By David Zulu.
UPND President Hakainde Hichilema’s interview was reminiscent of the old soccer days when Zambia played her archrivals like Zaire (Zayiii, in the accent of iconic football commentator late Dennis Liwewe), the Magreb which comprised teams like Morocco, Egypt and Algeria(Alugeria).
Instead of listening in the privacy of my home, I decided to take a two pronged approach, by driving around the city of Lusaka, while listening to the program from my ear phones, and making random stops at bus stations, markets, shopping malls or simply by road sides, specifically to see the mood of the people.
What I saw was staggering. Taxi and minibus drivers, marketeers, roadside metal fabricators, mobile money stall dealers, saloons and barbershop operators and ordinary shoppers appear to have all been synchronised in one spirit and pregnant with indescribable expectation of what Hichilema would say.
A visitor that just arrived from abroad wouldn’t be blamed to think the nation was about to turn into a pillar of salt. I agree, I would have heard a pin drop from Jupiter. The nation was on a stand still. What was also evident was that people wanted this age old matter dealt once and for all.
One young man told me;
“Today is a very big opportunity for HH to shut these people up. We are tired of them. He should not politicize the program, let him do his best to explain as directly as possible his role as a consultant because he’s being accused as a consultant and not as UPND President. He must tell them who was involved in the mines, possibly mention names like Francis Kaunda, Norman Mbazima, Elias Chipimo, Valentine Chitalu and Edgar Lungu himself. On how he got rich, if possible, let him draw up his investment path. Last time he explained how he bought 6 Heifers which multiplied into resourceful herds.”
What was also clear was that people were amazed how a matter that happened more than a quarter of century ago and passed through four successive governments whose economies recorded epic performances, was proving to be a thorn in the flesh of only the current government, remarkably and incidentally an administration accused of unbridled corruption and blamed for abysmal failure in the running of public affairs.
The landfall of Tropical storm ‘Hurricane Edith’ was a disaster, not for Hichilema as hoped by the PF, but for Edith Nawakwi herself, President Edgar Lungu and the Patriotic Front. The tornado crystallized a 25 year old privatisation myth into a two hour alluring vindication that many described as convincing and mesmerising.
After Hichilema’s blistering radio interview performance concluded, cheers rang out across Lusaka and I believe right across the Republic. I heard quite a number of long car honks, yes It was as though the Zambia National team had scored the critical goal. There was indeed a sigh of great relief among many citizens and the people want to now move on.
MMD President Nevers Mumba wrote on his Facebook account;
“This is the healing moment Zambia has been waiting for. Now Zambians can demand that the same question asked to Hakainde Hichilema be asked to the current crop of leaders in the PF government. How did they get rich on a government salary? We shall finally get all the answers we have been waiting for. Who took the extra $750,000 from each of the 42 fire engines? What have we done with the over $15 billion debt contracted? To clean up our society, Zambians have to put aside the divisive political affiliations, the segmentation of society along tribal or racial lines and face this opportunity as one people”.
There’s a general agreement that the PF are being vindictive of the UPND President, and by and large, a great number of Zambians believe the theory, that they would want to harm him if given the slightest opportunity to detain him. Hichilema himself has raised these concerns and citizens across the board believe him. The clap trap that HH’s support base is regional is a far fetched myth. The reaction that could come from the news of his arrest and detention would therefore be spontaneous and on a national scale. Don’t we have enough on our plate already to having to deal with such riots and the threat to national security that HH’s arrest would bring?