Today's letters to the editor

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 11:07:17 +0000

Casting a shadow of doubt

Dear Editor,

Rumour has it that Mulenga Sata’s regretting having abandoned the ruling party, PF to join the opposition UPND and is currently meeting senior Government officials pleading with them to appeal to President Edgar Lungu to forgive him for having betrayed his late father and Zambia’s late president Michael Sata (“Sata seeks to rejoin PF”, Daily Nation, October 3, 2016). As God would have it, the PF resolved to uphold its constitution which states that any person who resigns from the party shall not be eligible for re-admission to the party within 3 years from the date of resignation, one has to wonder whether the ‘PF prodigal son’ could have been better gone elsewhere other than the UPND.  After all, Zambia boasts of a motley array of political parties (“Former PF members to wait for three years”, Daily Nation, October 3, 2016). Still, it is too late now for Mulenga Sata to hope to be appointed as a cabinet minister in the current PF administration.  The cabinet is almost complete save for four portfolios yet to be created and ratified by parliament. Odds are that the president is toying with the idea of appointing more women in cabinet positions. The PF’s one concern, however, might be that its detractors could feel inclined to pelt out the ‘wait for 3 years’ bit of the PF constitutional provision a little too vigorously. Certainly for every person describing Mulenga Sata’s decision to rejoin the ruling party as the long overdue answer to his mentor Guy Scott’s betrayal, there is another calling it an arrogant expression of the late president’s son’s bloated ego which the PF can ill-afford. Meanwhile, the PF secretary general Davies Mwila said that former members applying for re-admission and those who desired to rejoin PF were expected to comply with the constitutional provisions of the party in order to strengthen it. But there is a double irony – not only was the constitutional provision designed and built-in by PF founder members but in Guy Scott’s view it is the one line that the former PF co-founder and vice president might wish to expunge to avoid casting a shadow of doubt. Mubanga Luchembe, LUSAKA

Congrats Mr President

Dear Editor,

Congratulations Mr President for being a rare brave man who dared to stand on  a new constitution which favoured no one even yourself as you signed it. It was a dreadful attempt, but you managed to win, I thank God you are our President. However time is not on your side work has just started. You can not appease every Jim and Jack with jobs. Your focus is to minimise hardship people are facing. Secondly, I am appealing to your new administration, to clean up the filthy outlook of our Lusaka city. The city is besieged by uncontrollable vending. The culture of impunity by PF cadres should  also stop forthwith. My other area of concern is stopping corruption in offices as well as  caging cadres who have turned bus stops into  their stations for harassing  innocent members of the public.  Mr  Kennedy Kamba and Mr  Kampyongo should assist to isolate criminals from genuine cadres. Mr Kamba should go to these places I have mentioned and see for himself the lawlessness instead of just following the President at airports. Do good works, rogue elements are harassing people in the name PF membership. I am equally doubting our  new Lusaka Mayor if he has the concern of these areas I have mentioned.  Just adjacent to his offices at Civic Center bus stop  cadres have turned it into a bus station where they are making money. I would have loved that Lusaka Mayor was free from political affiliation to tackle the filthy of our city. Every one is fearing a PF cadre more than  State police and why should the situation be so? Hezron Daka

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The blindly obvious

Dear Editor,

You do not need to have anything in common with Canisius Banda in order to support him for stating the blindly obvious that the PF won the August 11 elections fair and square and allegations to the contrary were totally misconceived. To add to the post-poll controversy, the former UPND vice president for politics rubbished claims by the UPND that the general elections were rigged and cautioned the opposition MPs to be careful in their assertions because they were in parliament on the basis of the same vote they claim to have been stolen (“PF won, says Canisius”, Daily Nation, October 4, 2016). Come to think of it, the rigged-polls claim is actually a propaganda coup for the losing UPND presidential candidate Hakainde Hichilema. Leaders that employ falsehoods are their own worst enemy. Their tactics alienate followers and drive a solid wedge between the mindless-overzealous cadres on the one hand and political activists and groups that use legitimate tools of governance on the other. So the UPND leadership, by denying its own Western and North-Western MPs appointments to the positions of Chief Whip and Leader of opposition in parliament, and by having complete disregard for those ‘non-Bantu Botatwe’ UPND lawmakers, has alienated itself from its Western and North-Western provincial vote-basket base. This is what the UPND top leadership has done (“West, N.West UPND MPs fume”, Daily Nation, October 2, 2016). Ultimately, the solution in Western and North-Western provinces would be political. More importantly it would have to come from the people of those provinces themselves. If left to their own devices, the people of these provinces would grow their own nationalistic organic agenda which would be by definition opposed to the segregating ethnicity of Hakainde Hichilema and the puppetry of his running mate Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM). So if indeed the winning PF wants to help Western and North-Western find credibility and stability in political circles, leaving the provinces to the devices of the PF provincial leadership is the first step. Equally important would be denying Hakainde Hichilema and GBM claims to rigged-elections grievance. This would involve both short and long-term solutions and tactics that would settle the August 11 post-election questions and litigations once and for all, and which at the same time distance Zambia from EU and US foreign interference. M L LUSAKA