Honorable Miles Bwalya Sampa | |
|---|---|
| Elected member of the National Assembly | |
| In office September 2011 –August 2016 | |
| Constituency | Matero |
| Assumed office August 2021 | |
| Constituency | Matero |
| Mayor of Lusaka District | |
| In office August 2018 –August 2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 December 1970 Lusaka,Zambia |
| Political party | Patriotic Front |
| Spouse | Nchimunya Hampinda Sampa |
| Children | 7 |
Miles Bwalya Sampa is a Zambian politician,currently serving as Member of Parliament for Matero Constituency. [1] [2] He previously served as Mayor of Lusaka,having been elected in August 2018. [3] His election in 2021 would see him return to Parliament representing Matero Constituency,a position he once served from 2011 to 2016. [1] [4] [2] He is a member of the Patriotic Front party. [2] [5]
In the 2011 general election,Sampa stood as the Patriotic Front candidate for Matero constituency in Lusaka District and he won the seat. [1] [2] [4] [6]
President Michael Sata appointed Sampa as the Provincial Minister for Lusaka Province in September 2011 [7] before transferring him to being the Provincial Minister for Southern Province in December 2011. [8] [9] The president then appointed Sampa as the Deputy Minister of Finance in March 2012. [10] Sampa was then appointed as the Deputy Minister of Commerce,Trade and Industry in May 2013. [11]
After the death of Michael Sata,the Fifth President of the Republic of Zambia,who was Sampa's uncle,Sampa was elected as President of the Patriotic Front at a controversial Patriotic Front (PF) general party conference. [12] [13] His election was later deemed illegal by the High Court of Zambia,and Defense Minister Edgar Lungu was declared the rightful president of the PF, [14] with Lungu proceeding to be elected as the President of Zambia at the presidential by-election in February 2015. After Lungu won the presidential election,Sampa was reappointed as Deputy Minister of Commerce,Trade and Industry [15] until November 2015 when he resigned from his position. [16] He resigned from the Patriotic Front party in January 2016. [17] [18]
He attempted to form a party named the United Democratic Front (UDF). [19] Sampa entered alliances with Elias Chipimo's National Restoration Party and Eric Chanda's 4th Revolution Party, [20] before eventually endorsing Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND to win the 2016 general election. [21] After the UPND lost the election,Sampa rejoined the Patriotic Front. [22]
He was elected as the Mayor of Lusaka in August 2018 [3] and then opted to reclaim the position of Member of Parliament (MP) for Matero constituency at the 2021 general election (rather than standing again for mayor). [6] He won the Matero parliamentary seat for the second time. [23] [1] [2]
Miles Sampa was one of eight Patriotic Front members who decided to stand for the position of party president [24] after Edgar Lungu announced his retirement from active politics following the 2021 general election [25] (leaving Given Lubinda as the acting party president [26] ). Sampa was one of the people who claimed that the Patriotic Front was taking too long to hold its party convention to choose the leader. [27] [28]
Eventually,there was a controversial extraordinary general conference that had taken place in October 2023 in which Miles Sampa was declared the president of the Patriotic Front (PF) party,defeating seven other aspirants for the same position. [29] [30]
Emmanuel Mwamba (the PF Information and Publicity Chairperson;one of the other seven candidates) argued that that convention that took place was illegal and was contrary to the party's outlined procedures in its constitution. [29] That convention left the PF party divided [29] [31] and the matter was soon taken to the Lusaka High Court. [32] Acting president Given Lubinda subsequently suspended Sampa from the PF. [33] [31]
In the same month,Edgar Lungu had announced his return to active politics and Lubinda subsequently gave Lungu back the position of party president [25] [34] [35] (Lubinda was demoted to party vice-president [36] [37] ). Due to the high court lifting the injunction on Sampa assuming his role as party president, [32] the Patriotic Front had two factions (one with Lungu as the leader and one with Sampa as the leader). [31] [38] [39]
On 25 May 2024,the Lusaka High Court dismissed the case in which six of the PF presidential candidates challenged the election of Sampa as the PF president,declaring him as the party president until further notice. [40]
On 30 June 2024,Sampa decided to dismiss his secretary-general (SG),Morgan Ng'ona,from his SG position. [41] [42] Within a week,the court issued an ex-parte stay order which blocked Sampa's decision to dismiss Ng'ona as SG. [41] [42] Ng'ona then decided to dismiss Sampa as the president of the party and appoint Robert Chabinga (who was the Mafinga MP and leader of the opposition [43] ) as the acting party president in July 2024. [44] On 10 November 2024,Chabinga decided to expel Sampa among others from the Patriotic Front. [45] [46] This leadership dispute between Ng'ona and Sampa was taken to court and Sampa further decided to pursue contempt of court charges against Ng'ona and Chabinga for portraying the latter as the party president during the ongoing leadership court case after the court ordered them not to. [47] [48] [49]
On 25 March 2025,the High Court of Zambia confirmed Sampa's decision (made on 30 June 2024) to dismiss Ng'ona as the party SG,effectively declaring Sampa as the president and acting SG of the party. [50] [51] He proceeded to expel Chabinga and a few others from the Patriotic Front party, [52] which was challenged in court. [53]
On 1 May 2025,Sampa decided to reunite his Patriotic Front faction with the faction for Edgar Lungu,effectively stepping down from the party presidency. [54] [55] [56] [57] Lungu was handed back the party presidency and Given Lubinda was handed back the party vice-presidency (and therefore was acting president in Lungu's absence), [54] [56] with Sampa being appointed as the leader of the opposition. [55] [57] However,the parliament speaker declined to recognize Sampa as the leader of the opposition,citing that Robert Chabinga was still recognized in that position. [58]