By ROGERS KALERO
POLITICAL leaders have a duty to lower the toxic, incendiary and dangerous political tension which the country can do without, Former Transport and Communications minister Mutotwe Kafwaya has sai
Mr Kafwaya has called for an end to political bitterness and has advised Zambians to preach peace and unity to end political toxicity.
Mr Kafwaya, who is Patriotic Front (PF) Lunte Member of Parliament is deeply concerned with the continuous political bitterness across political camps particularly between the former ruling party and the governing United Party for National Development (UPND).
Mr Kafwaya said Zambians should know and accept that there shall only be one president at a time and that to become the country’s president, one would have to compete with others in an election.
He said on his Facebook page posting that the continued bitterness against both President Hakainde Hichilema and his predecessor, President Edgar Lungu was fomenting political toxicity and poisoning the country’s unity and peace.
Mr Kafwaya said the country has only two surviving presidents with one being current while the other was the former and that both should be honoured and respected.
He advised that Zambians should understand that neither President Hichilema nor former President Lungu were gods who could live and govern the country without mistakes.
Mr Kafwaya said discussing the mistakes of President Hichilema and those of former President Lungu should attract fair-minded words and not the bitterness that was being spewed between citizens supporting each of the two presidents.
“Who does not know that there can only be one president at a time? And who does not know that to become president; one has to compete with others? If we all know these things, why should we continue the bitterness against these presidents? We only have two presidents for goodness sake. One is current and one is the former. We can honour them both. We can reduce the political toxicity,” Mr Kafwaya said.
Mr Kafwaya appealed to Zambians to try and do something to unite this “very divided nation of our fathers,” for the sake of not only citizens but the future generation.
“What we should further attempt to understand is that none of these presidents is a god. As such they are not without mistakes. Discussing their mistakes should attract fair minded words and not the bitterness we are witnessing across the divide,” he said.
