By Daimone Siulapwa
LAST year in June, then ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) chairman for elections, not for the first time, went on an attack against Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata, who he now seemingly wants to be President of this poor country called Zambia.
Mr Mulongoti said in a story carried out in the Zambia Daily Mail that it is hypocritical for Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata to claim that the ruling party is taking long to develop the country when he failed to deliver meaningful development to the country when he served as a Cabinet minister.
This statement came in the wake of Mr Sata saying the MMD had overstayed in Government and that it had run out of ideas on how to effectively run the affairs of the nation. Mr Sata had also said that President Rupiah Banda had introduced Zambians to poverty by allegedly failing to run the affairs of the nation.
However, Mike Mulongoti was not impressed at all with the statement by Mr Sata and went on to say the PF leader should stop boasting that he can effectively run the affairs of the nation when the opposition leader made a lot of mistakes when he served in Government.
“The MMD is trying to correct the many mistakes that Mr Sata made when he was in Government…why is he distancing himself from the wrongs that he made?” he asked before adding that the people of Zambia cannot continue to be cheated by Mr Sata that he will develop the nation within 90 days if he is ushered into office as president when he has allegedly failed to deliver improved service delivery in some PF-controlled councils.
“Zambians have seen for themselves how the PF-controlled councils have failed to provide improved social amenities to the people, but Mr Sata is again politicking that he can deliver development to the people of Zambia.
“People should not be cheated by this type of cheap politics because they are coming from politicians who failed to deliver when they were in power and just a reminder, the 90 days they promised the people has passed but we have not seen any development in the PF-controlled councils,” he said.
“Mr Sata should not be trusted because he failed to deliver because of his inability to set the right priority for national development when he was in Government. We are advising all well-meaning Zambians not to waste their votes by voting for the opposition. The only candidate we have to support is President Banda who has demonstrated remarkable leadership from the time he became President of this nation to date.”
That is Mike Mulongoti for you speaking less than a year ago today. How times change! No, how human beings change within a short time is more appropriate perhaps.
In September 2008, while campaigning in the Presidential elections, the then Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services and Chief Government spokesperson threatened to sort out The Post newspaper after the elections.
At a public rally at Solwezi Showgrounds, Mulongoti – in an apparent reference to The Post – said after the MMD wins the presidential election on October 30, they would ask Vice-President Rupiah Banda to go out of the country for a while so that on his return, Vice-President Banda would find all the problems sorted out.
“That is why some newspapers have gone on a field day writing what they are writing about,” Mulongoti said. “I will say to him, ‘when we win elections, just leave the country for a while and you will find that we will have sorted all these problems’.”
This meeting was also attended by former Works and supply minister Ludwig Sondashi, who apparently, is also supporting the PF leader in this year’s elections. Not to be left out of the party, Sondashi advised Rupiah Banda to ignore what some newspapers were writing about him.
“My brother Rupiah Banda, don’t listen to what is being written in some newspapers because it is what they used to do even for your predecessor. They used to write bad things about him but what they are today writing about the late president Levy Mwanawasa, it is as if he was an angel, Vice-President Banda will make a great leader,” Sondashi said before threatening to beat up anybody who would mention Patriotic Front president Michael Sata’s name in his presence.
That is Sondashi for you, who today is also busy campaigning for Mr Sata.
Anyhow, back to Mike Mulongoti, who also served as MMD spokesperson at some stage. It would interest readers to know that it is not only The Post that Mike Mulongoti threatened, but even the Church.
Sometime last year, then acting MMD spokesperson Mike Mulongoti was quoted in the Zambia Daily Mail as saying church leaders should stop attacking Government ministers otherwise the ruling party might be forced to hit back at them.
“It cannot be fair for bishops to be attacking ministers. They cannot go on calling ministers names when we have the capacity to fight back as politicians,” Mr Mulongoti said.
Looking back and forth, it is difficult to fathom that this is the same Mike Mulongoti we are hearing in the media today attacking President Banda and the public media while embracing Michael Sata.
Perhaps the only logical conclusion one can draw is that Mike Mulongoti’s change in his views has everything to do with the change in his personal fortunes.
Having championed together with the late Ben Tetamashimba the adoption of Rupiah Banda to be the MMD candidate in the 2008 presidential elections, Mr Mulongoti expected the President to return the favour.
And that favour, it now seems was his support for him to be MMD vice-president and in the process put himself in pole position to succeed him as President. But as it turned out, RB had other ideas and Mr Mulongoti was duly blocked from fulfilling his ambitions. With that, he was shown the door and encouraged to use it and close it afterwards.
Today, Mr Mulongoti is championing the opposition cause.
Whichever way one looks at it, this is a direct insult on the intelligence of the Zambian people. Today, one is busy supporting the policies and leadership of the MMD, then at noon, he is busy putting across the case for change. One wonders what he will be doing in the evening and late at night!
Agreed, we all sympathized with his suspension from the MMD for merely exercising his democratic right to contest the position of vice-president which was vacant and still remains so. By announcing his intention for the position, which would have pitted him against republican Vice President George Kunda, we all thought it was a right move in promoting and enhancing internal party democracy.
But his conduct since being fired leaves much to be desired. Certainly, Mr Mulongoti, during his time in government, seemed not to have seen anything wrong with the MMD policies to warrant the change in government that he is championing now.
For a country like Zambia seemingly in a hurry to develop, these are the politicians who should be discarded with altogether.
