Community development and social services minister, Michael Kaingu says the criticism on President Rupiah Banda by the opposition PF-UPND pact is normal because all opposition political parties world over were behaving in the same manner.
But Mr Kaingu warned that the negative criticism being targeted at President Banda by some MMD members will not be tolerated.
The Minister who said this when he paid a courtesy call on Chief Mwanachingwala of Mazabuka at his palace assured the Chief that the criticisms on President Banda was being perpetrated by a few disgruntled party members and has no capacity to destroy the party and the vision of the President.
Mr Kaingu challenged MMD members attacking the President to make their position known on which political platform they belong.
And the Minister said the MMD does not take the criticism by PF leader, Michael Sata and UPND leader, Hakainde Hichilema as being offensive because they are interested in going to State House.
Mr Kaingu also praised the people of Southern Province for rejecting the PF through the ballot.
Meanwhile, Mr Kaingu has commended Chief Mwanachingwala for the crucial role he played in influencing other chiefs in the province to rally behind President Banda during the Presidential By-election.
He said without the chief’s support, the MMD would have had serious problems to gain the 52,000 votes the President scored.
And Chief Mwanachingwala said he will continue supporting President Banda’s government.
He said chiefs play an important role in advising government on key national issues.
ZANIS
Why can’t we have more reasonable ministers like kaingu? Well spoken, bruv. No threats, no insanity, just plain talking. If we can have just five ministers like you, I will gravitate to the MMD once again!
Can someone confirm that former Defence Minister George katiki Mpombo has been arrested over the bouncing cheque issue? These are the small things that will make AlaBee unpopular.
Pass the brown envelopes, please, thank you.
The PF/UPND Dilemma
SEISMIC political movements have continued to cause consternation in the fragile PF/UPND Pact with word from the grapevine suggesting that some new players may be joining the pack.
Ironically, this new development is set to work against the alliance and, according to observers, the pact is only holding by a single thin strand of string.
Although there have been vehement denials about serious cracks in the rank-and-file of the agreement, the story about the weekend meeting should finally reveal the last kicks of not a dying horse but that of a twinkling star fading in the haze its own splendour.
You know there are certain things in Zambian politics that don’t shock me and this is when important elections are due in the country and there is a mass movement…
You know there are certain things in Zambian politics that don’t shock me and this is when important elections are due in the country and there is a mass movement of cadres from one political party to the other.
What is mind-boggling is the manner in which even some nondescript political parties, whose only semblance of existence is in the books of the Registrar of Societies, seem to come alive.
This period is also an opportune time for political dinosaurs, those that have outlived their usefulness and all those solo, self-proclaimed political heavyweights to return to the arena to salvage anything that can perpetuate their livelihoods.
According to impeccable sources, Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) president Edith Nawakwi has decided she will join the pact but has given conditions for her party to add glamour to the outfit.
Ms Nawakwi, I gather, has put her cards on the table and wants UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to give away his claim to the pact presidency in return for her signature.
Also flaunting his wares is Mr Ken Ngondo who in principle has joined the pact although believe it or not has only demanded that if the election is won, a diplomatic posting will suffice for him.
Another silhouette of a politician who seems to always want to start from the top instead of the other way round is Professor Clive Chirwa.
No sooner than he announced that he had parted company with the MMD than the party disowned him, questioning how he could possibly resign from a party he never belonged to in the first place.
To be a rocket scientist or a NASA engineer can never win you an election in Africa, and how those who felt could cause serious damage to the MMD party mobilization effort by causing screaming headlines in some tabloids only managed to bring into focus the deceit of some self proclaimed leaders.
It is a laughable matter for those who once felt and still feel that the good professor is able to offer alternative national leadership.
The current constitutional clauses on the presidential candidate clearly stipulate that a contender should have domiciled in the country continuously for 10 years or more.
Does Professor Chirwa have such credentials, obviously, he knows that if he got that desperate, he could only attempt to short circuit the requirement by acting too big to start his ascent from the grassroots going up hoping that even in the confusion somebody may look the other way and allow it.
As for the pact, which he has joined, there are those that have been in the system who strongly feel that now is their time to pick up positions having patiently risen through the ranks.
Obviously, HH is seething with anger at the insistence that he plays second fiddle at the insistence of Ms Nawakwi whose real reasons for such a demand can only be imagined.
It is important to also remember that these two leaders are not meeting on the same platform for the very first time and have rubbed off in the wrong way not once, not twice but so often.
It has again dawned on HH that he may soon have to make a decisive public statement about the real sentiment obtaining in his party whose grassroots and die-hard supporters have been advising him to de-link from the PF while he can.
Just as the past few weeks have been so eventful for the UPND, so has it been with the PF.
Mr Sata, who is completely out of character by remaining mute on the ‘treasonable acts” that have been committed within his partner UPND quarters where celebrations were held when the “Presidential degree clause” was endorsed by the NCC, his silence has become reminiscent to the still before a storm belief.
The PF leader who has showed little or no emotion over the assertions doing the rounds is also privy to information that a team of UPND leaders have been covertly drawing consensus amongst fellow MPs to have him barred on many other counts.
This has incensed him to a point that he may soon have to announce, publicly the rift between himself and his UPND counterpart.
What has further deteriorated relations between Mr Sata and HH is the evidence in public domain that the UPND paid a Copperbelt firm to print hundreds of “HH for President” badges and T-shirts in readiness for the elections.
Rather than keep ignoring the tell-tale signs about an impending split in the pact and wait until the very end, the parties involved are better off honorably going their own ways rather than keep those members who religiously believe in them on the tenterhooks.
As far as I am concerned, the PF, UPND and of course not the FDD or the Ken Ngondo party can do better on their own rather than keep pretending to the nation that all is well in their camp, it is the Zambian people who are being cheated and not anybody else.
What is further hurting this alliance in my view is the expected emergence of the very political parties and spent political forces that feel they can ride on the backs of others and be part of the team when sharing the spoils.
There is nothing wrong with teaming up in political alliances, what is wrong is coming together when their set principles are poles apart and not especially when such people and parties only emerge a few months before elections as the case has been.
This, for anyone who can read politics is not done because they believe in the cause of the masses, but rather because they want to preserve themselves by identifying with a winning team.
For any spent political party, which lacks national appeal, to join an alliance just for the sake of elections will not make any marked difference on the electorate, not even will they turn heads when such finished politicians speak because theirs is over.
Even the most scrumptious looking Christmas Turkey when it overstays on the fridge shelf without being bought will raise eyebrows about freshness, especially if the ‘use before’ tag clearly indicates expired.
The same with some of these politicians, Zambians must clearly define what they want in politicians and political parties- recycled finished or fresh and proven.
Mwata is one of those who have been predicting the PACT s collaspse for the past 8 months,well its still here to shame empty critics like him.
This is what i have come to dislike about LT,how do you honestly let one blogger cut and paste stuff written by somebody else,damn!