I’ll crush rivals teasing my blindness – ex-UNZA don
By CHARLES MUSONDA
FORMER University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturer Dr. Thomas Mtonga has vowed to defeat his opponents mocking him over his blindness in the August 12, 2021 Chasefu parliamentary elections.
Dr. Mtonga, the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) candidate, says he will not take any legal action against his rivals because he does not want any of them to cry foul after losing the elections on account of attending to court cases.
In an interview yesterday, Dr. Mtonga said Chasefu is peaceful and the recently reported violent clashes between his supporters and those of his main rival Misheck Nyambose of the UPND were minor.
“The issue has been that our colleagues have been teasing us that how can you pick a blind person and sometimes they would go in a meeting and start teasing PF about having a blind parliamentary candidate.
“That does not send us off and so far Chasefu is for Edgar (President Lungu) and Thomas. I can assure you that we have done research by driving around and asking people who they are going to vote for and people have willingly said Edgar Chagwa Lungu and that blind man,” Dr. Mtonga said. He said a random survey conducted by his campaign team has revealed that he is leading the opinion poll by more than 300 percent and people have appreciated that the PF has worked in Chasefu.
Dr. Mtonga, a holder of four university degrees and three diplomas in special education and international human rights law, said he wants to wallop his opponents before the elections day and urged them to surrender because people have shunned their messages of mocking his visual impairment.
He said he is not worried about the mockery because he is comforted that the people have shown maturity by refusing to accept the malice against him.
“If I was really at pains I would have sued them and people in the disability world could have taken action but I don’t want them to come and say they have lost because they were taken to court.
“I want them to lose genuinely and in whatever they are dramatising about my blindness, I am comforted by people because if it were others they would have been joining in the laughter but they simply walk away. People themselves have become my court by judging them instead of me taking them to court.”
