BONIFACE Kawimbe (r) says those who are afraid of regime change should join the civil service and become a government driver, for instance.
He says the Government of the Republic of Zambia has been under capture since 1973 by the ruling parties.
Dr Kawimbe, a medical doctor, is a former health minister in the MMD government.
During a civil society organisations (CSOs) media briefing in Lusaka on Monday, Dr Kawimbe was given chance to briefly speak.
He said one of the challenges Zambia had was that her people deal with symptoms of a problem.
“In my profession, if you have a headache, we are not interested in giving you aspirin or Panado, because that headache will lead to malaria, that headache may bring meningitis…One of the challenges is sometimes we don’t know where our problems have come from,” Dr Kawimbe said.
“In 1973 the government of the day introduced a clause in the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia to say from today onwards the [ruling] party will be supreme to the Government of Republic of Zambia. The one party state basically said from today onwards, this institution which we call the Government of the Republic of Zambia is now going to become a property of a political party.”
He added that: “since 1973 this institution into which we pay our taxes all of us is a property of the ruling party.”
“Since 1973 we have had capture of the Government of the Republic of Zambia by the ruling parties. This was not a problem of UNIP alone; it was a problem of MMD [and] it is a problem of PF today. That is the root cause,” Dr Kawimbe said. “And we don’t discuss this capture of this institution called the Government of the Republic of Zambia by the ruling parties.”
He disclaimed some people’s inclination to think that those who criticised government policies were pushing for regime change.
“When you talk about ‘if we make this statement it will be misunderstood that we are attacking government, we are promoting regime change’, there is something that never changes, which is the Government of the Republic of Zambia. It has never changed!” Dr Kawimbe argued. “It was there under UNIP, it was there under MMD, it’s here under PF and it will be there long after PF is gone. When we are talking, we are talking to our government – the Government of the Republic of Zambia.”
He stressed that those who were speaking against the regime: “are not talking to Patriotic Front.”
“We are addressing ourselves to the Government of the Republic of Zambia. Otherwise we’ll be talking to the secretary general of PF. We are talking to His Excellency Chagwa Lungu, not as president of PF. No!” he explained.
“[But] we are talking to him as head of the Government of the Republic of Zambia. When we talk to our Honourable ministers, we are talking to them as representatives of the Government of the Republic of Zambia.”
Dr Kawimbe advised that: “if anybody doesn’t want change, you should become a civil servant, because when you join the civil service, you’ll not be changed.”
“There will be no personal regime change. If you are a government driver, you’ll remain a government driver until you retire. If, on the other hand, you are a politician, change is inherent – it’s like death,” said Dr Kawimbe. “So, we have a challenge of this phenomenon – the capture of the Government of the Republic of Zambia by ruling parties. It’s an issue we must be discussing.”