Fare thee well 2024: Year of Mingalato, Lacunas and Superstitions
By Paradious Sakala
It is unbelievable that you’re gone. Never to be seen again in this life. Surely, 2024 you are a year to remember. A year of your own kind. One can only say fare thee well 2024. You are remembered for many things here in Zambia. Most of them bad things, nearly in every sector of life. It was a year of political intimidation, the raise of fascist ideology, the silencing of the Catholic Church into political submission, and the dismembering of the Patriotic Front into oblivion. Truly, 2024, you were a year of political mingalato, lacunas and superstitions.
For a man in the streets like myself, 2024 was a year of true structural adjustment. Not just at national level. But individual level. Yes, adjusting the belt to its limits with almost all clothes in the wardrobe looking over size! Why? Because of Njala. No affordable maize meal in 2024. The cheaper ZNS Unga, was not easy to buy. Ever long queues wherever it was sold from and was suspected to be GMO. Njala was no longer a joke, but a life style. One meal per day is now a family norm and a policy since there was no hope of ever getting Unga at K50, as promised in 2021! Hair dressers and barber men were in shambles. The promised seven hour long malaiti after increase was a hoax. The trader could no longer see the fruits of earnings as Christmas fireworks couldn’t be heard this year in our compounds.
For opposition politicians, 2024, was dominated by mingalato (political manoeuvres) with an agenda set directly driven by our president, Dr Hakainde Hichilema without shame or regard for backlash with society. The president promised one thing in the morning and did the opposite in the afternoon. One song that never ceased from his mouth was the Rule of Law. He came out like the champion of it. Yet he meant ‘ikona man’. He gave executive orders to the judiciary publicly, and the courts bowed to pressure. We saw it in the incarceration of Chishimba Kambwili. Kambwili tried to escape to Zimbabwe, but the long arm of the state brought him back home. He is yet to have his matters resolved with the state, but lost those close to his life in the process.
As though that was not enough, the number of political foes hounded out of parliament was on the increase. On top of Joel Malanji, and Bowman Lusambo, as the earlier Mingalato victims years back, followed Nickson Chilangwa (Kawambwa), Ronald Chitotela (Pambashe) and Emmanuel Banda (Petauke) in 2024 to lose their parliamentary seats like a joke. For Chilangwa and Chitotela, it was a case of arson. Evidence before court and several accounts of witnesses did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the two MPs were responsible for burning the UPND campaign vehicle. And even when the courts were willing to give a second thought to their case, the mingalato legal system could not wait for that. The seats are gone. Kawambwa has a new Member of Parliament. And soon Pambashe and Petauke will follow.
Surely, it is in 2024 that we also saw the incarceration of Godfrey Bwalya Mwamba fondly known as GBM and Lusambo. The courts can’t even look at their appeals. Sadly all these political leaders being jailed are from one political party. The Patriotic Front. And mingalato did not stop there. The former ruling party was parcelled in shapes and sizes to the liking of the mingalato guru, our Republican president. In one day it was for Miles Sampa. The other time it was for Chabinga. And we hear it is now likely to be for Dr. Chitalu Chilufya in matter of days.
The church did not escape the whip mingalato politics. The much revered and respected Catholic Bishops were for the first time seen divided in public. Actually, were more divided after meeting with President Hichilema at State House who is believed to have given them ten heads of cattle per diocese each. Even though they issued a pastoral, letter not all congregations read it. Lusaka Arch Bishop Dr. Alick Banda is a worse victim of verbal mingalato abuse. The ruling party take him to be a Lucifer of our time. He even was not allowed at one time to host a memorial service for President Michael Chilufya Sata. Another Bishop silenced is former arch bishop of Lusaka Telesphore Mphundu whose voice is now on mingalato ice.
As a year of lacuna, 2024 saw the eligibility case of former president Edgar Chagwa Lungu brought before the constitutional court for the fifth time. It was a classical case. The ConCourt revisited its own past judgements. Brought new line of thinking that while President Lungu was eligible to stand in 2021, was not eligible for future elections. Sadly all judges that delivered this judgment had links to the ruling party in one way or the other. It sent shock waves across the political divide more especially among opposition political leaders. But out of this lacuna is now born Plan B, whatever it is, all this is associated with 2024.
From a superstitious grape vine, 2024 brought yet interesting episodes. It all started in Luanshya. Bees disrupted a gathering where the president was officiating. Few days or weeks later Jay Jay former Petauke Member of Parliament, disappeared in mysterious circumstances, leaving a note with an apology to Zambians. It is not clear whether bees were linked to him. But the state gave a narrative like he took his life. But Jay Jay resurfaced like a political ghost. Yet his woes were far from over. In chains he returned to prison without judgement. It is rumoured he invoked his ancestral spirits and disappeared from the hospital bed at Chipata Central Hospital. This action saw him lose his seat by way of a parliamentary vote that has never happened in Zambia. Soon there will be a by election.
But that was not all in 2024. The more recent one was most interesting. Yes, interesting because a chameleon became a legend of the year. It was spotted on a mission to assassinate the republican president by the Zambian police. A story that has gone global and some people are making fun of it. In the buses, the story earned philosophical narrative. Some people said lions, hyenas, leopards could have been better associated with killing someone unlike a chameleon that changes colour!
A take away from the 2024 mingalato political lessons could be that the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) does not hide its next political moves and does them in broad day light. Our key lessons should be that the UPND works like a cancerous cell of taking down its opponents bit by bit. Remember the hounding Harry Kalaba from Democratic Party looked remote. Yet it was a pilot phase. Kalaba remained without a party. What followed was Kaushi and Kwacha we all remained quiet. Then came for PF. They gave it to Miles Sampa and have given it to Chabinga. We are watching and laughing in churches and bars.
Kawambwa is gone and yet to get Petauke and Pambashe we still seem quiet. The police, the judiciary and parliament all seem to be political wings of the ruling party. And we all are watching. Not even a single NGO can voice out openly about the rule of law. People are in fear. Investigative Journalism is a high risk and few individuals are risking their lives to write about the social ills of mingalato dairies.
But truth be told this nation is a match stick away from confusion if not handled well. Time has come that the ruling class must call for an indaba with opposition and reduce the current political tensions in the country. Edgar Lungu is but just one individual with one vote who might be seen to have been dealt blow, but many people out there have shown they can stand their ground against this UPND regime. A case in point are the people of Western Province. They could not accept the republican president to be their guest of honour for last years Kuomboka ceremony. Equally our Bemba colleagues under Mwatakazembe, they stood their ground against the ruling party dictates. Unfortunately, the Ngonis bowed to pressure while the Chewas equally had to change the date of the ceremony to allow the head of state to grace the ceremony.
What needs to be understood is that whoever is going to come into power, the things happening to PF members today may just be awaiting the UPND themselves since precedence is being set, that will not set this nation into a development path. Hopefully 2025 will be different from 2024. Happy new year.