M’membe, KBF should emulate Nevers’ mature politics – Mweetwa
By Kombe Mataka
UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says Socialist Party leader Fred
M’membe and his Zambia Must Proper counterpart Kelvin Fube Bwalya should
emulate Nevers Mumba’s mature and honest style of politics.
Addressing the media at the party secretariat yesterday, Mweetwa described Dr M’membe and Bwalya as kindergarten politicians who practice politics with an individualistic approach.
“We thank Dr Nevers Mumba for his maturity and honesty practice of
politics. He has been around the political arena and knows that better politics is that which when you do it is not in your
interest but national interest. We encourage these political learners, many of whom are still in political kindergarten, political nursery, to learn from the mature politics being practiced by Nevers Mumba. Otherwise some of them may end up where they are and history is very clear when you take an individualist approach to politics, you
end up with what president Michael Sata would refer to as nashala neka party. Some of them present will very soon qualify for that title,” he said.
Mweetwa said as much as it was good to have the Socialist Party, Zambia
Must Prosper and many others in the interest of democracy, some of the parties’ politics were targeted at President Hichilema.
“When you listen to KBF and Fred M’membe, when you listen to PF and the things they are talking about, you only come to one conclusion. The country is on the right trajectory,” he said. “But it is only presenting one dangerous perception that it would
appear their fight is not about the new dawn adminstration’s delivery to the expectations of the people. Their fight is about an
individual, HH. Because if it was about what should be done for this country, they should have been behaving like Dr Nevers Mumba.”
Mweetwa said Bwalya’s support for President Hichilema when he was in the alliance was not genuine but a calculated move to have former president Edgar Lungu out of his way.
“We also got concerned when KBF made startling comments to say, ‘it is now time to fix the fixer’. What this showed to many Zambians including ourselves is that when KBF decided to support HH for the presidency his support may not have been genuine. It could be that he wanted elimination method of opponents one by one so that we reach to a level where he can now have less opponents and may have a better opportunity. So he just wanted president Lungu to be kicked out of the way of his personal ambition so that once Lungu is out he will now have HH to deal with. That is why we are shocked that when the citizens want to fix this nation, KBF wants to fix an individual,” Mweetwa said. “It is completely misplaced and shows to some extent how individualistic and selfish probably he could be. That is why when in the PF he could not get to presidency. That was the only departure point. He never disagreed with PF for a very long time until he saw that he was not getting the presidency but again talking about presidency anybody can be president. We as a party in government will not rule out any one’s chances of being president in Zambia because people in the past said ‘Micheal will never be president’. He became president. We have seen people saying ‘HH will never be president’. He is the current President. Anybody can be president but that anybody going forward has to be qualified. It should not be anybody becoming president but those who are qualified to deal with the
challenges of the moment and the future. So those who present themselves as not been trustworthy, we must begin to take note of
them because leadership is anchored on integrity, principle, honesty and trust. In his attempt to fix HH, KBF will fail. We are also holding the opinion that it was too early for him to come out the way he has come
out given that he is one of those who supported HH.”
Mweetwa warned Bwalya that opposition politics was not child’s play.
“It is not anchored on individualistic, selfish beliefs but by mass movements,” he said.
Mweetwa said the UPND was not scared of a strong opposition and that it was not interfering with the operations of the public media.
He said accusations by Bwala that President Hichilema was micromanaging government was lies.
“We are quick to note that at the launch of this political party, KBF made certain statements that cannot go unnoticed. First of all he accused HH as running government as a lone individual. This is blatant lies. Lying right through your teeth in broad daylight! This is white collar lies,” he said. “The nation knows that HH is running government with his Cabinet.
In that Cabinet there are leaders or presidents of political parties who are part of the alliance and the decisions that are implemented for the governance of this country through the new dawn administration are a product of Cabinet consultations and consensus. To therefore allege that HH is running government and the alliance as a lone individual is political malpractice and must and should not be entertained by well-meaning Zambians.”
On Bwalya’s accusations that President Hichilema was auctioning the country by running it like a company, Mweetwa reminded “Mr KBF and those who may have like mind to say an economy of a country is sum total of the economic activities in a
country represented by companies and business enterprises”.
“We insist that the new dawn government is not the government of handouts but opportunities and those who will work will benefit and those who may not work and require social protection will equally be protected. So to KBF, HH will continue to run the country like a company because this is what he said even before he got elected,” said Mweetwa.