IF I FAIL TO GET 1M SUPPORTERS, I’LL KNOW ZAMBIANS DON’T BELIEVE IN ME – JOHN SANGWA

IF I FAIL TO GET 1M SUPPORTERS, I’LL KNOW ZAMBIANS DON’T BELIEVE IN ME – SANGWA

MOVEMENT for National Renewal leader John Sangwa says nations are built by the best brains and experience coming together, not by thuggery, arrogance, or intimidation.

And Sangwa says if his track record does not inspire public confidence, then no amount of words can convince people otherwise.

Speaking on Prime TV’s One-on-One programme, Wednesday, Sangwa said running a government was a complex and serious undertaking that required intellect, expertise, and integrity, not brute force.

He was responding to remarks by UPND deputy spokesperson Elvis Nkandu, who recently advised him to rescind his decision to leave legal practice for politics, warning that he would be “bruised.”

“Countries are built by the best brains coming together, people with the best experience. Now when you say it’s dirty you’re basically saying politics is a game of thugs, but it requires more than thugs to govern a country, you need intellect, you need expertise, you need experience, and it’s not easy. When you’re running a government you’re responsible for the lives of about 25 million, it’s a very scary proposition. It’s not a light undertaking and that’s why you need the best brains in the country to join hands and be able to do what’s in the best interest of the country. And we currently have a scandal. And this is a beautiful country, we have everything you can imagine, so rich and yet so poor,” Sangwa said.

Sangwa wondered why anyone would want to “bruise” him for choosing to enter politics.

“It’s very sad, and shouldn’t be because I was just that you’re going to bruise me, what have I done to you for you to say you’re going to bruise me? First of all, we’ve never met, we’ve never met at interaction whether directly or indirectly. And you are just taken aback by the language. First of all, we are one people, we are all Zambians, and we are all trying to find ways and means to better this country, why should we be bruising one another? Instead of talking that kind of language there should be a language of love,” Sangwa said.

The constitutional lawyer further questioned why society accepted the notion that politics was inherently “dirty.”

“And there’s this notion that politics is dirty, then my question is why should it be dirty? And if it is, why shouldn’t we clean it up? Why should we normalise this notion that politics is dirty? I was fully aware of that fact and I said this cannot be accepted as normal and we have to start by cleaning it. I guess what they mean by politics is dirty is that the educated cannot get involved,” he said.

He added that his life’s work speaks louder than his promises.

“One of the guys in the diaspora asked me and said all you guys, you come and speak well, but when you’re given a chance you go and do something else, what guarantee is there? And I said all you have to do is look at my track record, if my track record doesn’t give you comfort, there are no words I can give you that will give you comfort. Whatever questions they have they should look at my life. If they are uncomfortable I don’t have to begin to explain myself. Look at everything that I have done. If you still have doubts then there are no words I can use that will give you comfort because if I have to explain then I have to start lying to you. I always believe that I have to minister to people with my life, not with my words,” he said.

Sangwa also said Zambia’s declaration as a Christian nation should be reflected in how citizens care for one another.

“We say we are a Christian nation, if we are a Christian nation that declaration should not just remain a declaration, we should see it in real life. Which means me being concerned about your wellbeing. Us collectively being concerned about the least privileged people. There are people in this country that are dying needlessly, people are dying who shouldn’t die, people are going without food when they shouldn’t, and we should be troubled. If we are not troubled by the scale of poverty and challenges that this country faces, then that’s an empty slogan,” he continued.

Meanwhile, Sangwa said his goal of reaching one million followers was a test of whether Zambians truly wanted his leadership.

“I admire some of my colleagues who are brave enough to jump in the political arena, form a political party, they are presidents and so on. I have a problem, I’m not that brave because I need some basis on which to believe that actually people know me and they believe in me. That’s why the first thing that we have done is to try and raise a million people. It’s a sign of confidence, if people don’t believe in what I’m sharing with them I won’t reach that one million. But if they do, I should be able to reach that one million,” Sangwa said.

“It’s a test even for me, I’m not arrogant enough to believe that actually people want me to serve them. I’m not that arrogant, that’s why I’ve never claimed any position, all I have said is I want to serve. I have never claimed any position that I want to be president or I want to be this. It’s for the people to decide, based on their evaluation of me, where they think I can be of service to this country.”

Sangwa insisted that he would not reinvent himself to please voters, saying doing so would amount to deceit.

“I can’t be everything, yes, each person brings their own qualities. I can’t be Michael Sata, I can’t be any of those, I can only be me, I know myself. If people do not like me, the problem is I also don’t like to start re-engineering myself and then reconstitute myself for the benefit of the voters, that’s again getting power by deceit. I can only be the authentic me. I can’t give them the sanitised version of me. And not only that, I’m 60 years old and then I can recreate myself, that would be a lie. My character is already baked. One of the guys came to me and said we want you to relate to people, we need to take pictures of you in a minibus, then I said no, that would be trying to lie to the people, I can only be me,” Sangwa said.

And Sangwa accused government of trying to manipulate the Constitution for political advantage ahead of the 2026 elections.

“There is no single sector in this country that is working as it should, that’s the problem, our judiciary is dead, our Parliament is dead, and you have a problem, even the Executive is not conducting itself as it should. For example, why would anybody be thinking of changing the Constitution 10 months before the election? Why would anybody who is sincere and loves this country be seeking to amend the Constitution 10 months before the election? Attend to what people are crying about, not the Constitution. In any case, the timing is off, the problem in Zambia has never been about the Constitution, our problem has been disrespect for the Constitution and what we are seeing is the worst form of disrespect for the Constitution,” he said.

He further criticised those who accepted to serve on the current constitutional technical committee.

“What is even a bigger scandal are those people that have accepted to be part of the technical committee, that’s a scandal because those are educated people that have accepted to be part of that technical committee, it’s simply wrong, that shouldn’t be happening. What’s going to happen is that government is trying to use the Constitution as a political tool to advantage itself for purposes of re-election. And that’s immoral, that’s wrong, it shouldn’t happen,” said Sangwa.

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