‘KUTUMPA UKU’
The use of dexterity or cunning, especially to deceive the poor, is highly contemptuous.
Mr Hakainde Hichilema promised the poor people of this country that if they voted for him on August 11, 2021, he would reduce the price of mealie meal to K50.
Today he is parading himself in ShopRite next to ZNS mealie meal, which is being sold for K229, in a desperate attempt shore up his declining political fortunes.
In many places, mealie meal is being sold for more than K300. What is he trying to prove? Except by sleight of logic, K50 and K229 (and K300 plus) cannot be harmonised.
This is probably what he himself would call, “kutumpa uku”.
They won elections on the strength of their promises and it is true to say they are not carrying them out. Deception is always a pretty contemptible vice, but to deceive the poor is the meanest.
Dishonesty is always distressing and sometimes dangerous, but when it manifests itself in the Head of State – and becomes government policy – it needs to be done away with.
We are in a very serious crisis, but a crisis does not have to mean that things get worse and worse. It should be a crossroads, a time for decisions – in this case, about which way we want our society, politics, and economy to go.
It is terribly frustrating and humiliating for parents to be unable to provide nshima for the family because of the high cost of living. It undermines their human dignity.
Fred M’membe
President of Socialist Party
