Kabimba (left) and Lusaka Mayor Mulenga Sata as he left the Lusaka
High Court
By Hjoe Moono
Leadership is about taking responsibility, not making excuses. It’s about representing all under your reign, even when they may not have supported your getting to leadership. To protect the lives and noble interest of all, even when they oppose you. To supress your possibly bloated ego for the better good of society. To realise that when a leader, especially in a democracy like Zambia, it is no longer about you and how great your campaign strategy was/is.
It is about the people who have now entrusted you their lives. Leadership entails public life, in which the greater good of the nation is the guiding principle. Once in public life, as Mr. Sata is, everything becomes public. One no longer has the luxury of privacy accorded to him in his pre-election. He heads a public institution—the government, and as such, he is expected to behave as such—head of a publicly elected government office—the office of the presidency.
But Mr. Sata today decided not to be a leader, stepped out of the public office of the presidency to fight personal battles and settle old scores with his adversaries. This is perhaps the latest kind of governance the world has ever seen—and it will indeed be one of his legacies—the man that left the presidency for a while to fight his opponents on ‘fair-ground’. Now clearly this is a misplaced priority. But perhaps a reflection of something we cannot make a diagnosis of, nor understand since we are not well schooled in law and PF’s governance style.
If Mr. Sata can devote even just 30% of the zeal and determination he has shown us in fighting Richard Sakala and the Daily Nation, Zambia would be a better place. Zambia would be marvel in development, and possibly our exchange rate would be better and not out of hand as it is. But as is evident, his ego is more important than serving the nation’s need. Mr. Sata has devoted more time to brushing his ego and settling old scores using his power—from fighting Chitimukulu to now Richard Sakala. One wonders if at all the man ever pays attention to his presidential duties.
That a president has sued private citizens whom he governs over and is claiming damages for his personal pockets from these Zambian citizens is regrettable. One would ask, while Mr. Sata will be attending court sessions hoping to win damages, who will be heading the country as president? Since he would have vacated the office of presidency to pursue a private matter, effectively the country is without a head during those periods. Clearly, this is not a mark of the man of action we knew. This is not statesmanship. There is indeed a deficit of leadership at the presidency.
Where will justice and impartiality be when the man that appoints judges is the complainant? Aren’t the defendants already defeated? And this is a man who claimed he wanted to govern by the Ten Commandments? Mr. Sata should realise that Zambians elected him to that position so that he can attend to the many challenges facing our country and not to fight his own created wars using the office of the presidency. Such an act has never been seen before in Zambia’s 50 years history.
Our past presidents have been insulted, called names, ridiculed by him and his press aides and public image builders disguised as a newspaper while in the opposition and even after he ascended to the presidency. None of the former head of states stripped off their immunities, abandoning their duties to fight the then critical media. It’s obvious, they had work to do, and it is just plain silly to do so. Looks like our current president has loads of time on his hands.
The sooner Mr. Sata realises that he has a country to govern the better for him, his party and the nation. He is no longer in opposition, he is His Excellency The President. Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He is no longer the man to fight with opponents as he did when he engaged in a vulgar confrontation with his former Secretary General at a voting queue in 2011. His advisors, both personal and legal should have endeavoured not to allow the office of the presidency to be reduced to the levels similar to that of a desperate and insecure man.
Mr. Sata’s move can only be expected from a man so desperate to maintain some sort of super-ego that he never had. So desperate to take out any opposition and create a cult culture of being hero-worshiped. Why is he so desperate to stop people from criticising him? Is it because the daily nation has now turned out to be the greatest competitor to his praise singing former independent newspaper? Is he fighting a media sales battle on behalf of some newspaper to improve its sales?
It is obvious, the glaring praises of Mr. Sata appearing in Zambia’s former independent paper do not sale, it is cheap propaganda that Zambians have seen through, and the critic of the Daily Nation mirror and echo the new voices of the nation afflicted by the PF’s mode of governance. And knowing that he is the top selling news item, he wants to sell his media coverage by giving exclusive rights to his praise singing paper. And this is a man we have as our dear His. Excellency, charged with affairs of our nation. What a joke!
This unfortunate development is probably just an ice-berg of the pettiness that surrounds the current office of the presidency. Mr. Sata would do well not to confuse the power of the office he currently holds with who he truly is. This move to play double standard by suing private citizens when it suits him to shielding his being sued using the presidential immunity should be viewed as social abuse of the his privileges. With each passing day, one would be inclined to strongly view this man is an obsessive confidence-trickster who is terminally untrust worthy.
I long for and miss the great Michael Sata, the visionary, the man who against all odds stayed focused and changed the way we view politics in Zambia. The man that lived the maxim: Dare to dream—nothing is impossible. I long for the return of that man who wold inspire and instil confidence in our youths, as we all hoped for a better tomorrow under his leadership. With regards the current one, indeed, I would echo Fr. Frank Bwalya’s words: The Sata we voted for is not with us anymore!
As clearly evidenced, we have a shadow of the once great and revolutionary leader of modern day Zambian politics. To the extent that the current man occupying Mr. Sata even believes what he says, he is delusional. To the extent that he does not, he is an actor whose first invention — himself — has been his only interesting role. And shape shifting and incoherency in leadership is his style.
It feels like the Sata we knew left a long time ago, leaving this Michael Sata shaped hole that carries on talking through a press aide. And when it talks directly, the Minister of Information has to interpret.
I hate Lozi women.
The weakness of every man lies in generalization. You sir, are a waste of space.
You know troubled men by what they say…
Of course you hate Lozi women because you are so ugly, infertile and a miser! dickless ass
Iwe be relevant to the topic!
LOOK HOW KABIMBA IS LOOKING AT SATA THINKING WHEN WILL THIS MAN DIE SO THAT I TAKE OVER.
Hjoe, your article runs like lamentations. You need to note how glaringly silent the constitution is about a president’s latitude to sue or not to sue. That is the point at issue here. We need good laws, not good men. We will continue to miss good men for as long as our laws do not have proviso to curb excesses by those that exercise power. That, to me, is the bottom line. We tend to spend a lot of time cringing and whining while our status quo stays open to abuses that are actually permitted under existing laws.
There is also what is called ethics which is not in the constitution. For example wearing formal during interview, there is no law that say you should wear formal, but ethically one does it to fit in. So the case of the presidency is the same. The judge is appointed by the president, and it is upto the president to think that ohh this is not correct for me to do. It amounts to abuse of power now the Judge will rule against the defendant because of the boss. Besides that the whole president reduce himself to below level of the president just to be embarraced.
I teach that subject and what you may be talking about is what is referred to as an ethical dilemma. The judge, having risen to that height, must be aware of what happens when he is faced with an ethical dilemma. The point of wearing certain apparel at a particular time is governed by the acceptable culture in a locale. You will see how vastly different a CEO in Zambia presents himself compared to one say in the USA. The moral compass of a person in authority is necessarily driven by the levels of narcissism (s)he has, or the restraints that are placed upon him/her.
Hjoe speaks like a Tonga BULL. So it is difficult to get what he is saying unless your Tonga or UPND.
Zambia has lost it.
Hjoe Moono you have put that very well. The man I & the millions voted for is not in state house. If an investor can run his mouth and brag about the abnormal profits he is making & the man of action is quiet! if some companies can still pay their workers below the minimum wage & the man of action is quiet! then all hope is lost.
Yes we miss the old sata the man of action the no nonsense yet caring father the man who promised to reduce our misery the one who pledged to create jobs..but like RB said when he handed over power ‘ as the Zambians have judged me you too will be judged after five years!’
R-u-b-b-i-s-h bin article!!
I hope the judge will have the necessary balls to send the president to jail for lying on oath and uttering profanities in court. I understand that since Mr. Sata chose to be a witness he automatically lifted his immunity and must face charges. Is that correct?
I do not believe that is correct. There are still provisions in the constitution that can enable parliament to start a motion against him but again that is assuming its members do not neglect their duty to care. Often in the name of partisanship abuses have been overlooked. This might just be one of those.
I feel pit on the presidents health ,take a look at him on watchdog pictures today.Its sad,something is teribly wrong with our president.I also feel pit on the blind followers .This happened to Mazoka follwers they down played the real isues of his health but when he died this brought succesion wrangles in UPND it almost destroyed UPND.Zambians lets be real we have a serious problem at hand.Lets put our heads together and not tribe first and ask God to help find a replacement to our president in case something bad happens.Let zambia come first and the costitution rule over us.
I am sorry I just read the first paragraph of this article. Maybe I will finish it later. But what should the Seating president do if newspapers or the ‘media’ publish wrong or even lies about him? Should he order the security wings to punish the offender? I think not, because this will be deemed as dictatorial. Defamation of the president is catered for by the law.
He should do what other presidents did before him. Ignore them and concentrate on running the country. What’s so special about sata?
My name is Charles Katongo, I reside at State House grounds, am 72 years of age, “You court marshal, where is your ka judge here. Go and call him or her. I cant be waiting here,”. Madam judge, look at that policeman. I don’t like the shabby way he is dressed. His uniform is looking very shabby. Nooo! that policeman at the gate is looking shabby. He is embarrassing me. People will say I don’t dress policemen properly. Madam Judge, there is another policeman there trying to embarrass me. I don’t like the way he is dressed as well. …..“you lipolo”, Who said these words?
I WILL BE BACK…..
Some useless lunatic or madman.
Sane people do not speak like that.
Simply buying time by diverting attention from new constitution. For the next few months people like Never will concetrate on Satas unpresidential behavior while clock is ticking towards 2016
The best you should have done is look at the provisions in the constitution over the issue surrounding the sitting president attending court cases. The court did clarify on that issue unless you have a different constitution. If he takes leave from office to attend to his personal matters that wrong. With me its time for the media to be more responsible in their work other than personal attacks. Look at the freedom of information bill. In Zambia we want it so while other countries like the United Kingdom are questioning it. So is deformation of character allowed in Zambia or in Democracy?
Dudely Makawa pipo like you make me feel sorry for this country.You dont just exercise your rights or power in a vacuum but with responsibility.For example Sata right now has the right and the power to declare war.If he declared war against Malawi because he does not like Joce Banda would you say it is ok coz he has the right and the powers?THINK.
the man looks like a dummy, a proper stick insect. if a lion would catch him for dinner, it would need 10 more. there is honour in surrendering ba kateka due to poor health, what will it benefit you to gain the whole world and loose your soul just to be called your excellency? and why drug people you are ruling to court. as a leader one of your attributes is to endure abuse from your people. where is your resilience and thick skin if you have any?
And the Nation expects Kwacha to strengthen with such men in power? Forget it!!!
AND I QUOTE ” His advisors, both personal and legal should have endeavoured not to allow the office of the presidency to be reduced to the levels similar to that of a desperate and insecure man. With each passing day, one would be inclined to strongly view this man is an obsessive confidence-trickster who is terminally untrust worthy. It feels like the Sata we knew left a long time ago, leaving this Michael Sata shaped hole that carries on talking through a press aide. And when it talks directly, the Minister of Information has to interpret.” END OF QUOTE – Mmmmmm NACHEPA
In as much as I agree with Moono that the President should not stoop so low as to engage in legal battles with private citizens, Journalists (Newspapers) should learn to be factual in their reporting and not be sensational. Always verify stories. I hope this will act as a lesson to all Newspapers (or is it tabloids?).
Does it mean his immunity is gone, can I equally drag him to court for the depreciation of the kwacha?
Yes, his immunity is gone. He is no longer immune to criticism. And he is no longer immune to demons in his brain. They have eaten all the intelligence he ever had!
The other thing that has gone is his “allergy” to corruption. Maybe the worms in his head have eaten that too!
I LIKE TO ALWAYS NOT BE TEMPTED TO LOOK AT THE OBVIOUS. IF ONE READS BETWEEN THE LINES, THE PRESIDENT HAS BEEN SET UP IN ORDER TO GET HIM OUT OF THE PRESIDENCY IN THE FASTEST POSSIBLE MANNER.
IS THERE NO MINISTER OF JUSTICE TO HAVE ADVISED THE PRESIENT THAT THIS IS A VERY BIG MISTAKE FOR THE PRESIDENT TO SUE AN ORDINARY CITIZEN?
SOMEONE IS IN A HURRY TO REPLACE MCS AND IF YOU LOOK CLOSEDY U KNOW WHO IT IS. THIS INDIVIDUAL HAS CLEARED EVERY THREAT AND LEFT ONLY HIMSELF AND RUNNING AROUND THE COUNTRY CAMPAIGNING. ZAMBIANS OPNE YOUR EYES.
THE WRITER HAS FELT PRESIDENTIAL HEAT. AMENSO YABANTU YALALYA.
Sata must go for mental evaluation to determine whether he is fit to sue anybody in court.
Zambians wanted him for president. They now have him and a whole lot more. This is not too bad a lesson after all.
Sata is no presidential material at all! The waste president that Zambia has ever had.
@Lungu Joshua@Lungu Joshua 1. What is your problem? Balikukana kuli ka NAMAKAU? Do not connect your frustration with the topic that is not related to your hating our sisters in Barotseland. Go hung. Good riddance KOSWE.
cant wait for this week in pictures