Tuesday, April 23, 2024

I don’t think I deserve that credit for putting PF into Power in 2011-Fred M’membe

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Socialist Party presidential candidate for the 2021 elections, Fred M’membe, has dismissed assertions that he was instrumental in ushering the ruling Patriotic Front into the Government using his now-defunct Post Newspaper.

Speaking when he appeared on Hot FM radio’s Red Hot breakfast show on Tuesday to discuss numerous issues, Dr. M’membe said that he did not create PF and that it is over the top to give him credit for late President Micheal Sata’s victory in 2011 elections.

Dr. M’membe, who was Post Newspapers editor-in-chief and managing director for over two decades, refused credit for catapulting the PF into power in 2011.

“I did not create PF and it is an over credit to give me all the credit for Michael’s victory in 2011. I don’t think I deserve that credit,” Dr M’membe noted, when a caller told him that a monster (the PF) he helped to create has now turned against him.

“If I could put Michael into government in 2011, then it would be very easy to put the Socialist Party in government next year.”

Dr M’membe was, however quick to point out that n government is permanent when asked if there was wind of change in the country.

“Nothing is permanent in life – everything changes. Even our bodies are changing every second; the cells are replicating themselves. No government is permanent, no system is permanent,” Dr M’membe answered.

He said capitalism, like colonialism, would crumble.

“Humanity started living under primitive communalism where we were just hunters and gatherers. Then we came to the slave-owning society which lasted thousands of years, then we came to the feudal society and then we entered the capitalist society,” he explained.

“The capitalist society is not permanent; it’s just about 600 or 700 years old. It will go away and be replaced with another system. There was colonialism in this country and we never thought it would end. [But] it ended. There was the one-party state which was so powerful and we never thought it would end. [But] it ended. Nothing is permanent; everything is under motion. Everything is undergoing change.”

He told socially and economically distraught Zambians that: “It gets dark sometimes, but the morning comes. Don’t give up! Don’t despair. A better society is possible but we have to struggle for it. It won’t just come like manna. Good things don’t come easy, they don’t come by themselves,” Dr M’membe said.

“We have to work for them. Let’s work for a better society where children can have access to education, to health services, to food, and grow up in a dignified way.”

And Dr M’membe has observed that the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) will breed problems if it does not build consensus on the electoral process and cautioned that without building sufficient consensus on what the ECZ was doing, “we’ll have problems”.

“Firstly, the way ECZ is composed; the people who are appointed to be the commissioners, the chairperson, the vice-chairperson, others of the ECZ are appointed by our competitors in elections. Our law is such that today the President appoints all those people single-handedly, without consulting other stakeholders,” he said.

“Yes, there is ratification in Parliament but that’s a Parliament they dominate as well, and they just need a simple majority to do that. The other stakeholders have no say in who the referees, the match commissioners are.”

Dr M’membe pointed out that it was for that reason that whatever ECZ officials try to do, “no matter how good it is,” was viewed with suspicion.

“The amount of work that they need to bring consensus and [to] bring acceptability, is much higher than they are doing right now. They are not approaching issues in a manner that will result in maximum consensus,” he noted.

“Without building that consensus, without adequate consensus over everything that they do… Some of the schemes they are coming up with are questionable. I don’t know how they will manage to register nine million people in 30 days. And what does the law say? It requires continuous voter registration. Every citizen who is 18 years should not be denied the chance to vote.”

He stressed that the ECZ would have many problems in 2021.

“The resources available to ECZ to conduct next year’s elections are limited. The government is broke! We don’t know if there will be donors to fund our elections next year,” said Dr M’membe.

“There will be challenges! We are used to expensive elections [but] next year money will not be available. It’s not easy to build consensus.”

14 COMMENTS

  1. A real man has to stand by his deeds.membe contributed highly to bring pf to power but it was for personal gain.and nw look where he is.his companies taken away by the same pf pipo he brought in. Big lesson to evryone to always do the right thing and never be treacherous.u hear me kabwili,kalaba and bwalya fube.u ar also in shit bcoz of yo own insincerity.yo poloitcal futures ar doomed for real.just time will tell.

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  2. You and your newspaper played an important role, you contributed and that’s the reason many of your journalists and workers were given positions by MCS in Government or the Diplomatic Service. Many people believed in you, it took time for many to realize that you were just a canning and ruthless businessman. You can’t deny that you influenced many decisions that MCS made. What I still wonder is why The Post never said anything about the Deloitte audit of FBZ and why RB decided to take it over and sale it to FNB at that price. If The Post did I didn’t see it. Some of the things The Post wrote about RB were just demeaning and plain insults. It’s good that you’re now in politics full time and not in the background through editorials. I wish you well

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  3. It is not cred Mr, it is the blame that you deserve. You ochestrated the removal of a sensible and logical Government that would have made this country compete on the same footing as Kenya, all because of your self ambition. Lets be clear, you really should apology to RB who you hounded through your surrogate Winter Kabimba. All the borrowing and abuse of public resources that was all engineered by you and your so called Michael, who you knew well was too sick to think rationally. You thought you and Kabimba, and your other corrupt Nchito would be running this country. Your business, all of it which was not paying tax thrived under the reckless Sata and Chinkwanda economics.

    And is that what you call Socilaism? Ati Comrade my foot. You are more dangerous to Zambia than Lungu and HH…

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  4. It is nice to see Fred where he is today. You Choked us with the Micheal this Micheal that …. You got Ngande and Mwanawasa under your armpit to survive tax rebates. Politicians feared you

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  5. but your post was pf’s alternative to deadreNBC which was and still don’t giving publicity space to the opposition, your post was everyone’s darling except the MMD diehards, but am sure they also used to buy the newspaper at night and read it from their bedrooms.

  6. Hohoho ho ho.hmnnn! Mr membe surely beter to be just quite on such matters ..edgar did well to act in the manner he did on u..strange enough u don’t seem to have learnt a lesson. Be sincere with yosef ma blaza. Life is beter to live sincerely.yo denying having helped pf here is false. Don’t ever think you can succeed at misleading pipo.it backfires mi blaza..

  7. If he was able to GRZs in power, why can’t he do it for himself?? This guy is just a white collar criminal who clearly abused his position as the leading media figure. He dominated Levy and Michael, fought RB but was put in his place by Chagwa.

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  8. Last I checked the post newspaper did not employ over 1million people. So how does some one claim that mmembe brought us into power? The millions of zambians did. Check yourself

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  9. You insulted ecl. left ,right and centre. Your last headling was chagwa agwa, he warned you that he holds a very bid whip in his hands but walemudelela, kabiye uko you dont deserve any sypathy you fired alot of hardworking people that you did not like.

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