By Oliver Chisenga
I UNDERSTAND the need for Mr Mwamba to clean up his name now for his political benefits but that should never come at the expense of decency, says Fumba Chama.
Recently, PF presidential aspirant Emmanuel Mwamba claimed that when he served as the country’s high commissioner to South Africa, he had several interactions with musician Chama, popularly known as Pilato.
“First, the impression being created that I had a private meeting with Mr Emmanuel Mwamba and had a meal with him is very incorrect. I was in South Africa on my way to Rhodes University for my training. He with another female Zambian were having a meal when they saw me and invited me to their table,” Chama explained.
“I greeted them and shortly I asked to leave. Mr Mwamba offered a lift and I accepted but told him I was going to Pretoria. They gave me a lift and dropped me pa [at a] mall and I got an Uber back to Sandton. This was before the Koswe Mumpoto release.”
Chama asked Mwamba when he realised that the public order Act was a bad law after defending it so strongly when PF was in power.
He challenged Mwamba to state what he did as an upright man to defend his belief that the Act was not a threat to Zambia’s democracy.
“I understand the need for Mr Mwamba to clean up his name now for his political benefits but that should never come at the expense of decency. This is evident by his glorification of the PF. The question I ask the former ambassador is, when did he realise that the public order Act was a bad law?” Chama asked.
“If he is an upright man, what did he do to defend his belief that PoA was a threat to our democracy? Today he wants to glorify the PF while he is distancing himself from their mistakes and misdeeds, is that loyalty to an idea or to personality? Why does he feel that the UPND can repeal the same public order Act that the party he campaigned for didn’t? What power does the UPND have now that the PF didn’t have to repeal the same law? The truth is exactly what Mr Mwamba has said; he chose his job over an idea.”
Chama said Mwamba knew that speaking or challenging his bosses then would have cost him his job, and that “is why young people should never be like him”.
He said men and women that prioritised their personal interests over the betterment of a country must never be emulated by anyone whose interest is to build a better society.