NKOMBO DENIES PLANS TO CONTEST 2021 PRESIDENCY
“I HAVE no ambition to contest the presidency in 2021 and nothing is broken in the UPND hence party president Hakainde Hichilema stays,” Mazabuka Central Member of Parliament Gary Nkombo has said.
Mr Nkombo said contrary to speculations that he was pushed out from his position of the party’s chief whip in parliament because he was too ambitious, it was actually because he was given added responsibility and bigger role of UPND chairperson of elections. Mr Nkombo who was speaking when he featured on a Millennium Radio programme dubbed “The Interview” yesterday, claimed that there was a deliberate agenda being driven by competitors that he was eyeing the UPND top seat. “I do not want to be president in 2021, I do not have what it takes and I am not prepared to be president in 2021 and not in the near future. “I think God has given me many days and should that time come it will not be now and it may not even be at the next election but I am a politician whose limit is the sky,” he said. Mr Nkombo said Mr Hichilema had helped grow the party from having about 19 Members of Parliament to 57 since taking over from the late Anderson Mazoka. He said more funds in the 2019 national budget should have been allocated to the education, health and other social sectors unlike the military because there was no war in Zambia. One of the live phone callers who gave his name as Moses said Mr Hichilema was not a good striker as he had failed to score on many occasions. But Mr Nkombo insisted that Mr Hichilema should still be given a chance to run in 2021 and he vowed to campaign for him at the party convention.