6 September 2008
Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata has maintained that he is in good health to run and win the forthcoming presidential election.
Mr Sata was reacting to a statement by veteran politician Rodger Chongwe who said the country risked going for another election if people voted for Mr Sata as the next president.
Addressing a Press briefing in Lusaka yesterday at the PF secretariat, Mr Sata said those saying he was sick were misguided because his party could not chose a leader who was sick to rule them or the nation.
"Those saying I am sick are afraid of going to the elections with the PF because they know that we are going to win the elections with or without their insults," Mr Sata said.
At the same briefing, PF spokesperson Given Lubinda has advised Mr Chongwe to desist from issuing injurious statements against its leader Michael Sata in a bid to redeem his lost glory in the political field.
Mr Lubinda said Mr Chongwe was a money monger who thought he had found his lost glory by attacking Mr Sata as a way of giving support to Vice-President Rupiah Banda.
"Mr Chongwe should prove to the nation where he got his honorary degree for him to start giving medical conditions about our president, we know that he is not a medical doctor and he should not be talking about the health of Mr Sata.
"Even in the PF we have doctors who are honorary and qualified medical doctors who can say if the president is ill or not," Mr Lubinda said.
Mr Lubinda challenged Mr Chongwe to tell the nation what interest he had in supporting Mr Banda and subsequently issuing ill medical statements about Mr Sata that were not in line with the campaign.
Mr Lubinda said Mr Sata needed not to defend himself but the party would defend those attacking its leader as these were attacks on the party as well.
He said Mr Chongwe and the MMD had decided to get into the boxing ring with the PF and they should be ready to defend their ground.
Mr Lubinda said the PF had no interest in interfering with the internal affairs in another party as its business was to fight the person the MMD would pick and that candidate would face the PF during elections and not with verbal assaults.
He said Dr Chongwe and those in MMD should not take the PF for granted because it was quiet during the mourning period of President Mwanawasa as the PF wanted to bury Dr Mwanawasa with dignity.
"Let me take this chance to advise Dr Chongwe and the MMD not to take our quietness for cowardice because we in the PF do not believe in interfering in the internal affairs of other parties," Mr Lubinda said.
And a PF member who is a medical doctor Joseph Katema said the PF leader was healthy and would meet the challenge of the campaigns and win the elections at the end of the day.
Dr Katema said Mr Sata had been fit and healthy after he was discharged from hospital in South Africa.
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