LUNGU MUST HEAL
…HH owes Lungu no apology, says Mposha
By Kombe Mataka/ The Mast
WATER development minister Mike Mphosha says if former president Edgar Lungu wants to shun state functions he must do so without maligning the government.
Mposha noted that Lungu did not attend both the Africa Day commemoration and commissioning of the Kenneth Kaunda Wing of the Mulungushi International Conference Centre (MICC) built by China.
He said the former president had a right to exercise his freedom of association and assembly “or not” but that he should not make false claims that the government had organised cadres to embarrass him at the two events.
“Edgar Lungu must heal. Time has passed. The train has passed. There is another team now to clean up the mess that PF created. They don’t have to justify the shunning of the event. If they want to shun state functions, let them do it. I think these are their freedoms. We all have a freedom to associate or not to but don’t go out and try to dissuade, mislead, maligning government by saying they are hiring people,” he said. “President HH [Hakainde Hichilema] is too busy to play that kind of politics. This country has moved away from petty politics. This country has moved to the politics through which people can better their lives socially and economically. That is our focus. Let them not draw us into petty politics. We want to change how people will perceive Zambia in the next five years and beyond.”
Mposha said the UPND had no business in embarrassing Lungu because the Zambians who are the masters already embarrassed him on August 2021.
“I don’t have a problem if he shuns state functions but to go and issue statements even challenging the state to show proof that he was invited and to issue a statement that people mobilised to try and embarrass him! UPND has no business in embarrassing any PF member or the former president. What I know is that the former president Lungu was already embarrassed by Zambians on August 12 who made a decision to vote him out. He must not blame everybody. The Zambians are the masters who employ political leaders,” he said.
“I know it takes time to heal but look at RB (Rupiah Banda). Let him learn from him. RB lost elections in 2011. He was taken to court by PF but he still attended state functions. When Zambia won the Africa Cup in 2012, [then vice-president Dr] Guy Scott and Rupiah Banda were sent to receive the trophy. He represented the government and came with the trophy and we think that as UPND we have no time for ‘co cise’ (baseless) type of politics. We are busy cleaning up the mess which they left.”
Mposha, who is also Munali UPND member of parliament, said the reference to President Hichilema’s refusal to attend state functions when he was in opposition was unnecessary.
“They are also reminding us of how President Hakainde Hichilema shunned State functions when he was in the opposition. First of all, the debate is very unnecessary considering the fact that the projects we are talking about were contracted out of tax payer’s money. These projects were built out of tax payer’s money, and when you look at the conference facility it was a gift from China. Now that gift came about because of the good relationship that exits between the Republic of China and the Republic of Zambia. Nothing personal or nothing to do with PF or Edgar Lungu or when the project started because Zambia has been there from 1964. The relationship that Zambia enjoys with China came in long before Edgar Lungu. Long before he even thought of being in leadership or before anyone thought of forming PF. We owe our appreciations to the founding fathers,” he said.
“HH owes Lungu no apology. Between the two, it is actually HH who should have been apologised to for what he was made to go through. HH has created an unprecedented style of leadership where when we meet our colleagues in PF regalia there is no fight. We wave and greet each other and that is what we want and this is an environment which when Edgar Lungu was given chance to rule the country failed to provide. There were places that you could not step in if you were a known UPND member or wearing any red colour. Now we don’t have to remind Edgar Lungu about all these things. Sometimes it is important to take off one’s pride and face reality as it is. HH shunned events because he was being blocked from even attending funerals. He was being blocked from landing at the airport.”
Mposha warned that the end of PF would be very disastrous because of the style of leadership of “listening only to themselves”.
“Edgar Lungu’s attitude of playing to the gallery, to the cadres, is not helping PF. Yes, Zambians understand that it is not UPND alone, we are in a multiparty dispensation but at the rate he is going the PF will remain totally irrelevant. Look at the rate at which people are resigning from PF! If you saw at the funeral of Alexander Chikwanda, I was part of the delegation of the Vice-President [Mutale Nalumango] and they went all out to politicise that funeral. They shout ‘alebwelelapo! (he’s coming back to power)! Now if that is representative of the feelings of Zambians, he would not be where he is today,” said Mposha. “If the money that they borrowed to build infrastructure was properly accounted for, Zambians would have been very happy and PF would have still been relevant to the discourse of this country. But because of political violence, the tribal politics they had created, the corruption which was going on, all these things displeased Zambians and they decided that we wanted another political party. So anyone who wants us to be clapping for PF for the construction of that conference facility or any other project is missing the point.”