UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) youths say they will only accept to revive the pact with the Patriotic Front (PF) if their president Hakainde Hichilema is considered to stand as presidential candidate for the alliance during the 2011 elections.

UPND national youth chairman Joe Kalusa said in an interview in Ndola yesterday that the party could only accept to revive the pact with PF if Mr Hichilema is flouted as pact presidential candidate.

“As UPND youths we will only welcome the pact if it will be headed by Mr Hichilema. As you know, our party was marginalised a lot during the pact with PF,” Mr Kalusa said.

He also said that once the pact is revived, there should be a commitment letter from Mr Sata indicating that he has accepted Mr Hichilema as the pact presidential candidate for the 2011 elections.

“UPND wasted a lot of time when it was in the pact as it was being sidelined on many issues regarding the pact, and they also called us a lot of names,” Mr Kalusa said.

He said UPND youths will not support the revival of the pact without PF accepting Mr Hichilema as presidential candidate.

Mr Kalusa said UPND is ready to contest this year’s tripartite elections without being in a pact with PF.

Mr Sata has reportedly made a dramatic U-turn and is seeking reconciliation with UPND for a possible revival of the defunct political alliance.

Mr Sata seekks to reconcile with the UPND because he has allegedly realised that the MMD will win this year’s elections.

Mr Sata held a meeting with his party members on June 13, 2011 at the PFsecretariat where the matter was tabled.

And when contacted for a comment, PF secretary-general Wynter Kabimba refused to give a comment saying he does not speak to the Zambia Daily Mail and the Times of Zambia before cutting the line.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

Patriotic Front (PF) has resolved not to attend Dr Chiluba’s funeral, saying going to the funeral might cause havoc.

PF Kabwata member of Parliament Given Lubinda said the party central committee chaired by Mr Sata met on Monday and it was resolved that the PF would not attend the funeral.

“On Monday Mr Sata called for a central committee meeting. Everyone who attended the meeting was of the firm conviction that going to Dr Chiluba’s funeral might just cause unnecessary havoc,” Mr Lubinda said.

He said the PF does not want to provoke the situation by attending the funeral.

And speaking on a radio show Mr Sata said that he did not physically need to be at the funeral house but he will mourn Dr Chiluba from his own home.

Meanwhile, YANDE SYAMPEYO reports that the family of the late former President says Mr Sata has found it difficult to attend the funeral because of his guilty conscience.

But PF secretary general Wynter Kabimba said the party will ‘gladly stay away’ from attending the funeral of Dr Chiluba as they have been banned from doing so.

Family spokesperson Benjamin Mwila said Mr Sata, who is Patriotic Front (PF) President, has banned himself from attending the funeral as he has failed to contend with his conscience, following the negative statements he issued about Dr Chiluba when he was still alive.

Mr Mwila, who is also President of the National Democratic Focus, was reacting to Mr Kabimba’s statement that the MMD has banned PF from attending the funeral.

But Mr Mwila said the country still recalls Mr Sata’s sentiments that he would have re-arrested Dr Chiluba and ensured that he died in prison if elected President.

“Now that Dr Chiluba has died, I am sure Mr Sata has found it difficult to reconcile with what he said about him.

“So in actual sense, he has just banned himself from attending the funeral. Government and Dr Chiluba’s family have not banned him,” Mr Mwila said.

Mr Mwila said the PF will not be forced to attend the funeral if they do not wish to do so. He said every Zambian who wishes to mourn Dr Chiluba is free to do so.

Mr Mwila, who is Nchelenge member of Parliament, said there was nothing sinister about moving the funeral from Kabulonga to Belvedere Lodge.

He said the initiative was not politically motivated and not against the Bemba tradition and culture.

Mr Kabimba yesterday said there was no need to switch the funeral venue.

“We all know why the funeral gathering has been moved from Dr Chiluba’s residence to Belvedere lodge. It is due to the large crowd of people who are attending the funeral.

“There is no law in Bemba or even in the Ngoni tradition which forbids the shifting of a funeral gathering. So if Mr Kabimba was not aware about this, now he is,” Mr Mwila said.

He said it is not true that the funeral gathering has been moved for political gain in favour of the ruling party.

Featuring on Zambezi FM radio in Livingstone yesterday, Mr Kabimba said the PF is saddened by the death of Dr Chiluba and wish his family well.

And some callers said Mr Sata is unreliable and cannot be trusted as he turned against Dr Chiluba.

One of the callers only identified as Chinyama wondered what guarantee the country has that Mr Sata is a changed person.

Chinyama said Mr Sata supported the third term and issued contradicting statements when Dr Chiluba was facing corruption charges.

Another caller only identified as Mweemba said Mr Sata’s record is well known and that he campaigned for Dr Chiluba’s attempt to go for a third term.

“We all know Mr Sata. When did he become good? We all know he campaigned for the third term,” Mweemba said.

And Matero member of Parliament Faustina Sinyangwe has called on Mr Sata to swallow his pride and go to the funeral of Dr Chiluba, saying it is inhuman for Mr Sata and PF members of Parliament to shun the funeral.

She said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the behaviour of the PF leader is unacceptable and should be condemned.

“Despite Mr Sata despising Dr Chiluba when he was alive, it is important for Mr Sata to go to the funeral and show remorse,” Ms Sinyangwe said.

She said Zambians have always put their political differences aside whenever death occurs.

“Everyone knows that Mr Sata despised Dr Chiluba so much but this should not be extended to death. It is unZambian and inhuman,” Ms Sinyangwe said.

She said all opposition leaders who had differences with Dr Chiluba have been to the funeral, apart from the PF leader and his MPs who are campaigning despite the demise of Dr Chiluba.

“Mr Sata is what he is today because of Dr Chiluba who worked closely with him when he was President,” she said.

[Zambia Daily Mail]

LUSAKA Province MMD chairperson William Banda says he will take legal action against Edith Mutale for falsely accusing him of having insulted and harassed her at the funeral of former republican President Frederick Chiluba.

Mr Banda has said he is shocked that Reverend Mutale could claim to have been close to Dr Chiluba only after his death.

Mr Banda said he neither saw nor spoke to Rev Mutale at the funeral house, adding that at the time she claimed she was there, he had left.

“I actually do not even know this woman. I was surprised to read that she was accusing me of harassment,” he said.

He said if truly Rev Mutale is a ‘woman of God’, she should tell the nation the truth and not to try and gain sympathy even when it is not necessary.

Mr Banda was reacting to The Post story in yesterday’s edition accusing him of leading cadres to harass and insult Rev Mutale.

He has also challenged Rev Mutale to testify in court where and when he harassed and insulted her.

“I am not a gateman to be ushering people into the funeral house. I have been to the funeral house but I have not harassed or barred anyone from attending the former president’s funeral,” he said.

He also said he was taken aback that Rev Mutale could claim to have been close to Dr Chiluba when she did not even accord him the recognition he deserved when he was still alive.

Mr Banda recalled an incident at the late MMD national executive committee member Ackim Nkole’s funeral where Rev Mutale refused to recognise Dr Chiluba’s presence.

“Rev Mutale had to be spoken to for her to do the right thing. We all know why she is behaving in such a manner, and the reason is that she belongs to the Patriotic Front,” he said.

Mr Banda said even if Dr Chiluba’s administration deported him, he is not bitter and that he shared a cordial relationship with the former head of State.

Mr Banda said he and Dr Chiluba held meetings regularly, with the last being five days before he died

[Zambia Daily Mail]

An 18-year old Zambian pupil has been honoured for scoring the highest mark in the world in the Cambridge ‘O’ Level History for Central and Southern Africa in last year’s examination.

Dalitso Phiri, of LICEF Secondary School in Lusaka, has been awarded with a prestigious recognition from the University of Cambridge International Examinations.

The Cambridge Top In the World Award recognises the success of learners who have achieved the highest standard mark in the world for a single subject.

And Phiri is pleased that his efforts have been recognised and has pledged to continue working hard to score greater success.

Meanwhile LICEF Secondary School Head Syed Ali says Phiri’s landmark achievement has made his learning institution and the country in general proud.

ZNBC

MMD Southern Province Chairperson Edgar Keembe has dismissed as false, media reports that Namwala member of parliament Major Robbie Chizyuka has been rejected by the party in the area.

Mr Keembe says the story which appeared in Monday’s edition of the Post Newspaper is unfounded and lacks merit.

He says Major Chizyuka is among the three candidates chosen by the constituency officials.

Mr Keembe says district officials are yet to interview the three shortlisted candidates and wondered why anyone can pick on Major Chizyuka and allege that he has been rejected.

He says it is also not true that there is pressure from state house on the leaders in the province to choose Major Chizyuka.

Mr Keembe says people of Namwala are free to choose a leader who will represent them.

ZNBC

Government has expressed its displeasure at slow and shoddy works carried out by local contractors on several developmental projects in Lusaka district.

Lusaka Province Deputy Permanent Secretary Richard Chinjili charged that some named contractors were frustrating government’s efforts in delivering development to the people.

Mr. Chinjili has since urged some named contractors to speed up and improve works on infrastructural projects that were tendered to them, saying government cannot afford to lose colossal amounts on shoddy works.

The Deputy Permanent Secretary made the remarks when he led a team on a Monitoring and Evaluation tour of some health and education projects undergoing rehabilitation and construction in Lusaka urban.

At Matero referral clinic Mr Chinjili and his team found defects on the newly constructed theatre to which a number of fittings, including sinks and doors, were leaking and falling before the infrastructure is officially launched.

At Chunga and George compounds where the Ministry of Health is construction new health posts, the DPS was disappointed to find work moving below expectation while convention of two classrooms into laboratories at Thorn Park High School was also going below schedule.

Mr. Chinjili warned the local contractors that they risked being blacklisted if they do not improve and advised the Ministry of Works and Supply to supervise the contractors with the seriousness they deserve.

[ ZANIS ]

Kafulafuta Member of Parliament (MP) George Mpombo has dismissed accusations that he is organizing people to shun Second Republican President Fredrick Chiluba’s funeral.

This follows accusations in a newspaper article quoting Forum for Leadership Search Executive Director Edwin Lifwekelo as having unearthed a scam in which Mr. Mpombo and others are allegedly organizing some people to boycott Dr Chiluba’s funeral.

But Mr. Mpombo has said that the allegations are baseless and aimed at gaining political mileage by the MMD.

The Parliamentarian has further charged that there is a tragic leadership failure in the ruling MMD adding that the harassment of perceived political opponents by MMD cadres at the funeral of Dr Chiluba is unfortunate.

He says people should not politicize the former President’s funeral because he was a national leader who deserves to be mourned with respect.

Meanwhile Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD) leader, Charles Milupi has advised the MMD leadership to reflect on the unruly behavior of its cadres at Dr. Chiluba’s funeral.

Mr. Milupi says the MMD should realize that when one assumes the role of presidency, they become national leaders regardless of political affiliation.

But Zambia Police Service Spokesperson Ndandula Siamana says the police is not aware of the harassment or barring of some individuals from entering the funeral house of the late second republican President Fredrick Chiluba.

Police Spokesperson Ndandula Siamana told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the service has not received any report from any mourner contrary to claims by some quarters claiming that they were being harassed by suspected Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) cadres at the funeral house.

She has since advised the public to report to the nearest police station if they are being harassed or barred from attending the second republican President’s funeral.

Yesterday, a radio phoenix reporter is alleged to have been barred from entering the premises of the lodge in Lusaka where the funeral of Dr. Chiluba is being held.
[ QFM ]

By Elias Munshya wa Munshya
The news that a group within the MMD has been formed to keep Michael Sata from coming to the funeral of President Frederick Chiluba should be a concern to all peace loving Zambians. In fact, even our gallant security wings have fallen prey to this gibberish by entreating Michael Sata to stay away from the funeral—in the name of “security”. The very thought that it could come to this is not only ridiculous but insolently immature. I wish to argue in this article that Michael Sata should be allowed to attend and mourn his former boss. This is consistent with our common humanity.

Those who believe that Sata had been an enemy of Dr. Chiluba have chosen to look at a fraction of history and ignored the whole. They are simply being economical with reality. There has not been any true enmity between Chiluba and Sata. What existed were mere political interests that took these two gentlemen in different directions—only since 2008.

To use President Chiluba’s mere political difference when he supported Banda over Sata in 2008 as the yardstick for projecting the enmity between the two does not just make sense at all. Michael Sata had been Chiluba’s closest political confidante for years.

It is impossible to define a politically successful Chiluba without mentioning the political engineering of Michael Sata. It is Michael Sata who has served Chiluba in more senior capacities than any other living politician today. Sata was Chiluba’s MMD national secretary, minister of labour, minister of local government, minister without portfolio, and minister of health. Michael Sata helped prop up Chiluba’s credentials as a leader of the common people. Sata supported Frederick Chiluba within the democratic movement of the late 1980s.

Sata campaigned for Frederick Chiluba both in Lusaka and Mpika. In fact, the relationship between Michael Sata and Chiluba is one of the longest lasting political relationships in Zambia today. Spanning from the 1980s Sata remained true and faithful to Frederick Chiluba until Chiluba dribbled Sata in 2001.

But after 2001, and after the subsequent prosecution and persecution of Chiluba under Mwanawasa, it was Michael Sata who came to the support of Chiluba. Sata openly mentioned that Chiluba had dribbled him.

And Chiluba openly admitted that he had made a tremendous mistake by appointing Mwanawasa. But after the theft persecution, Sata became Chiluba’s supporter again. Sata provided Chiluba with the support of the common man from the Copperbelt and Lusaka while Mwanawasa and the likes of William Banda wished Chiluba dead. The alliance between Sata and Chiluba was so strong that it was the PF MPs and PF supporters who would line up the airport roads to receive Frederick Chiluba from hospital in South Africa. In 2006, no one was surprised to see FTJ raise a feeble fist in the air and request the people of Luapula Province and the Copperbelt to vote and vote for the Patriotic Front.

At one time, after the second political fall-out between Chiluba and Sata, Chiluba was addressing a funeral gathering when PF supporters booed him. To this Chiluba answered, “There are no permanent enemies in politics, only permanent interests.” In so saying, Chiluba mentioned one rule that has helped all successful politicians including Michael Sata himself. In politics no one is a permanent enemy. It only takes an expulsion, or the so-called resignation to turn political friends into enemies and political enemies into friends. We saw it happen in 1991 where those who were eating at Kaunda’s table suddenly turned to the MMD and became friends of democracy overnight. Nothing changed among those people, their hearts remained the same. They changed camps due to political interests.

It is rather ironical, that it is William Banda—Chiluba’s long-time arch enemy—who has today been transformed into Chiluba’s ally. What confuses me and many others is that it is this Banda who, while testifying against Chiluba in the 1996 presidential petition, claimed that Titus Mpundu hailed from Congo and spoke a Congolese dialect of Lingala as a boy. So William Banda is now a friend of Chiluba’s while Sata is an enemy. It seems the death of politics and the politics of death are incompatible with logic.

In 2008, it was politically appropriate for Chiluba to support Banda over Sata. A minute after the death of Mwanawasa it was apparent that Mwanawasa’s Vice-President, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, had no political interest in the continued prosecution or persecution of Frederick Chiluba. Under those circumstances, Chiluba was no fool to repudiate such a gesture. He again aligned himself against Sata and of course the Cobra went ballistic. He was angry against Frederick Chiluba. And it is at this point that the current MMD cadres miss it, they equate Sata’s anger as enmity. It is not enmity and it should not be interpreted as such. There was going to be plenty of time for Sata to play politics. And in fact there was still going to be more time for Chiluba and Sata’s interests to be aligned once more. Had it not been for death…Sata and Chiluba were once again going to embrace each other.

Sata and Chiluba’s interests were going to be aligned once more if Sata were to win the 2011 elections. Some have opined that a President Sata was going to revive theft charges against Chiluba after winning the 2011 elections. But those who know history and politics understand very well that Sata cannot take Chiluba to court. They know each other too well to do that. Sata said what he said because he was angry. He felt like he had been dribbled too much. But with him in power, there would be no political benefit for him to continue prosecuting Chiluba. Mwanawasa prosecuted Chiluba only when it was politically expedient for him to do so.

Mwanawasa took Chiluba to court not because Chiluba had stolen; some Zambians believe Chiluba may have stolen just going by the million dollar suits, shirts, shoes and underwear. But that is not the reason why Mwanawasa took him to court. Mwanawasa took Chiluba to court because he was politically in a precarious situation. He wanted ways to silence Chiluba who was still president of the MMD and had the support of almost its entire executive. Sata would not have the same political dynamics at play and as such, he would not have gone ahead with continued prosecution.

Here if the MMD cadres continue with this nonsense, it is Sata who will emerge as the shrewdest of them all. It is Sata who should want to keep away from the funeral. It is he who can say I had been dribbled too much by this man. But Sata is not known to keep grudges, just like Chiluba was. He has thrown all that enmity aside and he wants to go and mourn and sing “icimbo” for his friend and political confidante. This Sata must be allowed to do, even if it will mean taking the whole battalion of Zambian police to protect him from senseless cadres.

In death even enemies become friends; death is just like politics after all!