Dear Editor,
AS outgoing Vice President, Inonge Mutukwa Wina’s tour of duty as the second most powerful person in the country comes to an end, ours is to reflect on her role as the champion of political stability in the nation.
Her participation in politics traces its foot prints from the moments before independence being a wife to the freedom fighter and timeline through the advocacy works on the platform of the civil society.
All in all without recourse to reproduce her expansive and voluminous curriculum vitae in her public life Ms.Wina has identified herself as the fountain of stability on the political landscape. She has lived a life worth remembering and emulating as the mantle is passed to the next generation.
The transition from one-party to multiparty participatory democracy is another moment in time when the nation benefitted from the collective wisdom built by Ms. Wina and her peers.
Her joining of the Patriotic Front and her subsequent appointment in 2007 brought about the super sub who would be among the team that was to deliver victory to the PF.
She has been the symbol of stability within the PF and she was a host of a reservoir of wisdom the party needed as a government in waiting.
The other trying moment for Ms. Wina was the events that unfolded in PF during the transition after the death of the founding leader Michael Chilufya Sata.
As then PF national chairperson her preoccupation was to be a disinterested observer as the democratic process was taking its course.
At that time, then PF Secretary General Edgar Lungu was under immense persecution by a clique that was led by a prominent former high ranking Government official who has since retired from public life.
She was the neutral arbiter but was compelled to defend the PF Constitution when it was apparently clear that a certain force was determined to suppress the prospects for President Lungu who enjoyed grassroots support from ascending to the Presidency.
Luckily, she was firm to assume the role of the torch bearer until the party unanimously elected Mr Lungu as its President held at Mulungushi Rock of Authority in Kabwe.
Of course the nation has been deprived of the services of the patriotic and selfless gallant daughter of the soil, but we would from time to time reflect on her path of service.
As she winds up her affairs, the nation can proudly cherish her legacy of stability. The nation will honour her legacy of political stability by voting for President Lungu who is the beneficiary of her peace building initiatives.
MARVIN CHANDA MBERI,
Lusaka.
