UPND campaign strategy-PF this, PF that
By Osward Bwali
SIX weeks from now, Zambians head to polls to choose our President, members of parliament, mayors, councillors, and council chairpersons. If a credible election poll was conducted today, the results would be very reliable for the 13 August election.
Unlike a few weeks ago, the political parties are known, finally. Some will not be on the ballot because they morphed into churches or their candidates were arrested for saying the presidential motorcade got lost. The candidates too are known and the issues are known. The issues should revolve around the socio-economic governance of the country.
However, rather than the economy being the core of the election messages, the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front (PF) has been the biggest preoccupation of the United Party for National Development (UPND). I will be trying to address this matter in today’s write-up.
Michael Chilufya Sata formed the PF a few months before the 2001 general elections after being snubbed by Frederick Chiluba in favour of Levy Mwanawasa. One small note here is that Chiluba could have appointed any Bemba as a successor from the many options he had. But he did not. It’s a small note but a big lesson. Unlike Hichilema who has surrounded himself with Tongas and a few tokens here and there from a few tribes, Chiluba had heavy weights from across the country.
Coming off a very unpopular third term campaign for Chiluba, Sata was very unpopular including in his own hometown of Mpika. But he was undeterred. Very slowly but very surely, the King Cobra charmed his way back into the Zambian hearts and minds, almost singlehandedly. In no time, he had induced an amnesia on the Zambian voters about his unpopular misdeeds in the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD).
In no time, Sata had surpassed the United Party for National Development (UPND). The UPND, having insulted their Lozi support base with “only a Tonga should be president of the UPND”, had alienated an important ethno-political ally. Sata wasted no time in creating the “mwamukolo” fever in kwa Bulozi. He soon overtook the UPND earning great animus from Hakainde Hichilema, academic quacks, and co-ethnic supporters.
Such was the hatred for Sata that when he lost in 2008, the UPND celebrated the outcome more than the MMD who won that election. Having shown he was more popular than Hakainde and on the ascendance, a short-lived union of convenience between the PF and the UPND failed to materialise into an electoral pact because in Hichilema’s warped tribal brain, he was being denied the pact’s presidency because he was Tonga. The jealous and envy was evident in the run up to the 2011 elections with the UPND virtually spending more time de-campaigning Sata than Rupiah Banda or campaigning for themselves.
Well, the rest is history, as they say. Sata’s victory was one of the most celebrated in recent electoral cycles in Zambia. I was in Zambia at the time. The victory was announced in the night and people literally got out of bed into the streets with whatever they could throw on their bodies. Baby-making business was adjourned and thieves called a ceasefire for the night.
That record celebration was followed by another: the 2012 CAF victory celebrations. Then, of course, there was more money in the pockets that materialised for the Zambian civil servants. Such was Sata that he wanted everyone to eat something, to have a dignified existence. Unlike now when we have eating starting with Hichilema, Nalumango and ending abruptly at permanent secretary level, Sata had a heart for everyone.
University of Zambia (UNZA) lecturers received such a raise that notwithstanding my anthropological background, I contemplated seeking a move to the Department of History. But with hindsight vision, I am so glad I dodged the bullet. Going to UNZA was the best move I never made. The decision to stay on as a foreigner looks even better when I look at who could have been my boss, Dr Kasongo Euston Chiputa.
A former president of the lecturers’ union at the time, Kasongo is now a low-budget Facebook praise singer for the UPND, the party that has refused to address unpaid dues. His level of thinking on bank reserves is reflective of his H-Index of 2. His most-cited work has five citations. He is not the lead author of that article, and it has nothing to do with history. These are the UPND intellectuals who understand national bank reserves better than Brian Mundubile.
Ask Kasongo for me, if bank reserves are so important, why did the union he led and the sister unions lobby Sata to give them a dignified wage instead of encouraging him to build reserves? Ask Nevers Mumba for me, why has he agreed to be on government payroll when the money being wasted on former vice presidents could be diverted to bank reserves? Ask Mumba Malila for me, if banks reserves are so important, why is he demanding a house is built for him in addition to all the obscene perquisites that go with his job during and after employment?
Ask Hichilema for me, if bank reserves are so important, where is the gold recovered from the airport and the sugilite from Luapula? Why has he reduced the country’s earnings from the mines by removing taxes and relinquishing government shares in the mines? Why does he spend obscene amounts of money on commuting between Community House and State House?
Why did he spend so much money on Bill 7, that shameful Constitutional Technical Committee, lodging MPs in Lower Zambezi and reportedly bribing them with $150,000 each? Why did he spend so much money on trying to snatch Edgar Lungu’s corpse after denying him treatment that could have saved his life? Why spend reserve money on digging a grave without a corpse? A Church Elder in the Seventh Day Adventist church, Hichilema should know Proverbs 26:27.
Hichilema will spend any amount of money on himself and ‘celebrity’ endorsers, but the money for the civil servant, for council workers must go into the reserves. He will not upgrade the police, army, or teacher, who have dug themselves into debt to acquire a higher qualification, all in the name of reserves. Reserves my foot!
This is the big difference between the PF government and the UPND. One was pro-poor and sought to empower the civil servant and the locals, including monumental projects in Southern Province. The other is pro-rich and pro-foreigner. Have you seen their most outspoken supporter, Dr Proud weep for crumbs in his ntemba in Garden Compound?
The historical hatred for the PF has made Hichilema kill it and devour the cadaver. Miles Sampa who served as deputy minister, MP, and mayor of the party now eats with Hichilema while calling his own party corrupt. Wynter Kabimba who was a full minister and acting Republican President under the PF now calls it names and accuses dead former colleague Alexander Chikwanda. A party he defended to the core as Secretary General even when he was dubiously sending cadres to Somalia for training is now the party he criticises even in his sleep.
In destroying the PF, Hichilema kills two birds with one stone. He destroys Sata’s legacy and removes the biggest threat to his stay in power. At least he thinks so in his head. It is a known fact that he wishes to whitewash Bemba history while promoting the Zambezi one. Removing Zanco Mpundu Mutembo from the bank notes replacing Godfrey Chitalu with Anderson Mazoka on a toll gate are not innocent acts. It’s all part of an orchestrated agenda to rewrite history and repaint the Zambian cultural landscape.
The UPND strategy of vilifying the PF is desperation as they have little to nothing to tell Zambians why they should vote for them. In their desperation, they forget that the PF are now with them. The National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity was formed recently as a special purpose vehicle for attaining the aspirations of Zambians for a united and prosperous country. It has unified the country even before forming government.
Western heavyweights of Akashambatwa Mbikusita- Lewanika and Sakwiba Sikota form the core of the movement. Brian Mundubile was a low-ranking deputy minister who has only emerged following the loss of power of the PF and an all-out attack by the UPND government. With this national team, I see a national celebration in six weeks that is bigger than that of 2011.
