By Pezzy Kudakwashe
The sacrifice and blood paid by the ordinary Zambian is now enough to see Zambia become a better place to live.Our former freedom fighters share our rich history with stories of how they fought to remove the colonial masters of a bad grip they had on Zambia.Although the fight was not as bloody as most African countries experienced, the sacrifice was as legitimate to warranty Zambians full rights to independence.Furthermore our independence gave all of us an entitlement to a good decent life.
There is no doubt that our country has made some scores of achievement in some areas since independence.These include, Zambians becoming middle class income families. More people at least live in better housing than the days of shanty towns.Zambia has maintained peace with pleasant social and political stability in the last forty-nine years.
Our country has moved from one party dictatorship to multi-partism with a strong vision that one day, we shall have a strong people driven constitution.Zambia is now capable of exporting local produce and heavy industry metals to the region.
However, while this year marks Zambia’s year of jubilee since breaking away from Britain, we still find ourselves going around the same mountain.The mountain of sheer poverty, dIsease, illiteracy, starvation, tragic road accidents, name the list, we have seen it all.
On the other hand, the politicians try to paint a different picture, they want to convince us that things are fine, well and okey.Cheap talk always dominate campaign trails and false promises and slogans are still the order of the day.Quarrels and squabbles overlay our politics, characterized by selfish moves aimed at advancing personal political agendas.These fights continually place more innocent and naive Zambians at a further disadvantage.
The blood we Zambians have paid not just during the fight to independence but also through the injustice in Zambia today, is enough to buy all Zambians a better life.
What blood am I talking about? I am talking about, deaths that could have been prevented in our hospitals, simple cases such as malaria, HIV, TB, hepititis, malnutrition, tragic road accidents due to poor roads, unqualified drivers and lack of strict traffic police supervision.Crime is unbearable, the vigilantes are back on our streets, over crowded prisons, low standards of education, focus on building health facilities with very poor service quality, has become synonymous to the Zambian way of life.
Time has come to say NO to this circus.
We have paid with too much blood. The debt for these inadequacies we find ourselves in, was already paid a long time ago.We cannot continue living on promissory notes while our lives waste away.How long and how much more shall we pay to make Zambia a better place.
The almost 50-year-old mother Zambia, still grapples over lack of clean drinking water, jobs with
decent wages, access to quality health care.The wealthy and the politicians at least have alternatives as they can be evacuated to South, India or Pakistan for specialist treatment.God has given us the ability to chose what we should change to make our country better.
Let us start with a people driven constitution!
In Christ’s love
Nice one
Is he advocating for extra blood shed?
The real change has to start with us.
our attitude towards work, public property stinks.
we appear chronically allergic to cleanness in public places and we are happy with that.
we leave everything and anything to politicians and govt to address and all we are good at is complain.
countries that have developed and and become economically independent have attained such levels because they are innovative, proud of their countries and have seen the potentials and have seized opportunities.
for as long as we as a citizenry leave all and everything to politicians we will always get a raw deal no matter which political party forms govt.
never wonder why politics is the most lucrative industry and employer in the country
we need to ask ourselves if what we get is what we truly deserve.
do we deserve to drive on potholed roads when we pay road tax? and with road tolls coming in soon for all vehicles, do we accept to pay to drive on highly dangerous roads that guarantees you a 90% chance of a fatal accident?
is the poor quality of education and health care we receive justifiable? poor housing? sanitation? water? security? etc
We get these substandard and trashy services not because there is no money in the treasury, but because we have allowed politicians alone to dictate our development agenda as we watch expectantly on the sidelines
is there anything or something that we can do as citizens to have these essential and basic human rights services delivered?… absolutely!!
Kabimba should just be shot. I doubt if this imbeccile will make it to 2016.
….Very Good article once again…..I say ‘ONCE AGAIN’ because I have seen a thousand more on this site. I’m sure there are a thousand more of such well articulated thoughts still coming….But what do we intend to achieve thru such articles,,,?? Perhaps to agitate afew minds with the hope to engage them into physical/tangible action. Until that happens, the resultant of these well articulated articles shall still remain zero.
I disagree with the author’s expression of…’SIMPLE cases of malaria, HIV, malnutrition, Traffic accidents….’ Simple..?? The moment we trivialise such, we put ourselves in a giving up / surrendering mode……His statement is fine but without the word SIMPLE….
We may be politically free but mentally we are still under the yoke of the white man. You can see this by our always wanting to be seen behaving like white people. We despise everything African and adore everything European. We are not confident about our abilities. We are more confident in European people’s abilities. Thats why we keep importing every little gadget that we could have made ourselves. When we serve fellow blacks we do it with ineptitude but when we serve a white person we make sure we are at our best. Clearly we are under the yoke of the white man. Let us now emancipate ourselves from mental slavery so that we can then start the genuine celebration. That of our mental emancipation
Whom do you absolutely blame for all the problems we are facing? Do you know that even in America where they claim to have a good constitution people are also suffering except a few? A good leader can still lead well even with a bad constitution. No matter how good a constitution will be,it will not put nsima on my table on its own. A new constitution is a must but not in violence. CHILUBA,MWANAWASA,and RB FAILED to give us a new constitution in 20 years of MMD rule. Therefore,to blame PF being responsible alone for our bad constitution will be very unfair except on hatred and envy terms. Lets demand for good leadership first. The likes of Kabimba are a mess to our future because of his arrogance and personal interest in wanting to become a PF leader and he wants constitution after 2016.
@ Surprised, you are so misguided. First of all, you are putting things in the context of America, but you make a hasty generalisation and perhaps a cheap mystification by stating that ‘Americans are suffering except a few’ – where did you get you statistics?
Secondly, you ramble that someone can lead with a bad constitution. Do you want us to continue to suffer at the hands of all-powerful leaders and tyrannies like your grandfather MCS, FTJ? If an opportunity comes our way, why can’t we demand a ‘user-friendly’ constitution?
Furthermore, you are talking about hatred for the PF over the constitution. Are you not aware that it was PF which promised us heaven on earth in 90 days, and when we ask for the promises and pledges you call us haters?
Kabimba should just be shot. I doubt if this imbeccile will make it to 2016
Zambia has attained its development in full cycle as we are told new roads have been constructed, old ones re done, new schools and universities and new districts. Manufacturing has been revived and providing employment to the youths, mining sector is positively contributing to the economy. The political situation is stable and conducive with a transparent government accountable to its voters. This is what vice president Guy Scott told parliament and the nation. This is contrary to the picture depicted by the article. I hope Dr Guy Scott was telling the truth or deceiving docile Zambians with an aversive attitude as a Zambian of European origin.