Miles Sampa
I OFFER K100, 000 TO ANYONE THAT CAN TESTIFY THAT MR JAMES NDAMBO HAS EVER MET ECL.
Injustice on one Zambian is Injustice on all Zambians.
By Miles B. Sampa, MP (06.01.2023)
Friday 6th January 2023 marked the end of my first sensitization tour of Southern Province aimed to greet friends and relatives ahead of the PF general conference in March this year. I did get to post a few messages during my tour of the province, but it is imperative that I make a summary of my experiences.
The purpose of my tour was however somewhat overshadowed by MHT matters because many people in the entire province randomly approached me stating that they are angry at the handling of the organization by those in power in the wake of the July 2022 beauty pageant. Both members and sympathizers claim MHT was in existence predating the formation of UPND. They are wondering why UPND should consider themselves as the only righteous political party to be the first ever to see wrongs in the MHT movement. Upon acquiring power to govern the nation last year, suddenly the UPND got lenses to see wrongs in the MHT members and its activities and yet when they were in opposition, they mingled freely with the same people and their events.
Real or imagined, there is a groundswell of anger among many citizens over the mistreatment of the MHT and its leaders. This anger is not only confined to Southern Province alone but all the others 9 provinces of Zambia. In fact, many people spoken to feel that they let the organization down by standing aside and letting Government wantonly do as it pleased against MHT. It was not until concerned citizens mainly from Lusaka, Copperbelt and Northern provinces came out guns blazing via social media in support of MHT than now the owners in Southern province have also started to voice out.
It has now dawned solidly on all MHT members in Southern Province that being the direct beneficiaries, they should have been in the fore front of defending the truth that they know about their organization. They are best to testify that MHT has never been a political movement and interacted with all citizens regardless of their personal political affiliations be it belonging to the ruling or opposition parties. MHT is apolitical and only interested in activities that helps the well-being of communities.
Meantime the Police in Choma are unable to attend to criminal cases like murder and armed robberies due to lack of adequate transport when Four (4) vehicles MHT donated to them in July last year are parked at a private farm rejected loudly by the UPND government. This is under the suspicion that there is PF involvement in MHT activities simply because Hon Tasila Lungu and two other longtime friends of the organization attended the beauty pageant in Choma last year.
I do know that years back Hon Tasila was approached by MHT to extend her USA Charity shoes donations to Southern Province as it had been excluded prior to that. Consequently and following the MHA plea, she did infact donate hundreds of shoes from her USA charity contacts. Was it logical to expect MHT to dump their ubuntu affiliation with her simply because her father and party she belongs to had lost power?
In any case, at the event she and her husband sat in the back of the audience with ordinary guests while all front rows were reserved by MHT for the UPND ministers and officials as would be expected of honoring the Government of the day.
Surprisingly however and while the UPND have rejected the MHT vehicles donation to the police in Choma, the same people are busy cruising their vehicles on the roads constructed and well-lit by MHT.
“” If ever the term ‘Double Standards’ was a political party. “”
I as a former Southern Province minister in the Sata administration, I can also attest to the fact that we understood the MHT organization as being a partner with government in community development. Other than the MHT, as Minister I reached out to all be it those closely linked (real or perceived) to the then opposition UPND but all in the spirit of development for ordinary majority in the province. I freely interacted with likes of Chief Mukuni much to the annoyance of my then PS madam Inutu Suba who would have other programmes set for me at the times would meet the Chief. Others claimed the Chief was a business associate in the Royal Livingstone hotel and as a PF provincial Minister it was wrong for me to host him in my ministerial office then located in Livingstone. I understood very well ‘fatherly’ roles of my office need to be non partisan in dealing with all people of the province. I actually reciprocated his visit with my own to his palace.
Childish allegations therefore against the MHT founder and accomplished international businessman Mr James Ndambo that he was a supporter of PF are so shameful. More so with this claim coming from people who have known the founder for as long as MHT has existed. They have actually know him before they even joined politics and that his businesses was progressing constantly through the terms of all previous Presidents namely KK, FTJ, LPM, RB, MCS & ECL.
The allegation against MHT and Mr James Ndambo are so shameful to the extent that inspite of my limited campaign resources, Iam prepared to put at stake a K100,000 for anyone who can disagree with this article and prove to me with evidence that the founder of MHT Mr James Ndambo has ever met former PF & former Republican president ECL before, during and after his reign in office.
Upon arrival in Lusaka yesterday, I had a chance to interact with a young lady who recently graduated in London sponsored by MHT for 4 solid years and happens to be an ardent MHT member herself.
“So what did your MHT education sponsorship in London cover? “ I asked.
“Everything; tuition, books, accommodation, meals, air travel holidays back to Zambia twice a year, pocket money etc etc. “
she responded cheerfully.
She is busy trying to preserve the international image of the organization so that more students can benefit like she did.
It’s easy to deduce that several people in the current leadership also benefited from MHT via similar school fees relief programs, medical costs relief programs and funding of their small-scale businesses etc.
I will respect them for now and not mention their names. I might however choose name & shame them one day if they continue to deny in the Judas Iscariot fashion, their not so long ago links or financial support from MHT or Mr James Ndambo.
On my finished tour of Southern Province I also got to pick up that to demonstrate how ingenious the teachings of MHT ethos (self-reliance), a group of concerned youths have fund raised to hold a solidarity fellowship this weekend in Choma. I hope the police there won’t suddenly get to drive on the MHT tarmac roads to destabilize their event. Some people may have seen T-shirts marked “We still need my Hometown in Zambia” which are now selling like hot cakes in Lusaka and other places “ [photos inserted].
CONCLUSION
In God’s wisdom and in the event that the PF members and the Zambian people give me a chance to lead them, one of my first deliverables will be to entice MHT and any others who may have suffered a similar fate at the hands of our ‘people fixing government’,…back to where they left off and assist my administration in national community development agendas.
This would help the government stem off some of the heat that comes with social issues affecting the daily lives of many citizens. It’s a fallacy to think Government alone can do it all in uplifting lives of it’s citizens. World over, good governments create an enabling environment for both business and NGO communities so they in turn help the leadership meet their manifestos and promises to citizens like creating jobs and empowerment.
One great lesson I have taken from this tour about MHT is that inspite of all the noise, positive or negative talks and writes ups about the MHT founder James Ndambo, he and his Ubuntu NGO have remained calm and resolute on their cause. Despite all their activities being on ice in Zambia, they still running but focused in other African countries where they are being embraced with both arms. Last month MHT was officially launched at a colorful ceremony in Ghana and I am aware some ordinary citizens in Zimbabwe are making efforts to locate Mr Ndambo so he can launch MHT in their country as well.
I cannot imagine one of our own undergoing the humiliating unnecessary Investigations instituted around his name and his private businesses both here at home and engineered abroad. We are aware that a deliberate campaign was instituted using official institutions to bring Mr James Ndambo down to his knees financially overseas. Inspite of all this, he however has made no comment and if that doesn’t get the leadership thinking, then they better think again particulary if these desperate harsh measures against him fail to bring him down to his knees financially as eagerly anticipated. It’s a wrongly calculated scheme by his perpetrators.
I am simply defending what’s right and it’s my nature to do so be it for the likes of Mr James Ndambo or another ordinary resident of Navutika compound in Chipata Eastern province where I am off to for my next leg of visiting friends & relatives. Zikomo 🙏🏾
“If we won’t fight injustice wherever we see it, then we are not safe from suffering injustice ourselves.” ― Peter Hitchens.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
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