Price of betrayal

Mon, 03 Oct 2016 11:20:47 +0000

SO Mulenga Sata and Miles Sampa want to return to the Patriotic Front only weeks after the ruling party trounced the United Party for National Development where the two high-profile renegades had fled in their well-chronicled escapades to betray the trust and memory of their biological parent Michael Chilufya Sata? Really can Mulenga and Sampa ever hope to find solace and friendship in the PF? What cheek for them to expect to be welcomed with open arms by the PF stalwarts whom they shamelessly and foolishly betrayed so cheaply in the manner and fashion of Judas Iscariot.

The two men committed one of the highest forms of treachery by resigning from the PF at a time the ruling party needed them most. And they had no good reason to do so other than that they did not want Edgar Lungu to be the President of Zambia and leader of the party they wanted to colonise on the basis that they were the automatic heirs to the throne as son and nephew of President Sata and deserved to lead the party after his demise. Reading carefully their intentions and lack of diplomacy, the PF central committee at the weekend hit them hard by reinforcing a clause in the party constitution which demands that they must sit on the fence and sweat for three years before they could be considered for membership. We hope the same rule applies to all those who have suddenly found PF very attractive and are making noise, beckoning for attention.

The dictionary describes the act of betrayal as to give aid, information or switch sides in a conflict or contest for purposes of ensuring that your former organization, country or partner loses the battle. It is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust or confidence that produces moral or psychological conflict within a relationship, individual or organization.   After the death of President Sata, the PF was weakened and on the brink of disintegration. Thanks to the vision and bravery of some of its senior members, they rallied behind Lungu and twice in less than two years delivered two well-deserved victories against their nemesis, the UPND.

While ordinary Zambians admired this political feat, Mulenga Sata and Miles Sampa conceived what they believed was a coup de grace by leaving the PF in a blaze of publicity, believing that it was the end of the party. This act of deliberate disloyalty was betrayal of the worst kind. Mulenga, Miles and their mentor Guy Scott denounced the ruling party and called its leaders all sort of names. They predicted the PF was over and done with. To be welcome in the UPND and to put something on the table for their acceptance, they must have volunteered strategic information about the PF that the UPND used to devastating effect. The three men joined Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba in their charade and toured the country together with UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, despising and insulting President Lungu wherever they went and announcing that the ruling party was finished, that it was going to be defeated by the opposition UPND in the first round of the August 11 election. To their shock and disbelief, President Lungu and the PF triumphed and their new-found ally lost the election. They were devastated. And now they want a second bite at the cherry.

What cheek! Mulenga Sata, Miles Sampa, Guy Scott and GBM stabbed the PF and Lungu in the back because they believed UPND was winning the August election. If HH had won they would all be Cabinet ministers today. Those are the unabashed fellows seeking forgiveness and re-admission into the PF. As William Blake put it, it is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend who betrays you. For PF it is probably easier to forgive HH than Mulenga Sata and Miles Sampa.