A MATURE GOVERNMENT AND MATURE OPPOSITION LEAD TO A MATURE COUNTRY
Zambia turns 60 at its next independence day. In many countries, including Zambia itself, that is the most common retirement age. At this stage of their lives, they have seen and done it all – and are now fully matured from their many life experiences. They are then able to use this life long earned wisdom to guide those who are younger. Indeed this is the stage in life that those who were born in 1964 have reached. If Zambia were a person, this is where it would be – mature, wise, level headed, unifying and stable in its conduct.
HONEST INTROSPECTION
But is this where we are as a nation? We need to seriously reflect on this question – and give ourselves a fair but honest response. Have our politics become more mature, both from the government and opposition side? Do we conduct ourselves and affairs in a manner that can be described as being mature? Have we gained wisdom from our now almost six decades of independence? Does our attitude as politicians exhibit this wisdom that we are expected to have? Do we practice our politics in a manner that can be described as being level headed? Is that how the region and the rest of the world views us? Given that we have had 60 years to go through our phases of tribal, regional and political division and have had an opportunity to learn from them – can we sincerely state that we have reached the level of unity that is expected of us? Can we genuinely claim to have put regionalism, tribalism and confrontation between political parties behind us? Are we stable in our general conduct?
Are our institutions of state genuinely impartial, truly independent and openly professional? Do they follow their respective mandates with absolute fairness in their intentions? We have had experiences and time to learn from past corruption. Have these important lessons assisted us in our fight against corrution? Do we fight corruption holistically or selectively? Do we fully appreciate the fact that public service is not about advancing the interests of self, family and close associates but about truly dedicating ourselves to the broader good of all? This is especially and particularly even more relevant for those who lack any form of access to anyone in any position of authority.
INVITATION TO LEADERS AND CITIZENS
I invite our leaders – both in government and the opposition, all parties and every Zambian citizen for us to seriously and sincerely introspect on each one of these important questions. I have had the privilege of working with many freedom fighters. But my closest contemporaries in the freedom struggle, all of whom are unfortunately late, were Moto Nkama, Rupiah Banda, Jethro Mutti, Ali Simbule and Alexander Chikwanda. When my time comes to join them and many others in the next world, my departure will be a lot more bearable if we can address these issues with continued vigour. We have had 60 years to learn from all of our mistakes. We need to accept that a mature country is attained through a mature government and mature opposition.
As we go into the new year, my humble wish is for all of us to use this period to reflect on our state of affairs in a constructive, sincere and unified manner. We were able to attain our independence because we were united in what we wanted. Let us employ that sense of unity to forge ahead and ensure that peace and prosperity shall be the preserve of all in our beloved mother Zambia. I wish every Zambian a rewarding 2024.
VERNON J. MWAANGA 30 DECEMBER 2023
Powerful message to the nation. Thank you freedom fighter and may Almighty God give you more days so that the country continues to benefit from your wisdom
@Ayatollah: No MOFO, do not try to appropriate his comments for your own tribalistic benefits. He is referring to known tribalists like Simon Kapwepwe, who as vice President lost the support of everyone with his “My people, the Bemba people..” speech. He is talking about Frederick Chipuba who was rescued by the Tonga people from imprisonment in Choma, and then went on to fire all Tonga, Lozi and Luvale people from the army and civil service, and hire a cabinet that of 45% Bemba. He is talking about Michael Satan who complained that there “were too many Tonga at Unza”, and then appropriated resources availed by the industry of Tongaland and Northwestern province to built 2 universities for his tribe. He is talking about Satan and Mutawire borrowing and looting US $33 billion.
This Bemba hating nincompoomp above should be banned. The coward has nowhere to vent from except LT, since he wouldn’t openly state this rubbish and walk Zambia’s streets
@Chibombo: I do not need your love. It is perfectly ok with me if you profess your hatred of me. However, if you can point out anything incorrect or mistaken in what I have said, go ahead and say what it is. Otherwise go to hell. All of you who accuse me of tribalism, are projecting yourselves on to me. All we Tonga have ever done is help this country. We paid the cost of Kaunda to negotiate independence with the English. In 1963, we could have given our vote to the white Federal Party to govern Zambia, but we gave it to Kaunda and Unip. In the next 60 years, we fed, supplied electricity, coal, sugar to Zambia…
He’s talking about the behavior of Kainde, Jack Mwiimbu, IG Musamba, Nellie Kashumba Mutti, Mwangala Zaloumis and Sean Tembo
@Ayatollah: No MOFO, do not try to appropriate his comments for your own tribalistic benefits. He is referring to known tribalists like Simon Kapwepwe, who as vice President lost the support of everyone with his “My people, the Bemba people..” speech. He is talking about Frederick Chipuba who was rescued by the Tonga people from imprisonment in Choma, and then went on to fire all Tonga, Lozi and Luvale people from the army and civil service, and hire a cabinet that was 45% Bemba. He is talking about Michael Satan who complained that there “were too many Tonga at Unza”, and then appropriated resources availed by the industry of Tongaland and Northwestern province to built 2 universities for his tribe. He is talking about Satan and Mutawire borrowing and looting US $33 billion.
Most have short memories…. so be it
He has asked very important questions which need serious answers. We must answer them with honest. We includes VJ himself… what can he call the behavior by the Upnd towards the opposition vis a vis freedom of meetings, destabilizing of the PF etc? The opposition can only act maturely if the ruling party can act maturely.
@Deja Vu: Mofo, UPND could, AND SHOULD, have put all of FP in jail for looting, terrorising the people, tribalism and regionalism. You are exactly whom Vernon was talking about. UPND has given Zambia freedom. UPND is trying to fix the economic f@ckup wrought Michael Satan and his Party (of) Fools (PF)
He has seen we are being led by an “IMMATURE GOVERNMENT.
And what about the behaviour of the opposition against the ruling party ?
sometimes knowledge without common sense equals zero meaning
@Tikki as usual you are missing the point…suppose an opposition party is allowed to hold a public rally and that rally ends peacefully what would be your conclusion?
Of course you don’t understand what I am driving at…. Lusambo stops in Kabwe for a bite and people gather to greet him… the police arrest him for unlawful assembly….or the Tutwa Ngulube family plan a memorial for him and because PF members will attend the police cancel the event….is that maturity?
That’s why people like Sean Tembo use vulgarity because they have been squeezed against the wall.
@Deja Vu: You are the one who is missing the point. UPND is acting according to the law enacted by PF/MMD. That law was designed to suppress the opposition, particularly UPND. The police implemented that law more draconianly against UPND than they are against PF because UPND does not terrorise the opposition with violence the way PF did. You forget how many UPND supporters were killed by PF, and their police. You forget how Lungu arrested HH 14 times. You forget how Lungu intended to kill HH if had retained power after the 2021 elections. We already have another tribalist, Fred Mmembe, promising that should he be president, he will arrest HH and confiscate his assets. UPND is the only party that has followed the law in the history of Zambia.
I dont want to argue with you but relatives in Kabwe informed be about Lusambo’s intentions which were not the same as what was being reported on radio & press
anyway different strokes for different folks 🙂
Since you don’t want to argue with me, I will do like wise.
@Tikki: Lusambo, like Deja Vu, a violent, stealing, lying criminal kaponya from the Copperbelt, who like Kaizar Zulu, is bitter at HH for dislodging them from politically profitable and financially lucrative power. This Copperbelt Kaponya, Deja Vu, is a self-confessed youth founder of the tribalist MMD, which graduated to the even more tribalist PF, because a non-Bemba, Rupiah Banda, became president. He is one of the people who tried to carve out a plot on the dry bed of the Kafubu river. When this was wiped with the commencement of the rainy season, this shameless Kaponya demanded to Kampyongo that he find a way to have the river drained and dried so that he could keep his illegal plot.
@Tikki: I was in a meeting somewhere in Western country, where former President Rupiah Bwezani Banda stated that tribalism is what cost him his presidency. I say this so that no one accuses me of making stuff up.
‘Given that we have had 60 years to go through our phases of tribal, regional and political division and have had an opportunity to learn from them – can we sincerely state that we have reached the level of unity that is expected ”
When someone boasts of having a most tribally balanced cabinet , just know that he’s a tribalist who wants to cover his footprints.
As long as certain people want to accuse others of tribalism, the scourge will continue to get worse.
@Deja Vu: Any man can claim anything he wants, but people can judge things for themselves by his actions. HH does not need to say anything. Anyone can look at his cabinet and see people from his region or tribe. Mutale (Nalumango) the vice President, is as Bemba as they come. On the other hand, no amount of lying can obscure the tribalism of Frederick Chipuba and Michael Satan. The cabinet of Chipuba was 45% Bemba. He fired all the Lozi, Tonga and Luvale from the army and civil service. Michael Satan was the same. He complained about the high numbers of Bembas convicted and imprisoned for crime; he complained about the high numbers of Tongas at Unza. The only similarity between the two circumstances is that both of them are earned. ..to be continued…
@Deja Vu: Michael Satan for his part looted Northwestern Province and Southern Province to build two universities and other projects for his tribe, and he did not try to obscure that fact either. He then tried to further emasculate the Southern Province by stealing Siavonga and Itezhi Tezhi from what is already the 3rd smallest province in the country. Before that, he and chiluba conspired to destroy animal husbandry in Southern Province by closing cattle dips, which in turn led to a devastating outbreak of foot and mouth disease in which 2 million cows owned by the Tonga people died. When this led to famine the next year, Chipuba refused to lift a finger, stating that the Tonga could sell their cows for relief. …To be continued…..
@Deja Vu: As if that was not enough, if you were Tonga, and sought a job in the civil service, they would deny you based on your last name. If you somehow got the job, you would be sent to some rural outpost in Chilubi, Kahikila or Mbuzi. If your name was Chomba, Chileshe, Chewe, Chishimba or Chitalu, you would get your choice of a job in Lusaka, Copperbelt, or anywhere from Kabwe to Livingstone. This was true of Chipuba and Mutawire especially. The civil service in Lusaka was chockfull of people who were doing nothing, and there because of tribe only. HH has fired a lot of this superfluous labour, and retained the qualified and needed ones only. The rest are suing him for illegal termination of employment, even if he can fire and hire civil servants on the whim
Tribalism is a curse of Africa we have learnt nothing since the dictator KK left and remember all his ministers have a tainted history as they were part and parcel of his regime, the one maybe deserves respect was Grey Zulu
VJ is a damn good politician who is level headed. He’s actually presidential. There’s no shame in consulting this seasoned politician who is way above region and tribe.
@Vantage Point: No, Vernon Johnson Mwaanga is a liar and an opportunist, who tries to run with whoever is in power. He was an effective counter and nullifier of Nkuumbula, by virtue of being a naive and malleable Ila boy, for Kaunda. When Kaunda lost power, the political prostitute ingratiated himself with Chipuba criminal and tribalistic cabal. I have no respect or love for Vernon Mwaanga. May he retire politically and verbally
He is asking diplomatically almost like a sermon. He knows that we as a nation have failed. Level headed people have stopped offering themselves for political office. Politics is now largely for thugs, tribalists and opportunitists. I salute the extremely few decent level headed men and women who have mastered the courage to jump in the pit of snakes/cesspool of Zambian politics
We need to remodel our governance system from this western style democracy where all manner of crooks and criminals present themselves as leaders. They take the elections for a gambling casino, to get rich with ill-gotten riches through grand corruption & theft. We need a people driven dictatorship anchored on economic growth & rules on proven leadership, high moral standing, proven delivery in lower organs before ascendance to higher office. The system will veto opportunists, known crooks, criminals from political office. Grand corruption needs to be punished by a death sentence. The West is in decline as a result of this liberal democracy whilst China is in ascendance because of its people driven dictatorship and tough no nonsense laws.
Who are the people?
To be honest, I don’t have the answer/s. I can only propose that we need another Garden hotel conference of 1989 that ushered in the 4 republic. The only significant variation is that it should be long and deliberate learning lessons from the 1st, 2nd & 3rd republics. Academic papers on governance economics and global politics and how Zambia should fit in should be produced and and debated. It ought to be from this conference that the way forward on engaging the larger populce (the people) can be crafted. It is obvious that such an undertaking will require a referendum and a new constitution.
@Swahili for the Unity of Africa: But Vernon Johnson Mwaanga was in there with the Frederick Chipuba criminal cabal, when they were carving up the country, selling it to Boers from South Africa, who looted our natural resources, mines and wildlife; and to Lebanese homosexuals who have invaded and polluted our country by hammering the likes of Kaizar Zulu in the anas, while the loot our country. He was there when Chipuba incepted the myopic and delusional privatisation which reversed the economic gains made by Kaunda. He was there when Chipuba incepted the land privatisation policies in which the people in Central Zambia have been dispossessed of their land by crooks from his village and foreigners…
FREEDOM FIGHTER THESE WORDS ARE THROWN AROUND LIKE CONFETTI
Some people who post here, we just look at their names and click the downvote button. Would any sane man have time to read I hate Kaizar?????
Retirement age 60 is a joke. Divide your retirement money in 12 months and then multiply by at least 10 years you think you will use oxygen. Retirement is the get way to poverty.
Bad Planning I would say
At least an insurance policy
Politics nowadays is just a means to becoming rich after you have failed in life to make money through a career or business. Just like you can not just blame a false pastor but also the people that support them, we should also blame the type of voters that put these thugs in power.