Hunt for Successor 57:Sata and the Greenshirts have your phone SMS

By Field Ruwe

With pursed lips and cold eyes a bespectacled Geoffrey Chuumbwe spoke: “We’re being forced to act violently against opposition leaders due to continued insults of the republican president and the party leadership.”

“The Greenshirts are here!” I exclaimed as I watched him.

Draped as he was in a Sata deity cassava green shirt, with a blood-thirsty trigger-happy Stardy Mwale next to him, grinning lecherously like a ravenous vampire, I was reminded of the “Brownshirts,” a military wing of the Nazi Party. The Brownshirts’ preoccupation was to terrorize those who voiced dissenting views. They ambushed, beat up, and eliminated opposition leaders, journalists, human rights activists, and citizens.

I was not surprised it had come to this. Since February 2013 when PF and UPND cadres clashed in Livingstone, resulting in the loss of a life, an atmosphere of anarchy and violence has prevailed. In full view of a president known to vent his pent-up spleen on those who threaten his reign, attacks by machete wielding PF cadres on the opposition are on the rise.

[pullquote]“This is your president!” he said with cabbage in hand. “This is president Mwanawasa!”Sata continued: “Levy Mwanawasa is a cabbage. I demand that Chief Justice Ernest Sakala appoints a team of three doctors to investigate his mental health.”[/pullquote]

As Chuumbwe’s press conference progressed I imagined what would become of any opposition leader who dared walk into the room and tell him and his Greenshirts that their leader, Michael Chilufya Sata is the worst defamer who ought to be in jail; that he is a liar and a dictator who is spreading chaos on the street while posing as a champion of law and order. They would skin him alive, literally.

“Let this be a lesson to you all,” a bloodied Chuumbwe would say. “Do not mess with the PF; anyone who defames President Michael Sata will do so at his own peril.”

As I watched Chuumbwe, I said to myself president Sata is clearly the most self-centered, self-seeking, and self-regarding political leader in Zambia. He is the most selfish human being. How can he be hunting for people who “defame” him when he is “the quintessence of defamation,” the Defamer-in-Chief? He should not be in State House but in jail for defamation, libel and slander. Had Levy Mwanawasa been a maligned narcissistic leader like him, he would have locked him up and thrown away the key.

Lest we forget, in the run-up to the 2006 presidential elections Sata committed one of the worst defamations of a president. Addressing a rally he referred to Mwanawasa as a vegetable.

“This is your president!” he said with cabbage in hand. “This is president Mwanawasa!”

“No more cabbages!” The crowd chanted.

Sata continued: “Levy Mwanawasa is a cabbage. I demand that Chief Justice Ernest Sakala appoints a team of three doctors to investigate his mental health.”

A rational and gracious Mwanawasa did not lose his head and send the police to arrest Sata. Instead, he made light of Sata’s heinous, mindless, and gruesome performance: “I regard ‘cabbage’ as Vaseline oil that I apply on my body,” Mwanawasa simply said.

Defaming the head of state is a criminal offense that carries a jail sentence of up to three years. Sata would have served countless years in each of his predecessors’ reign and would still be in jail today. Who has he not defamed? Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda, his vice president, members of parliament, cabinet ministers, George Bush and other presidents, Chitimukulu and other chiefs, the Chinese, the British, Americans, priests, citizens…the list goes on.

Remember, Sata defamed Kaunda when he publicly called him a dictator and other unwarranted insults. How can we forget June 24, 1991 when he falsely labelled Kaunda a plunderer?

“The old man behaves like Mobutu Sese Seko. Mobutu Sese Seko did not want anybody to be equated to that office of his,” Sata said.
When Chiluba refused to appoint him as his successor, he called him a “short” thief who “has lost his senses,” and is “married to a convict.” Like Emmanuel Mwamba once stated, Sata was “constantly” defaming Chiluba “by questioning his life style, spiritual, social and political life.” Rupiah Banda was not spared. He was accused of “enjoying pornography” among other invectives.

But the defamer hates to be defamed. In a fashion typical of people with narcissistic personality disorder, Sata is always running to court each time he is defamed. Here are but a few defamation, libel and slander suits: 1994: Sata vs Post Newspaper Ltd; 2006: Sata vs Zambia Daily Mail; 2009: Sata vs Benny Tetamashimba; 2009: Sata vs Edward Mumbi; 2010: Sata vs Times of Zambia. He has continued to sue even as head of state: 2011: Sata vs Chanda Chimba; 2011: Sata vs Lieutenant General Ronnie Shikapwasha; 2012: Sata vs Hakainde Hichilema; 2012: Sata vs Llyod Himambo, Richard Sakala, Robert Armsterdam, Dr. Choolwe Beyani. Now he has engaged his Greenshirts to hunt for more “defamers” so he can throw them in jail and watch them die. How heartless and senseless!

[pullquote]A 1994 “Zambia Daily Mail” police advertisement published in which Chuumbwe was wanted for an armed robbery that occurred in Lusaka[/pullquote]

Let me get back to Chuumbwe for a moment. I was bothered not by his threats and intimidations, but by his utter disregard of the law. Who is this person who has the moral right and duty to spread terror with such clout? I was curious. I wanted to learn more about him because he has the potential to become part of Zambia’s tragic history. We have watched on television people like him, brainwashed by their leaders, commit heinous atrocities in Central Africa, South Sudan, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Uganda.

I did a quick background check and tumbled on a disturbing story by the “Zambia Reports” dated October 16, 2013, which insinuates Chuumbwe may have been an armed robber. The story alludes to a 1994 “Zambia Daily Mail” police advertisement published in which he was wanted for a “robbery that occurred in Lusaka on August, 4, 1994.”

“Good grief,” I said. “Political parties could be harboring hardcore criminals. No wonder it has become impossible to pursue and prosecute the people behind the untimely deaths of Paul Tembo, Ronald Penza, Wezi Kaunda, and all.”

If indeed it is true Chuumbwe was an armed robber why did Sata appoint him Lusaka Province PF chairman? Before a head of state appoints anyone to any position his security department filters the individual to detail. Was Chuumbwe’s criminal record, if any, accessed? Did Sata consult with the Inspector General of Police? Could it be possible that Sata has known Chuumbwe from time immemorial? Perhaps the most serious question is; are the likes of Chuumbwe causing terror with Sata’s consent? Are these panga thugs and assailants Sata’s auxiliary police—his Greenshirts? If indeed they are then we must brace ourselves for untold atrocities.

Notice I apply the term “auxiliary police.” This is because Chuumbwe’s conference could only be staged by the Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani with formal permission and clearance by the president because it is a matter of national security. The Zambian Police Force has policies and procedures for issuing statements on matters of violence in the country. Libongani knows very well that Chuumbwe, Sturdy Mwale, Clement Katongo and those present engaged in an unlawful assembly for the purpose of preparing to engage in tumultuous and violent conduct likely to cause public alarm.

[pullquote]Katongo revealed that Zambia’s intelligence agency is accessing user data from mobile phone and tapping into the most sensitive information stored on the phone, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where the user is or has been. It is then passing it on to party cadres.[/pullquote]
“Youths in the party will not fold arms while the opposition continue[s] to insult the president,” Chuumbwe said.

Katongo added: “You may wish to know that for as long as someone using their mobile phone registered in Zambia or laptop connected to any Internet provider in the country, they will not run away or hide from their crimes.”

Katongo had just revealed that Zambia’s intelligence agency is accessing user data from mobile phone and tapping into the most sensitive information stored on the phone, including contact lists, SMS traffic, notes and location information about where the user is or has been. It is then passing it on to party cadres. This revelation is of great concern because it means that the Zambian intelligence has broken encryption and that all mobile phones and computer files for all Zambians are in the hands of PF cadres.

If this is the case, the PF cadres are listening to anyone and everyone, even loyalists and ardent supporters of the president. If Katongo is right, we have no control over our personal life; Sata and his PF cadres (Greenshirts) are controlling as much of our life as they can. If on the other hand Katongo lied, he must be deemed an enemy of the state. Inspector General Libongani must arrest Chuumbwe, Mwale, and Katongo for taking matters in their hands and creating a recipe for mayhem.

Of course this will not happened, not under the leadership of president Sata. He has already given himself emergency powers that allow him to hunt down his enemies. Some of his ministers like Yamfwa Mukanga have, in their effort not to look “useless,” put on the Greenshirt and are acting beyond the bounds of reason. Mukanga is using his extra-legal terror to intimidate and stampede Sata’s opponents.

“We are closing-in on people who abuse the online publications to defame others in the name of freedom of speech,” he said.

With threats such as the one above there is bound to be blood spilled in the land. It is clear that Mukanga has a list of marked people up for vengeance. Should we begin to think president Sata is the mastermind behind all this? Yes, certainly. His silence on matters of violence is a sign of worse things to come.

Throughout his political career Sata has served as a propagandist and an inciter who has often advocated for violence both in UNIP and the MMD. Both these parties wreaked terrible physical aggression on men and women they hated and feared. We are living in perhaps a worse condition where anybody who questions the legitimacy of Sata’s authoritarian rule is subjected to death threats and imprisonment. The president is using his cadres for propaganda and intimidating purposes. Should we then expect a state pogrom of unrestrained hordes carried out on the enemies of the president—journalists, human rights advocates, opposition leaders, and citizens? Sadly, the answer is “yes.”

Remember, Sata and his Greenshirts are listening in and tracking your every move. Your mobile phone is now your worst enemy. How about this? Return your mobile phone to the courier and demand for a new secure SMS, or urge all mobile users to turn off the phone for a day as a protest and see what happens.

A Zimbabwean friend once told me the following: “what we Zimbabweans have bitterly learned over the years is that ‘prevention is better than cure.’” It is the same lesson President Bill Clinton learned over Rwanda. The United States, Britain, the entire West, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, and all Human Rights watchdogs, must keep an eagle’s eye on Zambia and stow in their minds names of people mentioned in this article.

Please Note: I have created a website www.aruwebooks.com on which you can access all my articles, essays, books, and my autobiography. On it you can also learn more about the books I have written and read snippets of chapters. The website also features interesting articles like “Why I hate being a Black man” and topical videos. Watch JP Rushton and David Suzuki debate IQ at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. The site will be updated weekly. Contact me, blog, or join in the debate.
Field Ruwe is a US-based Zambian media practitioner, historian, and author. He is a doctoral candidate at George Fox University. ©Ruwe2012