Ackson Nkhoma (with black beret) and Lusaka District chairperson
Robert Chikwelete (talking on the phone right) lead the ruling party’s
cadres in demonstrating against their secretary-general Wynter Kabimba
in Lusaka’s Freedomway
For a visitor who may have come to Zambia in the recent months this year, he/she would be wondering whether there is still a functioning State in Zambia. The level of chaos, hooliganism and lawlessness in Zambia has reached such unprecedented levels that one would be right to question whether there is a functioning government in Zambia.
The dangerous part of this situation is that the political party in power, the Patriotic Front (PF), which was elected by the people to guarantee their rights, peace and security and justice, is deeply at the centre of these problems. The majority ordinary Zambians are yearning for a peaceful life that satisfies their basic needs, yet those they entrusted with this duty of promoting the common good have abdicated their role in preference for endless squabbles for power and fights for dominion and hegemony? Even as this exhortation is being written, the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) is severely rationing water causing great danger to patients and visitors to the hospital and yet our leaders don’t see such problems as priorities when compared to political squabbles.
In-Fighting in the Ruling Party
We entirely agree with those who have so far commented on this matter to the extent that the squabbles currently going on in the PF can no longer be looked at as mere intra party squabbles that should not concern anyone who is not a PF member. The disruption of normal life, violence against innocent people and the stealing of private property are not the reasons why Zambians elected the PF Party into government two years ago in 2011.
All this is happening in an environment where the majority poor can hardly have access to food and nutrition, access to quality health care and jobs. Why should leaders entrusted to lead a country like Zambia with so much social desperation devote their time to political squabbles at the expense of addressing to social needs of the people?
There has been clear lack of leadership in the ruling party that could have forestalled the current problems which are affecting and irritating all of us. Top leaders themselves are at the centre of the confusion. Even when a directive was given by President Sata for members of his party to stop the endorsement campaigns and demonstrations against Mr Kabimba, he in a contradictory breath went on to elevate the person at the centre of the Lusaka based endorsement campaigns and demonstrations to a senior party leadership position in Lusaka district.
This was clearly endorsing him and giving his activities an official stamp. We hope that PF will resolve their internal issues and go back to work on the many priorities over which the people of Zambia entrusted them with the stewardship of power.
Illegal Land Occupation
Related to the above, we are seeing escalating lawlessness on issues of land by political party carders. The perennial practice of ruling party carders illegally occupying people’s land using intimidation and violence still continues unabated. It has become a regular feature in our news now to hear of and see party carders demarcating and sharing land legally held by other people while the owners are insulted, beaten or even killed.
We note the sudden hard stand taken by the police to arrest the marauding carders on people’s land but we pray that this will be sustained and those found guilty punished severely so that clear message is sent to deter this criminality. In their action, police should not seek permission from senior party officials when they have to deal with hooliganism and criminality by carders but use their professional judgement to make firm decisions. Police should not degenerate in their usual behaviour of pretending and posturing when it comes to dealing with hooliganism and criminality from ruling party carders.
These illegal lands grab by party carders or anyone else for that matter must be brought under control to promote the culture of respect for private property which is important for our development, investment confidence and above all the culture of respect of human rights. From the events of the PF endorsement and anti-Wynter demonstrations and going on to illegal land occupations it is clear that the PF has lost control of its carders while the Police Service on the other have always been timid when faced with their lawlessness and criminality. The question is; where will an ordinary person receive protection that the state was supposed to offer through its institutions?
Freedom of Information Bill
It was shocking last week to hear the new Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary Mr Emmanuel Mwamba announcing yet again the failure by government to take the Freedom of Information Bill to parliament. This is a bill that government has been ducking over a long period of time with a chain of unfulfilled deadlines. The reasons given by Mr Mwamba for the postponement of the bill are not credible as the same reasons have been given before by his predecessors when justifying previous goal shifting. This is surely taking Zambians for small children who would have limited memory to recall events that happened in the immediate past. Zambians must stand up for this bill because as things are now and for unknown reasons, there is clearly no political will from government to enact freedom of information laws.
The Constitution making process
Like the Freedom of Information Bill, the draft Constitution has been another document with highly “mobile” deadlines. We hope the end of October 2013 deadline will be honoured. Even more important, we want to hear a firm commitment from the Executive that the draft Constitution will next be subjected to a referendum. We demand that in the 2014 budget to be presented in October 2013, a line budget on the referendum be included.
With respect to the mode of disseminating the final Draft Constitution and Report by the Technical Committee this should be done simultaneously to all parties i.e. the President and the public in order to uphold public transparency. The public should judge for themselves if their will has indeed been respected in the Draft Constitution.
Samuel Mulafulafu
Executive Director,
Caritas Zambia
The answer is obvious, isn’t it?
The Zambian government is doing a tremendous job
Those of you hating, who do you want in charge? Which ministers where?
If you don’t have any answers like the author who has done a poor job to be honest, then please refrain from talking nonsense
Leave this government to finish their mandate, such articles are designed to ‘con’ people without a backbone in thinking there is a crisis when contrary to that assertion this government is doing on hell of a job
Thank you PF, Thank you Mr Sata
Thanks
Indeed Zambia has no functioning state. Look at thses wrangles, they have now gone to Zambia Policce and RATSA. Solomon Jere has confirmed that he is a botliker of PF. He is the one who is encoraging thses PF demonstrations. That is the beginig of the end of his profession. He must be droped he is enterfering with the good job of RATSA. He is encouraging lawlessness.
I am Royal Blood and have started lobbying Sata to lure Mutesa, Magande, Milupi, Lady Nawakwi and Fundanga into PF government.
Mwamba, Sampa, Kabimba, Nsanda and Kambwili and even Chikwelete can go…This country does not need them
Nevers and HH can remain in the oppsition…where they belong.
The moment that comedian,grade 3 failure entered state house,the country became a failed state,Sata is the worst president any organization could ask for,he’s brought tribalism,he’s cadres are all over the place breaking the law,intimidating opposition leaders etc etc..
Caritas finally woken up from slumber, its hard to beleive that these are the same people who were lying that Sata was a man of action just 2 years ago.
you cannot leave the headship of your household in the hands of the best maid/cleaner. the two responsibilities are very different.
Man of Action (because he swept the streets of Lusaka when he was Governor)
Now, Economic Engineer (what a shame)!
Dream on until 2016….. am having a good laugh!!!
Meanwhile you can start campaigning by any means possible.
check yourself man, i think u are going mad. plain and clear. yes we have. pf
But dont you think for now with the PF in power we should put a brake on formulation of new laws?I mean i have personally lost count on the number of times Sata has breached the constitution.Does it matter what kind of constitution is in place.Shouldnt we wait for a leader who respects the law to take over before we start bothering ourselves with enactment of new laws?
Bloggers please, leave SATA out of these issues currently prevailing in the country. The man has just been in Govt just under two years. Its NOT easy to correct all the mistakes previous Governments made, it will take time and only TIME will tell.
All these kaponyas you see in the photo got no jobs so what do you expect? The day these guys will be engaged in various jobs that ba PF are preparing, you will not see such hungry/angry faces anymore. To you ba PF I say; endesheni, find jobs for these kaponyas, tell them that it won’t be long when entire cities in Zambia will be empty, everybody will have something to do. More cash in kaponyas pockets….
You must be very stupid to think like this
Your mind is full of delusional thoughts.
batata some of those you are calling bakaponya have job and more money than u
Mwanawasa was President for only three years but he made Zambia a country to be proud of after the mess by Chiluba. I’m afraid Sata is turning out to be worse than Chiluba in terms of good governance. At this rate, Sata is likely to go down in History as the worst President Zambia has ever had.
entire universe.
Ba Nkope Shinyenga, thank you for asking us to bear with PF’s annoying delays. The point is not allowing Michael to correct all the mistakes made by the previous leaders at all, but the recent lawlessness that Michael, through his own PF party is making. I bet, they are overwhelming the corrections by more than 87%. After all, Michael is part of the former leaders. We note that at the rate the country is being wrongly managed, Zambia will yield mess in another one year’s time.
Are you suggesting there plenty of jobs in the previous regime hence we didn’t see such lawlessness
These are the words of our minster, now one will wonder who supervises who. “Lungu admitted and regretted that Police Officers feared to discharge their duties on law breakers when law breakers are from the ruling party. He however explained that this has been ongoing practice even by previous regimes saying the PF was trying to address the problem” The minister is either incomputent or he is negligating his duty due to political expedient.
Everyone in PF is agreeing that they did not know what to do. Guy apologies, Kambimba says PF is more tribal than any party.
Empty backets produces more noise. King cobra.
……..one does not need a sunlight to see what Nevers was saying about ‘confusion’ and what HH was saying about ‘no plan no direction’….moonlight has enough illumination to see……
Zambians can be Alarmists….. you mean to tell me the noise going around in PF is such a set back to doubt we have a functioning state, it’s only on the blogs were unstability is being witnessed, on the ground everything is calm, only a portion of hungry unrully men from Matero or Kwakalingalinga, otherwise, the fights are normal in politics, ask Obama how his economic shut down is doing, Berlusconi who has just caused Italia newer elections,countless examples, it only depends how you solve them and the type of people involved,otherwise, i can also write an Article to Alarm everyone, yes things appear unstable that is expected, if it can happen in rich nations, what more poverty stricken Greece, Zambia or just Africa as a whole? Lets get globaly informed before picking on small PF!
this is a medical symptom suggesting brain dysfunction
On Wednesday last week, the editor of this newspaper (post) was called and asked to urgently meet a good friend Sylvia Masebo for sex
did they have it?
Are you sure?
PF has no structure ,with everything depending on the President, it’s disasters
the so called leaders don’t even know when to stop fighting, if the president continues his silence more drama will continue, i wonder what will happen to tha
party a house divided against it’s self will not stand.
kabimba must go we need given lubinda to be CEO of PF currently no party can defeat the man of action’s party
Awe fyachilamo. Ba president should have just fired kabimba the first time instead of playing games with peoples lives. It is now clear that we 15% educated are at the mercy of the poor masses. We need to speed up socio economic pilicies if this cadre mentality is to end, people are so poor they’ll do anything for a buck. At this rate war is not too far from our midst, it’ll only take one misguided and powerful politician to arm these guys nishi twafwa bonse. The govt please act, for the sake of peace amd unity in our beautiful zambia
kabimba ulonge fye boi naba kukana abantu
When it came to Lubinda they said he sold information to opposition. Can it be stated what Kabimbi has done wrong. Now am beginning to think that PF has wrong people. Guy Scot is right in his speech were he points that all they are targeting is Sata & not Wynter. GBM, Nsada, Kambwili are well known mafias. ask people that have worked for them and they will tell you the real character of these guys. But what ever it is PF regardless of who will be SG or party president 2016 they will wag their tails for sure. Aaaah uuum my worry again, no opposition seems to be mature enough to lead after 2016.
I can not allow myself to be ruled by grade 7s FIKAPOYA or is it FIMA CADRES!!
stop them if not joining the
WE ARE IN GOVT TO EAT.
FORM YOUR OWN GOVT IF YOU WANT.
WE ARE CHEWING AND CHEWING BIG AND LOUDLY.
POST ELECTION SHOCKS ARE KILLING BA CHIMBWI.YOU WERE THINKING RABO BANK WILL CONTINUE STEALING WITH YOU.AS FOR HUNGRY HYENA AND FOLLOWERS….MUKALOLELA MUKANAKA.
Kwena the mandate is 5 yrs…so only start judging Pf some were around sept 2015
Do we have a functioning State? Hell no! The Head of State is not the State. He’s just its Head. It means in his temporal absence due to tour of duty or sickness, the State must function normally, without him. Now I heard the acting Head of State giving delusional instructions, to all and sundry forbidding any one to talk about tribalism(albeit it exists). But the talk hasn’t subsided or stopped, prompting the Veep to issue a statement that when the President ‘returns’, the matter will be resolved. If that’s not a major signal of a failed State, tell me what else it is. In other words without Sata, the State crumbles, That’s very dangerous!
Zambia is a country to run away from!!! just imagine war breaks out where will you go you zambians, you can´t even run, swim, no safe roads, so what do you want to do over this failed state…zambia is not far from a totally breakdown…meanwhile the walls are falling and those who can hear the walls falling are living the country, those who only think of eating nshima well say Zambia is doing fine….
Mulafulafu,u are a lier!l can’t believe this is coming from u. U should be objective in yo writing.Can illegal land occupation in pf be compare to that of mmd and media abuse by mmd?Actually Mr Sata has been the most accomodating among all the five.
If u can’t diferentiate btwn politicking like MORE MONEY IN UR POKT, I WILL DO this n that 2morrow or in 90 days n real issues then u’re an ***** urself! It took 20yrs by MMD to close Campanies n creating unemploment, creating potholes, without increasing Power generation, To ve street children now adults, more sch n gradute leavers on the street, thousands uneducated youths, unpaid retirees, No drugs in Hospitals n Clinics jst to mention a few AND PIPO NOW EXPECT PF TO CORRECT THIS HUGE MESS IN TWO YRS!!!! Only CHRIST can do. Not even HH, Chipimo, Fr. Bwalya, Nevers, Mulongoti, Mpombo, Milupi e.t.c will do that in a blink of an eye, those are the dreams that will be in a bottle forever. It taks a second to destroy and it take months or yrs to build. What more that took 20yrs to…
This sums it all very clearly:
‘There has been clear lack of leadership in the ruling party that could have forestalled the current problems which are affecting & irritating all of us. Top leaders themselves are at the centre of the confusion. Even when a directive was given by President Sata for members of his party to stop the endorsement campaigns & demonstrations against Mr Kabimba, he in a contradictory breath went on to elevate the person at the centre of the Lusaka based endorsement campaigns & demonstrations to a senior party leadership position in Lusaka district.”
#19 – Spot on brother. Scott’s statement that only when the President ‘returns’ will the matter be resolved is a clear recognition of the dysfunctional state of affairs when Sata is absent, or present. The only difference now is that when he returns, he will be left with no option to keep on hanging on the fence while the country burns because from all I can deduce from Scott’s statement, reasonable people in PF will not allow this paralysis to persist. Zondwe CNP cannot have his cake and eat it, period!
You my brother the Author of this article needs to go and stand for 1minute in the streets of Baghdad Iraq then you can come and properly define what a functioning state is.As it is , you need a lot of schooling to be level headed you cant be objective and political at the same time. The 2 are mutually exclusive.
How can a functioning state allow party youths to take over Central Business District? blocking traffic, disturbing peace to protest over 1 individual and this has been happening frequently now. This is clearly lawlessness at its best. The other day they matched to State House some standing on cars stripped bare save for underpants.
“As it is , you need a lot of schooling to be level headed you cant be objective and political at the same time. The 2 are mutually exclusive” (PROFESOLE}
This statement should make politicians including those in the ruling party very unhappy. The FreeOnline Dictionary defines politics as “The art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal of its external and internal affairs”. My view is that PROFESOLE also needs more schooling than Mulafulafu. Well, at least in the area he has commented on.
What can u expect from this band of paedophiles.
http://zambianwatchdog.rsf.org/exposed-alexander-chikwanda-pursues-22-year-old-libala-girl/index.html
Information has been posted online claiming that Minister of Finance Alexander Bwalya Chikwanda has been troubling a certain young lady who stays in Libala Phase 2 asking for sexual favors since 2011 when she was at Evelyne Horne College.
The young lady is 22 years old. The lady has been spurning his advances all this time. But it seems like the Minister does not have No in his vocabulary. He cannot understand why the girl is not interested in him, after all he is a minister. With boyish infatuation, the old minister has not been deterred. He has been visiting the girl’s home in Libala Phase 2 with all kinds of gifts