HON DAVIES MWILA’S RACIST  REMARKS AGAINST HON. GIVEN  LUBINDA  UNACCEPTABLE-  Amb.  Emmanuel  Mwamba

HON DAVIES MWILA’S REMARKS UNACCEPTABLE

Amb.Emmanuel  Mwamba Writes;



HON DAVIES MWILA’S RACIST REMARKS

I have watched with shock and gripped with sadness racist remarks made by former Secretary General of the Patriotic Front, Hon. Davies Mwila when he apoeared on Diamond TV discussion program, “Diamond Live”with Andrew Mwansa.

The appalling and racist remarks made by Hon. Davies Mwila against PF Acting President, Hon. Given Lubinda are vile, unacceptable and criminal.

I’ve also learnt that the program was recorded during the day.

Therefore, it is the inescapable responsibility of the broadcast station to have prevented the airing of such racist remarks as it has an enduring duty of professional care and responsibility to prevent racist remarks to be aired on their station.

It is an act of carelessness and negligence that the particular and specific racist and offensive content was not removed by the Station especially that the program was recorded  earlier and handled by a well-versed anchor, Andrew Mwansa.

It must be made very clear that Hon. Lubinda is suitably qualified to stand as President of the Patriotic Front and to stand as a candidate for President of the Republic of Zambia.

Article 100(1) of the Republican Constitution and the Electoral Process Act No. 35 of 2016 guide on who qualifies to stand as President and the ignorance displayed by Hon. Mwila is either deliberate and driven by malice or would display a low standard for a leader of such calibre, who served as Minister of Hone Affairs and was Chipili Member  of Parliament for ten years.

In Zambia, besides other qualifications, one needs to be Zambian by birth or descent to qualify to stand.

The impugned attack on the heritage of Hon.Lubinda would have been a matter for debate if the obnoxious parentage clause was NOT removed from the Constitution in 2016.

In the case of Constitutional Amendment (1996): The MMD government, led by Dr. Frederick Chiluba, enacted a controversial amendment to the Constitution that introduced a new requirement for presidential candidates: that both parents had to be Zambian citizens by birth or descent.

Ironically, Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika challenged the election of President Frederick Chiluba in the 1996 General Elections based on the same law that the government of Chiluba had originally created to bar former President Frederick Kaunda.

Lewanika and his colleagues challenged Chiluba on the basis that he could not be president since his father “was not a Zambian by birth or descent”.

However, the Supreme Court Ruling (1998) ultimately ruled that the constitutional provision enacted in 1996 should be interpreted broadly.

It held that the requirement for parents to be “Zambian by birth or descent” applied to those who became Zambian citizens at independence on October 24, 1964, or who would have become citizens if still alive.

This interpretation allowed Dr. Chiluba and others born before independence to satisfy the requirement, effectively settling the matter in his favor at the time.

Further the decision of the court was cemented in the 2016 when the parentage clause was completely removed from  the Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act No. 2 of 2016).

I therefore call upon Hon. Davies Mwila to immediately apologise for those remarks and behave as a leader befitting the positions he previously held and that both the Party and the country privileged him to hold.

Hon. Mwila’s remarks has offended the spirit, multicultural, multi-tribal promoted by both President Michael Sata and President Edgar Lungu who worked closely with Hon. Lubinda and such remarks may fracture the love, unity, and comradeship we have enjoyed as a family in the Patriotic Front.

It must be stated that racist remarks are an affront to the law and Hon. Mwila has also offended the law.

The Constitution of Zambia, the supreme law of the land and is binding on all persons in Zambia states in Article 4(3) among other things states that, the Republic is a multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural.

Further, Article 11 guarantees the enjoyment of human rights without discrimination when it stipulates that “every person in Zambia has been and shall continue to be entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, the right, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinions, colour, creed, sex or marital status.”

To judge Hon. Lubinda on the basis of his perceived race or tribe is discriminatory and a cheap but unfortunate shot.

I am also concerned by recent remarks attributed to Hon. Mwila regarding the current state of the Party and its viability as we head forwards 2026 General Elections.

The Patriotic Front has faced serious challenges since 2021.

Prominent among the challenges include the sustained attacks perpetrated by President Hakainde Hichilema who has hijacked the Party and through the Registrar of Societies, placed stooges led by expelled Mafinga member of parliament, Robert Chabinga.

This is an attempt to steal, kill and destroy the Patriotic Front Party and deprive its members the fundamental right of association and freedom of choice.

Notwithstanding this, the internal wrangles and issue of holding the General Conference must be resolved urgently.

The outstanding issues regarding the leadership succession of the Party must be resolved without delay even in the environment and circumstances that we face a determined external enemy.

I call for unity and peace as the family of the Patriotic Front ride the current storms.

Amb.Emmanuel Mwamba