Sun, 15 Oct 2017 10:44:55 +0000
Surprisingly, PF seems to have been caught off guard by its expelled Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili’s graft allegation tantrums and possibly the support base is getting disaffected, whilst its heavyweights portray a sense devoid of understanding contra-mobilization – turning the propaganda tables on political enemies. Surely, the ruling party appears to be in turmoil momentarily. PF’s political melodrama – part tragedy and part farce – has served up the latest in a line of bizarre nefarious and venal allegations and counter-allegations twists.
The PF leaders should not be surprised if UPND thinks it would win a bigger chunk in the 2021 slated elections because they are so focused on their own individual selfish character assassination and name-calling agendas. While this is going on in the PF rank and file, the UPND top honchos are watching from the fringes not only in glee but also in belief that if you wish to know the mischief of a crocodile, ask the hippopotamus because they’re amphibian neighbours.
For the observer enjoying the luxury of hindsight, the warning signs have been there since its expelled Roan Member of Parliament was booted out of the ruling party. Perhaps the defining image of weeks of incessant venomous allegations of corruption against the PF government ministers by the expelled Roan Member of Parliament came from its end: the sight of the distraught and sweating Chishimba Kambwili, nursing an apparent slap on his face – allegedly placed there by Copperbelt Minister Bowman Lusambo. It could have been a lot worse. The image on Parliament TV spoke of so much – chutzpah reduced to fear and even the promise of a new era in the ruling party.
But the PF melodrama continued as both Chishimba Kambwili and Bowman Lusambo lodged separate assault complaints to the police. Expelled Roan Member of Parliament formally reported Copperbelt Minister Bowman Lusambo to Emmasdale Police Station in Lusaka for assault after claiming to have been slapped at Parliament. And he was confident that police would act professionally and thoroughly investigate the matter. Earlier on, a pantomime-like corruption allegations ensued with accusations and counter-accusations being made by either side. How can the accused accuse the one who accused and got him fired in the first instance? The mind boggles.
Suffice to say, the toxic relationship between Chishimba Kambwili and Bowman Lusambo is reminiscent to the one that existed between the then-former MMD community development minister late Dawson Lupunga dubbed the ‘Lamba Bull’ and the then-MMD national secretary late Michael Sata, ‘King Cobra’. Due to ceaseless venom-tongued verbal attacks against him by ‘King Cobra’, the ‘Lamba Bull’ angrily reacted by branding his foe as ‘a loudmouthed pathological liar who should not be taken seriously’, that was at the height of the bad-blood between the pair, during the late President Fredrick Chiluba’s abortive third-term bid’s heated shenanigans. The duo’s toxic and emotive relationship was so abrasive that it eventually culminated in an explosive physical exchange of ‘fists of fury’ at Parliament Motel.
Fast rewind to the late 1980s when Bowman Lusambo’s interest in politics began. His father’s cousins, late Dawson Lupunga and Abraham Mokola, used to meet at the Lusambo’s house in Ndola’s Kabushi area. As a young boy in grade 5, Bowman Lusambo listened attentively to strategies that successfully ushered the country into a change of government from one party state to multi-party state.
In the run up to the birth of multi-party democracy, Bowman Lusambo’s father, Donald, held periodical meetings with late Presidents Fredrick Chiluba and Levy Mwanawasa in the company of the three cousins – namely Dawson Lupunga, Abraham Mokola and Donald Lusambo. From that moment on, Bowman Lusambo’s interest in politics has never dimmed.
To erstwhile UNIP members, the name Mulungushi has a lot of significance to the genesis of the party because this is the place where resolutions that led to the attainment of independence were made in 1960. Later after the party ruled for almost three decades, reformists calling for reversion to plural politics met at Garden House Motel in Lusaka and formed the National Interim Committee for Multiparty Democracy. The name was later changed to the Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) a party that came into power in 1991 ushering in a new generation in what was popularly called as the ‘new culture.’
After ruling for 20 years, a former MMD leader late Michael Sata formed the Patriotic Front (PF) and against all odds won elections in 2011. So if Mulungushi Rock is synonymous to the formation of UNIP and Garden House Motel to MMD, where was the PF formed? Coming back to the significance of origins of parties, can we identify late Michael Sata’s former residence in Omelo Mumba or Farmers House, the party headquarters as being synonymous to the birth of the PF?
It is interesting to note how seemingly unimportant places and persons acquire significance entering historical books as the origins of milestones’ decisions that change the course of a country’s history. The PF’s doesn’t seem to have a place where it was formed as was the case with UNIP and MMD. It was most likely to have been formed by late Michael Sata himself at his Omelo Mumba residence in Rhodes Park. Its headquarters was originally at Farmers House along Cairo Road.
It is equally important to note that Chishimba Kambwili together with his late maternal cousin Ben Mulenga, the ex-director of sales and marketing at Medical Stores, who also happened to be late Michael Sata’s brother-in-marriage – through the former first lady Christine Kaseba’s younger sister, Ambassador Miriam Mulenga, the ex-head of the Zambian Mission in Ankara, Turkey – were part of founder members of the PF. By extension and for obvious reasons, Chishimba Kambwili inevitably, remained to become a PF dedicated lackey, follower, admirer and eventually a copycat of the PF founder godfather to the extent that he’s now being fondly referred to as ‘junior King Cobra’.
But as some say, history has the knack of repeating itself, fast forward to 2017, ‘junior King Cobra’ and ‘junior Lamba Bull’ had a physical altercation at the sacrosanct Parliament grounds in an apparent sequel to the yester-year ‘Lamba Bull’ versus ‘King Cobra’ bout. Was it history repeating itself through the imitators or copycats? Or was it ‘Lamba Bull’ versus ‘King Cobra’ reloaded? Or was it late Dawson Lupunga and late Michael Sata’s ‘fists of fury’ reincarnate’s doing? You take your pick, whether you like it or not.
But how much of a fresh start is it for the PF? After so much character assassinations, hate speech and malicious corruption allegations – particularly after the expulsion of Roan Member of Parliament Chishimba Kambwili and not forgetting the initial corruption charges that fuelled his exit from government as Information Minister – the citizens are looking for justice. So, how to avoid the continued noxious accusations of corruption in the PF government by Chishimba Kambwili? His expulsion from the ruling party should have acted as an alarm bell to the ensuing wild corruption allegations against the remaining old and new PF party officials but did not.
The venom-tongued verbal attacks of Chishimba Kambwili, whether he can prove them with evidence or not, are at least music to the ears of the social media and the UPND. And they are lapping up his pitch of hate-speech, much to the chagrin of the PF which has 6 years of civil service work experience, and of the graft-free government procurements’ realities on the ground. The PF is well aware that any talk of, for example, a wholesale corruption allegations against those in authority would trigger a massive socio-economic paralysis and condemnation on the PF and its administration by political adversaries and hired noisemakers, coupled with false narratives that would destroy the party and destabilize the country, Chishimba Kambwili, who is no longer in government, has that luxury. But hey, these are just the reflections of an ordinary Zambian observer.
Hapenga Haamubbi.
