By NATION REPORTER
FRED M’membe’s tribal hatred for the people of Southern Province has been well documented and it is not surprising that he is working to resurrect his nihilistic dislike for the Tonga people because according to him they are but a group of Bantustans, UPND Secretary-General Batuke Imenda has saidd.
But Dr M’membe has said he had always fought against tribalism and racism his pointing out tribal inclined decisions and actions of the UPND and President Hakainde Hichilema and denouncing the government did not amount to promoting the vice.
Dr M’membe charged that it was crass dishonest and arrogance for anyone to accuse him of tribalism.
“It is crass dishonest and ignorance for anyone to accuse me of tribalism. Firstly, my ethnic, and even racial composition make it very difficult and unrealistic for me to be a tribalist or a racist. I directly originate and hail from ten ethnicities and four provinces of our country. And indirectly, I have ethnic links with all the provinces of Zambia. This is my fortune or misfortune,” Dr M’membe said.
Mr Imenda said Dr M’membe, the Socialist Party president had always demonised and vilified the people of Southern and Western provinces because of his acidic and tribal hatred he had been habouring against the people in the region.
He said it was unacceptable for Dr M’membe to brand the UPND as a party that was in government to propagate and promote nepotism, tribalism and regional hegemony in governing the country.
In a statement yesterday, Mr Imenda said President Hakainde Hichilema had been a fervent defender of unity and harmony while denouncing tribalism and ethnicity and it was wrong for Dr M’membe to be playing tribal politics.
Mr Imenda said President Hichilema had managed to separate the UPND from government and that the ideology of the “party and its government” (PIG) had been done away with under the new dawn administration.
“We, as a party, note with great concern the allegations by the Socialist Party leader, Dr Fred M’membe, that the UPND is converting government and state institutions into apparatus for partisan favours, nepotism and payback knowing fully well that this was a lie,” Mr Imenda said.
He stated that it was not true that the UPND was recruiting teachers, nurses, military and police based on partisanship, nepotism, regionalism because the new dawn was a government of all Zambians and not for only selected regions.
Mr Imenda said the UPND had taken a strategic decision to detach the party from the government because it had been President Hichilema’s desire that the party and government should be separate from each other.
He said he had observed that the recruitment of civil servants, the disbursement of CDF, and Social Cash Transfer had been done in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner to extent where some PF councillors resigned their positions after they had been employed in government.
“What is appalling and scary about Dr M’membe’s assertion is that the UPND government is employing regionalism, using government jobs, to grow the political base in the Southern Province. We are, nonetheless, not shocked that such a statement is coming from Dr M’membe going by his long hatred for the Tongas. My advice to my brother M’membe who is an academic rounder, is that if you want to rule Zambia as president, the earlier you recognise the numerical and economic strength of the Tongas and the Bantu-bo-Tatwe group, the better,” Mr Imenda said
