First and foremost, we want to make it clear we are not paid by anyone to write what we do; neither are we prompted by anyone to write on any topic! We take it as our solemn responsibility to contribute to the national discourse and development through our write ups.

Yesterday, we talked about Hon. Jack Mwimbu, the Minister of Home Affairs & Internal Security and gave details of how feel he may have lost the steam by allowing unnecessary checkpoints to come back on our already congested roads. We also took a swipe at him for letting the police embarrass the President by following Edgar Lungu around and bursting his secret meetings with some Catholic Bishops. Somebody quipped that Ministers have possibly neglected their responsibilities and are busy cutting deals no wonder they aren’t performing!

Anyway, today, we want to delve into an equally emotive subject – aka bunga! Ba Mtolo Phiri, what’s your responsibility as Minister of Agriculture? Is it just to eat or ensure our people are eating? When did you last venture into the other provinces to investigate challenges affecting our farmers; how government can cushion their hardships; what alternative crops our farmers can be encouraged or supported to grow given the climate change? You’re a total disappointment baaba!

When this country faced acute food shortages in early 2000s due to a persistent drought, President Mwanawasa came under severe pressure to import yellow maize. However, he stood his ground insisting, “GMOs are not good for my people and are harmful to our soil!”

Did people go without food? Negative! The legendary and indefatigable Mundia Sikatana, his able Minister of Agriculture traversed the width and breadth of this country in his gumboots and work suits launching and supervising winter maize projects! At the end of the day, there was enough food for everyone.

What measures are you putting in place to ensure that, moving forward the price of mealie meal will be affordable for everyone?

We’re almost in the middle of the year imwe ba Minister, have you flagged-off the distribution of farming inputs? Have you ensured that we have sufficient stocks of fertilizer in the nation? Have you identified reliable transporters to distribute the same across the country?

You are not only failing the President but also the people! There’s a lot of negative talk out there regarding the price of mealie meal; if people can only see you making every effort, they’d be rest assured it’s just a matter of time before the situation can stabilise. We know of many farmers that are willing to partner with government by growing winter maize, what they need is just logistical support.

Naimwe ba minister of Mines and Minerals Development, Paul Kabuswe, the whiff of stench emanating from your ministry nauseating! Our next stop is on your doorsteps…..

Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst

We’ve no doubt President Hichilema means we’ll for our beloved nation; he’s always burning candles during the night in his quest to find ways and means of making good of what he had promised our people during the run up to the 2021 general elections. However, it seems there may be a few ministers who may not be firing on all the four cylinders to help the President actualise his promises. They’re either sleeping on duty or have lost the steam.

According to our humble understanding, the role of a minister is to help the President meet the aspirations of our people by helping him fulfill his campaign promises. One of the solemn promises the President made to the nation was to bring to an end all the unnecessary road blocks across the country. This was of course, received well by the general members of the public……the people loved it!

Once the UPND formed government, the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security informed the nation that moving forward, check-points have been outlawed unless otherwise the fixed ones, for security reasons. This was received with glee and ululation by the general public.

For a while, the ‘notorious’ men and women in the white caps disappeared from our roads. Everything seemed back to normal…….traffic moved seamlessly, there was little or no congestion on our roads, motorists were no longer being inconvenienced anyhow….Sanity had indeed been restored back on our roads. And then boom! Cops were back on the road in full throttle……doing what they know best; extracting bribes from the unsuspecting motorists.

One senior citizen, Kevin Soper couldn’t have put it better than the following, “Zambia Police is de-campaigning UPND by mounting snap check-points on the road, and collecting bribes…….driving anywhere is now demoralising; it’s a nightmare as you are made to wait on the road for long hours on end.’

He bemoans that the Police now have a tendency of jumping out from behind trees , bushes, and billboards at traffic lights, round abouts, humps to ambush the motorists. Soper further emphasises that the public has no issues with permanent security road blocks or speed traps, but ambushing motorists to extract bribes is total harrassment and criminal!

We now come to the issue of following Catholic priests, unnecessarily. It’s obviously common knowledge some Catholic priests have never taken a liking of UPND since inception for obvious reasons. They’d utilise every opportunity to decampaign the party whenever it suits them. In other words, the police are not doing the President a favour by ‘bursting’ the meetings that Lungu is having with these Catholic priests. Allow Lungu to continue having his consultative or strategic meetings with the priests; they are an exercise in futility. And God will judge them!

Those days whereby the clergy or traditional leaders would “dictate” to our people how they should cast their votes are long gone! Look at what transpired during the last elections……some pastors and priests literally turned the pulpits into campaign platforms and openly decampaigned the opposition UPND then, urging congregants to give their votes to the brutal PF regime. Did they have their way? The electorate, particularly the youth turned up in numbers and voted otherwise!

Some traditional leaders equally reduced themselves to cadres by absconding from their palaces to make forays into the villages and ‘order’ their subjects to vote for an extension of caderism, corruption, plunder and theft of national resources, tribalism and nepotism, gassing, unemployment! Did the electorate hearken them? Zero! They used their God given brains to do the right thing. In this age and era, there’s no priest, chief or celebrity who is going to teach our people how to vote as if they are children; they’d rather make the right decision using their God given brains!

Ba Jack Mwimbu, we’ve always had high confidence in you. Set your bearings right Sir!

In our next offering, we talk about the Minister of Agriculture. Hon. Mutolo Phiri, what does your job entail, to eat or ensure that our citizens are eating?

Anyway, until next time!

Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst