By Sishuwa Sishuwa
Last week, Zambians woke up to revelations that President Edgar Lungu owns an enormous piece of land in a prime area of eSwatini, as the Kingdom of Swaziland is now known, one on which he plans to construct a multi-million dollar double-storey residential house, whose architectural drawings were widely circulated on social media. The land, which sits on a luxury golf estate, was, according to Minister of Information and Chief Government Spokesperson Dora Siliya, an unsolicited gift offered to Lungu by King Mswati III on a recent visit to eSwatini. Instead of quietening the storm, Siliya’s explanation invited more criticism, most notably from opposition National Restoration Party leader Elias Chipimo who, citing the 2012 Anti-Corruption Act, argued that Lungu’s receipt of the gift was illegal. Section 21 (1b) of the Act provides that ‘A public officer who uses that public officer’s position, office or authority or any information that the public officer obtains as a result of, or in the course of, the performance of that public officer’s functions to obtain property, profit, an advantage or benefit, directly or indirectly, for oneself or another person commits an offence of abuse of office’. In the wake of Chipimo’s comments, Presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda, who was also given a plot around the same golf estate that holds Lungu’s land, insisted the issue was ‘purely a private exchange between two Heads of State’ that does not violate Zambia’s laws. ‘Those alleging any impropriety’, Chanda challenged critics, ‘are therefore free to come forward and state what kind of impropriety is involved in this matter.’
The first point I wish to make therefore relates to Chanda’s challenge to critics on how exactly Lungu’s receipt of the gift from Swaziland amounts to abuse of office. My attempt at addressing his call draws from what the Anti-Corruption Act cited above states. For a start, Lungu travelled to Swaziland in his official capacity as President of Zambia, not as a private citizen. In doing so, he was performing one of the functions of an incumbent President: traveling abroad to enhance Zambia’s relations with other countries. In this instance, Lungu was on a two-day state visit to Swaziland, the purpose of which was to promote bilateral relations between the two countries, according to what the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba told Zambians in July 2017 when the trip took place. It was during this state visit, that Lungu, traveling as a public officer, received or accepted the land gift, thus obtaining in the course of the performance of his official functions a gain or benefit directly for himself. Herein lies the impropriety: the use of public office for private gain. Is this not a sufficient ground to charge Lungu with the offence of abuse of office?
The second point relates to the lack of a clear legal infrastructure that addresses the question of gifts that a President or any other public officer receives in the course of the performance of their official duties, and which, as a result, creates massive opportunities for corrupt ruling elites to do as they please. In other words, a factor that is assisting Lungu’s escape from consequences is our impoverished formal legal framework. I was personally quite sure that the Anti-Corruption Act criminalised the non-disclosure of gifts over a certain value by public servants. Many other informed observers appear to have thought the same. This is not the case. What comes close is the section of the Anti-Corruption Act cited above, one that is very imprecise in relation to the reception and giving of gifts or benefits by public officers. We are now getting a sense of the scale of how Lungu may have used the public office of the presidency for private gain. Both his spokesperson and the Minister of Information claimed that the receipt of a plot on the exclusive gold estate in eSwatini was entirely normal, as Lungu has received many such gifts before. We Zambians have no way of finding out what gifts Lungu has received, how many, their value and from whom. In other countries, the law clearly provides for the declaration of gifts above a certain value to the presidency and that such gifts are to be the property of the State, not the individual office holder. Zambia has previously relied on the morality of the President to avoid abusing this privilege. The Swaziland case demonstrates that, clearly, this is insufficient. Our lawmakers need to urgently enact legislation that compels the President and other public officials to transparently declare any substantial gifts received in the course of performing their official duties and to criminalise the non-disclosure of such gifts.
Many questions remain around the land gift and we have no proper and legal way of obtaining the answers. It has been alleged, for instance, that Inyatsi Construction Group Holdings, a private construction company that owns the land that Siliya and Chanda claim came from Mswati and whose subsidiary does lots of construction work in Zambia, gave the gift to Lungu as a corrupt inducement for receiving lucrative government contracts. The problem is that we, citizens, have no legal basis for forcing the government to provide information on issues of public interest, such as those relating to public procurement. The tendering and bidding procedures for these contracts remain entirely opaque and secret. We have no way of requesting for information about who has bid for a contract, how much was offered, and on what criteria the successful bidder was chosen or awarded the contract. As a result, it is hard to conclusively state that Inyatsi may have given the land in question to Lungu and Chanda in an attempt to influence the award of contracts in matters where the company has direct interest. A key reason why successive governments have failed to enact the much delayed Freedom of Information Bill is the fear that such legislation, if enacted and enforced properly, will almost certainly reveal widespread corruption, say, in the awarding of contracts and implicate senior public servants and potentially government ministers or perhaps even the President. Otherwise, if there was no corruption and contracts were being awarded fairly, then what harm would be caused to government officials by the release of such information to the public? Until this issue is resolved, suspicion will inevitably follow the awarding of large government contracts.
The final point to note about the Swaziland land scandal is that it is simply one of any number of political and financial scandals that have occurred with depressing regularity throughout Lungu’s presidency. Regular readers of this column will know that I am no defender of Lungu. Reflecting on this brazen abuse of public office, however, I can only come to the conclusion that the fault is not only with Lungu; it is with many of us. Lungu’s presidency does not exist in a vacuum; it is only the most prominent part of a deep-seated culture especially among public servants of corruption and theft of public resources on a grand scale. This is itself a reflection of Zambia’s economic malaise and persistent inability to achieve broad-based economic growth. What would a lifestyle audit of many of Zambia’s public servants and pastors or bishops reveal? Any urban resident of Zambia can regularly see examples of public servants and clerics living beyond their means. Public servants are reputedly poorly and infrequently paid. Yet many can be seen driving expensive new cars, initiating business projects or building and furnishing upmarket homes. This is the culture of corruption that Lungu has emerged from and is embedded in. It explains the passivity of many Zambians in the face of the endless revelations about corruption scandals. On hearing about the Swaziland scandal, many offered brief expressions of shock, some muttering, some grumbling and then apart from providing some fodder for conversation, there would be no other consequences. One thing is certain: Lungu will get away with this, as he has done with all his previous scandals. After all, he must think, if one can possibly steal an election, then it is no problem to probably steal a few million dollars.
Put differently, our low levels of civic consciousness permit Lungu’s behaviour. We are generally a pacified and cowardly type of people that allows ourselves to be looted, abused in a variety of ways and to be trampled upon. What can’t Lungu do? When we allowed Lungu to ascend to the leadership position of the Patriotic Front in the most chaotic manner possible; to shut down The Post without any public protest; to contemptuously disregard the Constitution on several occasions without any consequence; to continue presiding as President amidst a properly filed petition against his election which required him to step down from his position; to threaten judges who do not do his bidding; to preside over the trumped-up detention and imprisonment of key opposition and civil society figures; to accumulate enormous public debt and continue borrowing to a point where we are now effectively in a debt trap; to shoot down the good intentions of the Commonwealth in relation to national dialogue, and so on, we confirmed to him that he could get away with murder. We have generally tolerated his scandals all the time, so why should he be scared or even contemplate leaving his lucrative post? Lungu can only exist in Zambia because we are the only people whose acutely low levels of consciousness can tolerate his lawlessness and impunity. We have earned Lungu. We have created Lungu. He is our leader par excellence, one who is embedded in a complex network that reveals a society that is, on the whole, rotten to the core.
The question is: how do we stop producing Lungus – those who lead survivalist lives and for whom nothing is fixed, certain, moral, stable or durable? For the truth is that it would be a mistake to focus on Lungu alone, because the whole system is rotten. It is not Lungu who signs the public procurement tenders, arrests his political opponents on transparently silly charges, goes to the bank, rigs an election, loots the medical drugs meant for the poor, or writes corrupt court judgements. Even if he is removed, another Lungu will emerge tomorrow if we simply attend to the symptoms. We therefore need to identify long-term solutions to our serious national malaise or condition. The first part of successful treatment is diagnosing the ailment. Once we know the illness, we can prescribe the cure. What is needed, as part of the required social transformation, is a new form of national consciousness, one generated by popular movements against, say, rampant theft of public resources, corruption and economic stagnation. We need activist pressure groups that recognise the power of political organisation, spark protests and creatively begin to cultivate a militant citizen with an attitude that challenges power to say ‘Not in my name’. For the moral is not separate from the people. Leaders are chosen from among us. It is not our leaders, it is us. This is it. Nothing else. There will be no messianic essence or phenomenon in our country to liberate us. We are our own leaders, we are us, we lead ourselves, put in reverse. Any expectation of some singular external emergence of some leader to lead us anywhere simply makes us all pawns in the fulfilment of the desires of such a one. And this has been our historical experience. It is not the essence of freedom. It is servitude to the whims of an individual. This is not to deny the role of the individual in history (as actor, subject-object, author/creator and leader). Rather, it is simply to acknowledge the most obvious fact to me: that it is society, the forest, which produces the leader, the most beautiful tree, and not the other way round. No single tree can make a forest. Trees, on the other hand, are found in forests!
This implies a profound respect for the painstaking work of attacking, destroying and recreating anew and on a higher plane the character structure of the various classes that make up Zambian society, in their all-round poverty – spiritual, philosophical, material, economic, political and cultural – before we can see any real changes in our society. As a matter of fact, we must desist from thinking that merely changing ‘presidents’ and ‘parties’ will lead to any meaningful changes in our lives and country. There are many, complex and interrelated social, economic, political, cultural, religious and spiritual forces, combining with our entire history as a people, that have moulded and continue to shape the current psyche and character structure of the ‘typical Zambian’. Our collective challenge is to unravel these forces, understand them, and reshape them to build a different and genuinely alive Zambian. We, as a people, must understand all this as it relates to our place in the wider world. It is not a Lungu, a Michael Sata, a Rupiah Banda, a Levy Mwanawasa, a Frederick Chiluba or a Kenneth Kaunda problem: these leaders have definitely played a part in generating the psychological and material conditions which have created us as a pathetic, cowardly, passive, easy to manipulate, naive, superstitious and quite clearly backward people. None of these and more negative or inferior qualities are biological, however. They have their roots in our complex history with all the social forces that have shaped this history, including a dominant, degraded Christian theology and practice (largely pacifist) to which we so often appeal to resolve our perfectly manmade problems. Our political and religious leaders simply feast on this historical banquet!
I am extremely optimistic, however, that there is potential for a new ‘national consciousness’ to emerge in Zambia. In fact, our current deep-seated systemic and structural social, economic and cultural crises are a perfect foundation on which to begin to build this new ‘national consciousness’, to begin to resurrect or awaken the militant human being in the currently pacified Zambian, and to question the quality of a human being that tolerates a Lungu, a Sata, a Banda, a Chiluba, for a national leader. All that is needed is a movement that would connect the dots into a network, breath energy into it and make the network come alive and lead to new psychologies and character structures of a sub-class and, hopefully, to revolutionary action. We owe it to our impoverished mothers and fathers who struggled to give us the gift of ‘education’ to defeat our inhuman conditions of existence, if nothing else can move us. Lamentably, however, Zambia’s present opposition parties seem incapable or even uninterested in raising such a movement, to tackle the deep underlying basis for the degrading conditions we suffer. As a result, I predict that the revelations of Lungu’s Swaziland scandal will have few, if any, consequences and in a few months will be overtaken by another political or corruption scandal. And the same response will follow: the new scandal will feature as a subject in people’s conversation, accompanied by fabricated responses from the government officials, some mild protests, ineffective statements from opposition parties, and then nothing.
That how it is our Presido is preparing for his exit, but he should be careful, too much of everything is bad. Late presido Chiluba is the best example. His kids are now stealing cell phones, it can happen to him. The state gona just get everything stolen from the Zambian people him and he gona regret being presdo. We seen this before and will keep on seeing them.
Sishuwa, armchair critic with no track record of ever having contributed to Zambia’s development. Pan-y0
Another very useless opinion sustained by delusions and distraught. Enjoying unparalleled freedom of expression Zambia offers.
I like your work SS, but the tragedy is that you are working on scanty data as pertaining to the truth of what is actually going on in the midst of so much rumour perpetrated by the UPND’s propaganda death squad. Yes it is increasingly becoming highly likely that our president has an insatiable appetite for wealth and we don’t know where he got this trait from in our modern Zambian political dispensation because there is a bit of arrogance in him and being a lawyer he is supposed to be wary of how he conducts himself as president, or is he taking advantage of loop-holes in the laws of the land? The way I see him it’s like people are unfairly judging him but he keeps quiet without denying any of the things and this is not good for us voters, we don’t want someone who can turn the…
turn the country into ruins.
@Senior citizen. Why do you recycle the same words and expressions without saying anything? Is it because of your blind loyalty? We have been using the same expressions when talking about Rupiah Banda, and now you repeat them to praise Lungu.
@Nubian, that pany-o coming from you is not romantic at all. You should have insulted him more manly.
Be sexxxy!
Just after he penned a more reasonable article last time around … it’s all hogwash bent on jealousy.
Our greatest enemy is jealousy as Africans and that makes for sad living. This article is nothing bad garbage.
Sorry Sishuwa, nothing here. What a waste of time. Try again next week, do better research like last time.
How big is this huge track of land?
BR Mumba Snr: US$150 million is 30% of US$500 million and that is considered normal by someone who describes himself as an investment banker! Bly me! Tell me one normal country where you pay that much for a loan denominated in the American dollar. This exposes you really. No investment banker would consider such a loan as fair for his country. Zesco is being looted and this is sufficient ground to prosecute the entire board of directors.
Zambia is not a functional democracy. People are not given who they vote for. For this reason, we ended-up with our beloved president Edgar Lungu in the last election.
No problem at all… as long as we are all share holders in this multi-million dollar eswatini project. After all, its our taxes that are funding that little get away.
Sishuwa is right. Leaders in a democracy are a reflection of the people who vote for them. If we have corrupt Leaders, it’s because we are corrupt. Even though we make noises about hating corruption, in private a lot of us are guilty of perpetrating it. You may protest this assertion, but I would just ask you as an ordinary citizen, what did you do, the last time traffic police stopped you for a traffic offense? Pay the fine as per procedure via the investtrust bank or you paid a bribe to the officer? Now you know why corruption will never end. It’s you!
Spot on, Journeyman. We Zambians don’t like adhering to laws. Look at how everyone rushed to beat red lights, how people will find a queue in a bank or shop and go to the front and promise to leave change to the attendant if they are served first??? 95 out of 100 Zambians will pay a bribe and sit behind their keyboards later and call Lungu a thief on LT!!!
Very long for nothing article. Sishuwa plz get a job for a living….!
Munene: SS is a fine young scholar. He did not write this piece for LT but News Diggers where he is a columnist. LT downloaded it from there.
This says a lot about your comprehension level. I do not think you have a meaningful job.
Lungu is truly the President we deserve, WE AGREE.
HH HAS NEVER DISCLOSED WILL NEVER DISCLOSE THE SOURCE OF HIS WEALTH,
CHILUBA NEVER DID,
RUPIA NEVER DID,
LEVY HID BEHIND HIS WIFE’S FOUNDATION.
ECL IS SO TRANSPARENT, TAKE IT OR GO HANG
” ECL IS SO TRANSPARENT, TAKE IT OR GO HANG…”
How did he get $2.3 million after 18 months in office ?……if he was transparent why does he not deny that he is a corrupt theif ?
Amen to Liverpool (Luapula) Premier!! The Bush Family Dynasty owns so much land in Paraguay close to an eighth of the entire country.
Some was it was gifted to the Senior Bush when he was Vice President to Ronald Wilson Reagan and Americans never lose sleep if it.
Here you have a bunch of Yahoos masturbating just over a small estate in the former Swaziland gifted to him by fellow colleague.
Heaven help us all …
@Mumba–Have already forgotten Clinton’s controversy about donations he received from Arab leaders for his foundation in Arkansas? In fact, he received donations when he was no longer president.
Abena Lipkwa … give me a break!!! You and I know there’s nothing illegal about that!!! The courts proved there were no ethical violations.
His political enemies brought that up to gain mileage over Hilary in the 2016 election. That’s a bunch of baloney … stop it, you can do better than that.
The Bush City in Paraguay has its private airport, its own police and its own jurisdiction. You can just step in there even if you’re Paraguayan.
The Queen Of England has donated property all around the Commonwealth and the Brits don’t make no qualms about that.
Stay blind … it’s better for you that way ~ B R Mumba, Sr
@BR: Well put, we put so much energy into worthless endeavours and waste so much time. One opposition party rightly said, if we are not happy with our presidents recieving gifts, let’s use the upcoming Constitutional reviews to address the matter. Meanwhile our largest opposition through its legal head has already lamented that they will shoot down the constitutional reviews…more wasted energy!!
Dear president ecl
2021 you have my vote
But do the right thing
Hand over that plot to Habitat for Humanity
Swaziland has no land honestly sir
Why allow unnecessary criticism
Someone displaced people in namwala and you should not be stubborn like that person I won’t mention his name
Sishuwa Sishuwa, on whose side is your bread buttered? Definitely HH is feeding you well hence your useless article. I know Its your birthright as a tonga/ lozi to support UPND but leave ECL alone. We the people of Zambia have no problem with that land donation.
Don’t say “we”, but “I”. Are you representing other Zambians or talking about yourself?
You have no problem with a corrupt president?I love my people but sometimes I think we are a hopeless bunch.
Yeah !! Leave Edgar Lungu alone you morons, don’t you have anything to say no wonder why Zambia will never Prosper coz of jealous greedy and tribalitic bush dwelling stuck illiterate s like Tonga’s and lozis
Great article! This was worth reading.I must agree with the apathetic response, and helplessness that most citizens will show towards the revelations of the Lungu financial scandal(s). However, to bring out the extent to which this level of thieving and corruption has caused damage a change of party in government is inevitable. You talk of a movement of national conscience as the answer in the long-term this could be true.
But everything rises or falls on leadership. The greatest need we have in Zambia is not a movement but leaders worth following. Leaders bring about change. Change in the way we do business. Change in the way we go about doing government as a business for the good of the people. But even then, people follow people. People don’t for follow ideas, systems of concepts…
People don’t follow ideas, systems of concepts. People follow people. I share your optimism that a brighter day for Zambia will come. I see that in the sons of this great republic. The sons and daughters who are enlightened morally, spiritually, financially, and academically. If you look at those who have lead our country so far they were all born in the pre-independence era. Most of them and their families transitioned from rural life with very primitive concepts of life and civilization.
However, each leader except for Rupiah Banda has contributed something of substance to the republic. Corruption, especially in Zambia, is an integral part of our cultural upbringing. It’s part of us. Of 10 Zambians randomly selected and placed in Lungu’s position, at least 9 if not 10 would receive…
Of 10 Zambians randomly selected and placed in Lungu’s position, at least 9 if not 10 would receive the “gift” of real estate in eSwati and probably even make a prayer of thanks to God for the generous provision. Fighting corruption can’t be a centerpiece of governance or you start to fight human nature yours included. What is needed are leaders with a higher level of morals to model a society with less corruption. But to eradicated corruption entirely cannot be achieved in this life. Even laws don’t jail people, people jail people. You can have the most elaborate legal system but it’s toothless if the quality of persons in leadership is the likes of Lungu.
Of 10 Zambians randomly selected and placed in Lungu’s position, at least 9 if not 10 would receive the “gift” of real estate in eSwati and probably even make a prayer of thanks to God for the generous provision. Fighting corruption can’t be a centerpiece of governance or you start to fight human nature yours included. What is needed are leaders with a higher level of morals to model a society with less corruption. But to eradicated corruption entirely cannot be achieved in this life. Even laws don’t jail people, people jail people. You can have the most elaborate legal system but it’s toothless if the quality of persons in leadership is the likes of Lungu.
…you started well, put up good points but poor finishing, the trademark of Zambians. Your opinion of ECL is personal and centres on jealousy. Lungu didn’t impose himself on us, because of his outstanding contribution while in government, he caught the attention of Michael Sata. Bitterness and Jealousy, pull him down syndrome….
@Zambian Citizen, Jealousy is a sense of being deprived of something you really want. If our President is depriving us of the pride, the freedom, the prosperity, and the dignity we want, how can we not be jealous? Even God is a Jealousy God. We need to have this foolish scandalous President removed at the earliest opportunity the nation can do better than this thieving, drinking, and corrupt human with a dental formula ya mfuko and a bone structure of an already dead person. You think the people of Zambia are happy with this mediocrity in government?
Ok lungu may not be fit but would you put a country in hands of gbm and hh
The main opposition headed by hh must reform
How can you someone who is always sobbing on tv. He has no emotional capacity.
He’s always whining with chikonko and boycotting everything like a teenage girl nagging mummy
Sishuwa touched on this but didn’t go further – the reason why Edgar will get away with this is that Zambians lack education or even basic logic. You don’t know your own constitution, how many of you have even read it? You hear a slogan saying more money in your pocket but can’t deduce that that money will be worth less than it was before. Inflation is up, debt is up, unemployment is up, corruption is rife, where a whole minister can go on TV and say it’s normal for a president to receive a private gift and not declare it, amongst other things. But still people support the PF blindly. Edgar really is what we deserve. We will learn the hard way.
Problem is that opposition is tribally inclined
The main opposition backbone is tribe not ideology or intellect
Shishuwa is very right. When a scandal surfaces there’s a lot of talk, talk and talk and then afterwards nothing. It dies a natural death and the President goes ahead to build a mansion in a foreign land. Just like the firetenders,ambulances,Lusaka-Ndola road scandals are ‘dead’ now and the privileged few ‘ve got fat bank accounts
Unlike the South African opposition the Zambian ones dont have any strategy when Lungu is involved in corruption. They just watch. In SA court challenges and impeachment procedures are normally set in motion. That is why Zuma had nine impeachment motions and will now be in court for numerous cases. The Zambian opposition is equally corrupt so it finds it difficult to pursue cases against Lungu
How can you impeach someone you don’t recognise
As far upend is concerned ecl is not president
Shishuwa just like Fred Mmembe scream so loud about others being corrupt but he can’t even be a Bauleni Ward Chairman, that’s what’s typical of many Zambians. I don’t believe that Edgar is a thief, based on the info from those that have seen him grow. He’s a man of integrity who has had a share of troubles. However, if at all being in that office has caused him to fall into serious error, I won’t advocate for him to be crucified for it’s human to err. I will instead advise him to reflect on what has gone wrong and make amends. If he wants to go the Islamic way, there are many muslims who can help him on how to Tauba and pledge never to Allah never to repeat the same mistake. If he wants the Catholic way, Fr Chilinda is on hand to hear his confession. But if he wants to go…
SS you have made very good points! Zambia has cocked its own meal and now we have to eat it. I am not a member of any political party in Zambia BUT the shame and disappointment of our politics is painful. The townships are flooded with poverty: the youth are unemployed and just drinking tujilijili; young girls are sleeping around for money, in short our society is rotten! BUT we as Zambians are doing nothing about it! We have become too passive about being robbed my crooked politicians that we accept even fools like Bowman to be ministers in our country! Let Lungu steal as much as he can so that the Zambian people must stave, maybe and only maybe then will they wake up and smell the rot in this country!
the political way, the UPND and NDC can feast on his carcass
Who is Sishuwa Sishuwa….he writes articles on African Arguments it simply says he is a Zambian historian and political commentator…when you read other articles by other contributors the give you an in-depth about their background and what they are currently working on.
If you choose to remain anonymous Sishuwa at least tell us your background then we will read your long articles or else keep it short you are not Paramount Chief Chitimukulu or Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda who have earned the right to post long articles.
How can you say Sishuwa is anonymous when he has written the article under his name? It’s better to ask which aspects of his background you want to know so that others who may know him better can help you.
You didn’t have to read it mudala.
Sishuwa Sishuwa is a part of the tribal gathering! Are you pretending you didn’t know?
Sharon: I cannot really blame you for a view like that. It’s part of KK and UNIP’s legacy to Zambia when he created “three layers of citizenship” but without disclosing it through the medium of instruction in early education and Radio Zambia local language broadcasts. Even the church has adopted it. I have taken to reading extensively on nation-building, state failure and state break-up after what I saw with Michael Sata’s PF style of governance and the public pronouncements of PF leaders. You obviously see yourself as belonging to a higher grade of citizenship. If you can say this in cyberspace, you say worse things in private about your fellow citizens.
Another petty mind. Talk about what he he said, not tribe. What’s your educational level if you can’t present arguments?
Of late our president has been on a roll with the wrong kind of headlines, if I remember what my education taught me, it was that information received mainly from the grapevine is normally less healthy, in other words information that comes through unstructured ways, it is like s company without a union, when things flare up you don’t know whom to talk to or who to negotiate with because you can not negotiate with each individual separately but with a union you just call the union and there you are issue resolved. “We” murdered the post thinking now “we” will have a field day but it turns out that the field day is having “us”.
Sishuwa Sishuwa, if you are not sure of what you wrote why would I spend my precious time reading such longish upnd hogwash? your underfive brother is having a great time in LafargeLand, just go join him.
For me guys, I am ready to consider a change of leadership if I am given a proper option, not this cowdung that Sishuwa is implying! As I keep saying, there is no better option on the political market just now, just junk and cow dung posing as cousins!!!
UPND is a tribal organization bases its arguments on HaTribes Union!
Dumb as hell.We complain about racism.but we hate each other based language,we are one black nation why cant we see that. No wonder other races look down on us.We are really stuck my heart bleeds for zambia
Nubian nonsense you are the arm chair critic yourself positioning to lick lungu’s boots.Shame.You will only wake up when your Jameson drink runs out.
Ticks suck blood from animals. Crooks run down economies and vanish in proverbial thin air probably to resurrect into some unknown creatures and the Sharon’s will always be crying upnd this.hh that.Shame!
Who can tell that lungu was given this land when he visited as the president? Because we can speculate when in actual sense the king called on the phone and told him that they have given him the land.the same was also given land in northwestern province of Zambia sometime back…..are the eswetini people complaining?
The only solution is to discard ECL and HH once and for all. Zambia will have peace without these two in politics. They brought politics of bitterness especially HH. If they want, they can stage a fight in heroes stadium we don’t care.
How is HH a factor in this land issue why are you people bringing him into this theft issue…..
Let us learn to deal with cases in there own right and stop involving people that have nothing to do with the issue at hand….
Any way I should be not surprised as most of you people here lack education and this is evident from the insulting language that most of you use.
Shame on all of you who are using insulting language on innocent people just because they are rich.
I know that poor people have no kind words towards the rich.
Prez ECL… If there is any hint of truth to the corruption scandals implicating you, do the right thing by putting Zambia first. Only you alone and the people surrounding you know the truth. The rest of us can only speculate and try to give you the benefit of doubt. I’m appealing to your good judgment. Do not loose focus by going astray in looting public coffers. Ill gotten money never makes anyone happy, as Chiluba learnt the hard way, especially when people are dying for various reasons linked to poor management of funds. This is not me judging you since I don’t know the whole truth but asking you to do an introspection, look yourself in the mirror and judge whether you like who you see compared to the one who stood on the podium promising good things to the masses not so long ago.
Do not be one sided. Consider the other side as well. Those who fabricate scandals about other people with false evidence for political reasons meant to benefit their sponsors.
For one with an Oxford PhD in history, it is sad that Sishuwa Sishuwa should be glossing over historical evidence in order project his own biased UPND – like views. Does Sishuwa know that King Mswati was given 150 hectares of land by royalty in the Northwestern province in 2009? Only this evening on ZNBC TV, Chief Mujimanzovu of the Kaonde people confirmed this. I am beginning to seriously question this Sishuwa’s objectivity! This is one dubious historian!
Sishuwa and company, I fail to understand why you fail to address the simple and real reason why h.h has failed to become president of Zambia but has remained president of southern province. It is simply the tribal nature of his succession to Andy Mazoka. The tribal clique of tongas led by Ackson Sejani damaged h.h’s chances to power by insusting publicly that upnd can only be led by a tonga. H.h has also not helped himself to allay the fears in voters minds. He could have denounced that dark past but see what he did when he came out of prison, flirting with chieftainness mukuni a staunch tribalist and so confirming his tribalism. In mongu he chose to risk the presidents life by trying to use the lozi cadre sentiment to cause free for all confusion . Fortunately the lozis are not as…
…..Fortunately the lozis are not as murderous as some tribes. You will see that Sishuwa, Spaka lilo and other tribal cadres will skirt my comments and try to change the topic, well there is nowhere to hide for we know you. Bottom line remains that h.h has been killed dead in his ambition to lead Zambia, because Zambians simply do not buy into his tribalism, no matter how hard he tries to hide it. And sometimes he is just careless and exposes himself. I am sure GBM by now is disgusted but is unable to do anything about it just now.
Tony Blair’s owns mines in Africa, And some business in philipens my be because he white
I lament at some of the shocking responses to this brilliant expose and concise article on wherein Zambia and Zambians lie. The likes of ‘Nubian Princess’ and ‘Senior Citizen’ convince me without a shadow of a doubt, that without retaliation, we are doomed. I doubt they read the whole article, or if they did, whether they actually have the acumen to understand – or they choose to bury their unthinking heads in the sand in exchange for whatever crumbs they may be fed from Lungu’s banquet table.
It is tiring to engage with the mindsets of many Zambians that have now become humanoids, devoid of any objective analysis, a care or humanity for the many down trodden and suffering or indeed a conscious. It is easy to ‘retire’ from this, but thinking of our children, spurs me on.
@Harold Muna, I agree with you 100% mate. Many of these bloggers’ comments are proving exactly what Sishuwa is addressing in this article. You wonder why this country is 200 years behind the rest of progressive world. Everything they think and argue in tribal and political terms. They keep arguing every topic by either siding with their god Lungu or condemning HH’s alleged tribalism. It’s pathetic mate. To think this is supposed to be the cream of Zambia’s most educated and advanced populous is quite scary. Even when it’s obvious Lungu and his minions is destroying this country they think they writer is either jealous or sympathetic to HH. Go figure!
Well said.
Seems to me, regardless of subject, the comments BTL always degenerate into tribal political point scoring/insults.
It’s simple: gifts to public officials should be state property.
#29 Harold Muna, “It is tiring to engage with the mindsets of many Zambians that have now become humanoids, devoid of any objective analysis, a care or humanity for the many down trodden and suffering or indeed a conscious”.
Tragedy is that this description fits your h.h like a hand made suit.
“It is easy to ‘retire’ from this, but thinking of our children, spurs me on.”
Well, retire or not is your choice really, but Sishuwa will not make h h president without h.h hinself renouncing his tribal roots and demeanour, he is not even anywhere near the most moral or empathetic of politicians!
I still say that h.h is not the option to what we need right now and he has lost the right.
@upnd cadre and others
I’m struggling to see what hh has to do with this issue. How can anyone not see that the gifting of land to the head of state in this manner is problematic?
25 FACTS, upnd academicians all come from the same pot, thinking and reasoning with their tribe. Talk about Sishuwa, Hansungule, Ndulo etc.
Just look at the embarrassment Hansungule brought upon himself at Pretoria university whike thinking in his tribal brain!!
This is a very well-articulated article and is bang on the money.
Of course, Lungu and his minions are able to get away with the unprecedented amount of corruption and stealing because of the sleepy, docile and dumb Zambians.
I mean just look at the reactions of spineless cadres B R Mumba… all they see is politics and they are blinded by their political support for Lungu.
The other issue is that corruption and bribery is ‘normal’ in Zambia because some of our colleagues it is ingrained in the culture of ‘nchekeleko’ and ‘nitola fye’ (it is therefore in their DNA). In other progressive countries, this guy would have fallen already and perhaps he would be in jail by now. Look at countries like Brazil and South Korea as examples.
Most of you people on this forum are shameless, you are not even subtle about your tribalism, Sishuwa has up come with a good piece of analysis on what is ailing our country right now and the role which us as Zambians have played to end up with the mediocre leaders that we continue to have and what do you do? You shamelessly go the tribal way, please read the article again.
Lomba weShishuwa chakunyonga nichingi?Nilandy yanyoko?What a shemu.Petty jealousy
Sishuwa × 2, ni land ya nyoko? Has any Swazi citizen complained about their own land being given away? Don’t u kn that king mswati has a big piece of land given to him as a gift right here in Zambia? Has any Zambian complained about it? Stop masquerading as a saint when u yourself has been bribing people all your life. Sorry mambala, u haved missed your anthropological piz this time around. As a result, u have displayed your siding with a certain local criying baby by the name of Haluza Hagain.
As Sishuwa with his half baked presentation has rightly observed, the law is inadequate on the reception of gifts by public office bearers in their line of duty and this is what may let Lungu off the hook. The law as it is does not criminalize this. He is innocent. I have said it before, that Lungu is good at law. His passion for law is inborn unlike most Zambian lawyers who found themselves in this profession as an option. This is why they are blind to the inadequacies of our laws. LAZ, my foot! It’s another political party instead of being developers and refiners of our laws. Lungu is so brilliant at law he cannot do anything stupid to find himself on the wrong side of the law. Wake up LAZ and do your work. And as long as the opposition continues to shoot down efforts aimed at…
And as long as the opposition continues to shoot down efforts aimed at perfecting the law we will continue to have half baked laws which cannot secure a conviction.
Zambians, Edgar Chagwa Lungu and Hakainde Hichilema are not Zambia. What legacy are we leaving for our grandchildren and great grandchildren? Both ECL & HH will go someday by natural attrition. Then what Zambia? Think of Zambia in the year 2000 not today when who is eating with ECL or HH.
A present or whatever it is …is no skin out of anybody’s nose. If the Eswatinis are not complaining why should you?
The irony in a whole comments section exposing the very truths that this article tries to highlight. This country is not going anywhere fast. And yes, our leadership is a huge reflection on our inability to think critically, and our failures at recognizing how incompatible high levels of corruption are with meaningful development.
Nailed it.