Thursday, March 28, 2024

Why I protested, I will protest again

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Pilato being led away from the protest scene after being arrested
Pilato being led away from the protest scene after being arrested


By Pilato

The moment we stop caring for the poorest amongst us, we stop being human. What justifies our humanity is not how rich or famous we become but our love for each other.

The poverty and hardships of other people must inspire us to care and help those that we can. This is the basic message that Jesus preached through out his ministry. This is beyond politics. We must be very careful not allow our politics to blind us from things that really matters.

A few years ago a young boy walked staright to me and told me he wanted to go back to school so that he could get a good job and look after mother. He was only 10years by then and was a street kid. I talked to a few people about him and showed them the boy, they were moved and were ready to sponsor this young boy into school but that i needed to speak to the boy’s mother.

I asked the young boy to come with his mother into town so then i could meet her and share the good news but the boy advised that his mother was not well enough to come into town.

One Friday evening i got the boy from town and we walked to Chipulukusu to meet her. Upon reaching, i noticed an old lady sleeping under a tree. That was the boy’s mother.

She was unwell and had not eaten the whole day so she was waiting for this young boy to return home with some food for supper. We sat and i told the mother that someone had offered to adopt and sponsor her son into school. As i was telling her this news, she started crying looking at her little son.

I could see she felt her son was abandoning her. She told me this young boy was responsible for house rentals and meals. She continued crying begging me not take away her only source of help.

The mother feared if this boy was to start school no one then would be there to look after her. I left that house broken. I gave them the little money i had and this boy never went to school. I went home and asked God why i met that boy and the mother if i couldn’t help them.

I have continued to meet such people and i continue to ask God why i meet people that i can’t fully help. It burns my heart today when i see our leaders misuse public funds ignoring the greatest needs of our people.

I know we cant feed everyone but at least let us educate their children. I know a community school that has gone for years now without government support. Teachers have gone unpaid yet we have so much money to buy fire trucks.

I do not have the money to help our people but i have a voice. I have resolved never to ignore the sufferings of people no matter the cost. If it will take my imprisonment for our leaders to remember the poor man’s child, i am ready. I protested because i want my government to spend that $42m on that poor man’s child at UNZA get their degree.

I will protest again because i want the poor man ‘s child to find drugs at our hospitals. I will protest again because i want the poor woman to walk in labour ward without her own bucket, her own gloves, her own clipper. I will protest because i want my government to use people’s funds responsibly.

Our leaders have continued to accumulate wealth they can’t even account for and we are told there’s no money for the people.

We will not rest until our people are remembered economically. This is non negotiable.

20 COMMENTS

  1. Pilato? You nonsensical nobody SOB

    Get a university degree and a better job that’s all I ask of you.

    Thanks

    BB2014,2016

    • @Mushota, who the hell are you? I feel like vomiting every time I smell of you. In fact you are just as hopeless as those you continually support. Just a piece of advice for you: A degree is NOT a pre-requisite for sane thinking and reasoning, just like your so called ‘Phd’ doesn’t make you start thinking like a human being.
      Lastly, avoid those insults in your first sentence!! Otherwise you won’t like it if people reciprocate.

    • I have been following this Mushota and i believe he is on the PF payrow,because seriously this chap seems like he can defend any nonsense by PF,PLEASE MAN BE REALLY .

    • @Mushota;
      It’s nincompoops, brainless and useful id!ots like you who have helped destroy our beautiful country.

  2. Pilato is a demagogue. He knows that by appealing to people’s emotions and not their brains, he will get support. I have a son in university and I want a bursary that should not be at the expense of my four bedroomed house catching fire.

    • Seriously!!!!! I can’t believe the reasoning here. Buying fire engines does not stop fires my dear. it is your own safety practices that will stop fires from occurring. Sometimes safety practices are beyong your control because your neighbour’s carelessness can affect you – hence get adequate insurance.

  3. Only the corrupt will support the corrupt; Viva Pilato; we need more Zambians who are not docile to corruption;

  4. To Laura Miti and Pilato: You are our heroes,a voice for the voiceless. Yours is a noble fight. We will always support you spiritually

  5. Total hogwash!!! Why can’t this Pilato thing and that ugly woman Miti with their degrees start coming up with strategies to push government to set up local church based organisations for example that will look at the plight of street kids, blind people, prisoners??? USELESS HYPOCRITE!!!

  6. well said pilato… Anyone with brains knows that what people are fighting against is not the purchase of fire trucks or upgrading our fire response equipment but at the cost at which these things were acquired… do u kno how many districts do not have fire stations?? but why rush into buying trucks at such a fee? seriously can one argue that buying very very expensive fire trucks was the best way of ensuring that we stop the fires the country has been experiencing?. The point ia wasting resources givea loopholes for people to steal public funds at the expense of making the lives of people better.

  7. Well said Pilato, but why didn’t you take that child and the mother to Social Welfare Offices or any other organization even some Churches do help? If you had done that the mother and the boy were going to be helped that the boy was going to be sent to school. The Government has been collecting children from the streets teaching them skills. It seems you are talking from nowhere educated as you are should know what to do if you want to help but no you left it at that and you are telling us that this is why you went to demonstrate. By the way why were they only six of them out of millions and millions of Zambians not forgetting the loud month on the social media?

  8. My heart bleeds whenever as Zambians we do deviate from issues that affect us regardless of our beliefs and political affiliations and focus on people.
    Accolade be given to some of our people who refrain and desist from such temptation.
    Our government ought to provide answers to these checks and balances by the opposition.
    And opposition ought to move on whenever these checks and balances are met.

    My view is that so far our government has failed to prove beyond doubt that their line of choice of the tender was economically and technically befitting.

    Our government has made so far good strides towards developping our country; however the question remains: how economically these strides were and are. And, we can not blame the opposition in the search of improving how best the…

  9. Ok guys you are very foolish with your comments same of you ,Pilato is right 100% but y are u every time you think negative about your friends, Pilato go ahead u are a Big ,

  10. Well spoken Pilato! I am touched by what you have written. There people in Zambia who are living on K20 per day….am talking big families!

  11. Well spoken mate – good on you for standing up for the poor. You actually touched me with this piece mate. It is insane that these political leaders think they are demi gods who can just steal public resources like that and no one is questioning them. The problem in Zambia is that politicians think they are bosses when in fact they should be servants of people who have sacrificed to serve the public.

    Where I live, being a politician doesn’t entail instant wealthy and unexplained riches… apart from the lifetime pension and other benefits, being in a private job earns you more money. In Zambia it is totally different. A president moved from $0 to $20 million within a year, and yet their salary is just $100k, for example.

  12. This are the stories we want to hear not AMA PETION for sure in hospitals no drug our mothers when they go to hospitals there told to buy things which poor mothers cant afford MWEBANTU LESA TWAFWENI

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