with some people they even have a letter they have agreed go and fix my car in the meantime while you fix my car I'll use yours he's arrested and the police deny him bond member of parliament elected by the people of Zambia where in the world have you seen this happening a member of parliament here is that national chairman is arrested he goes and says I am coming here as member of parliament I want to write surety for chairman and the police say let's first go and verify with parliament that you are a member of parliament where have you seen members of parliament being demeaned to the extent to which our members of parliament are being demeaned a person elected among 156 people and the ACC says we don't believe you we don't believe you we don't believe that you are a member of parliament this letter may be fake let's go and find out from parliament where I want to comment leader of opposition for the debate he brought up during the debate this week well done leader of opposition but that's not enough that is not enough and this is not only for members of parliament these members of parliament are your members PF these are your members if you don't stand up to defend them those who have been legitimately elected by the people of Zambia you don't stand up to defend them by the time you realize it there will be nothing to talk about democracy in this country and remember trees grow first as shoots and when the environment is good they mature if you don't nip it in the bud it shall flourish if we in the patriotic front do not destroy these dictatorial tendencies that we are seeing posterity will judge you and I harshly there is a purpose why we are in opposition I have said this before and I want to reiterate it it was not your choosing to have been in government for 10 years and to go back into opposition it was not our choosing it was not our making and make no apology it was providential goodness it was God Almighty Himself who decided pavwe let so come so that the people themselves will see and the people are seeing but don't stand aloof and say no we lost let us continue to make sure that the people understand God's own mission and his mission is to show the people of Zambia that the devil you know is better than the angel you don't and Zambians have said to realize this my dear brothers and sisters is it any wonder that all of a sudden the patriotic front must always be threatened with the registration on your behalf using the constitution of the party I decided to suspend Mao Zambia Mao Zambia successfully went and applied and was granted an injunction and the injunction was to restrain me and you as a party from suspending him we have had so many meetings ever since according to the court injunction he is not suspended how many meetings has he come to how many meetings has he come to because as far as the law is concerned he is not suspended and yet he is not attending meetings meanwhile he is the one who went and provoked the registration of societies that this party is not compliant and all of a sudden after that registration of societies is very active all of a sudden registration of societies says you in the patriotic front you have not delivered fingerprints out of the ten you have not delivered three fingerprints fingerprints for three officials this leadership decided very well there are ten people there three haven't presented fingerprints we shall give you an addition of five so at now they are fifteen even if the law says only ten fingerprints were delivered four copies of NRCs were delivered by chairman for LIGO only to be told no and to be told through a phone call this is not enough and while they tell us this is not enough we hear a press statement from permanent secretary can the PF make sure that they prove that they are compliant we know the ploy they have already worked a scheme and the scheme is that on Tuesday next week they announced that the patriotic front is deregistered and we are supposed to be deregistered why? because those office bearers have not submitted CVs some of you here my dear brothers and sisters are board members of different societies some of you have registered parties before some of you have been officials of this party when have you ever been told to register a political party you must tell us your academic qualifications tell us where you were born tell us also a contact person in your village where has it ever happened where?