No, please, Vernon Mwaanga, give us confidence; do not insult and undermine us!
By Azwell Banda,
Please believe me: my ruthless, vicious scientific critical assessment of our paper independence in 1964 does not mean I do not respect and treasure the sacrifices, determination, genuine hard work, courage, suffering, vision and dreams of freedom and independence from racist British colonialism all our freedom fighters exhibited during the struggles for our independence; I do hold in high esteem each and every one of them.
Among these gallant sons of Africa and Zambia is none other than Vernon Johnson Mwaanga. Vernon Johnson Mwaanga, born 25 June 1944, near Choma, is a qualified political scientist, international relations expert, diplomat, political negotiator, journalist, author, former cabinet minister in Kaunda and other Zambian regimes, businessman and many other things! While Vernon Johnson Mwaanga may not remember me, I will always recognise and respect his contributions to our struggles to return Zambia to multiparty politics.
How good and pleasant it would be for Vernon Mwaanga and many other independence generation Zambians still alive to be well looked after by the state and mined for their great wealth of knowledge and experience, of our beautiful country. They are not too many of them, the Vernon Mwaangas of Zambia, still alive today. We punish them with excruciating and humiliating poverty instead of treasuring them, making them available to all Zambians, and recording their memories and experiences for posterity. We are a people that insults and offends our roots: this way, we injure our present and damage our future by becoming a people who denigrates its history.
Vernon Johnson Mwaanga has every right to ventilate his views publicly, about the goings on in this country. I am ready, always, to defend his freedom of speech, even as I may disagree with his views, as is the case with his most recent opinions on the UPND, opposition parties and alternatives to the UPND government. It is a truism of journalism and life that once one’s views are published, one has offered themselves to public examination, discussion and criticism, of one’s views. Vernon Johnson Mwaanga, as a politician, writer, author and journalist is fully aware of all this, whenever he expresses himself in circumstances where he may be publicly quoted.
Vernon Mwaanga has widely been quoted as saying he expects the UPND to retain power in 2026 precisely because there is no credible alternative to the UPND government, in the opposition. It appears Mwaanga expects the Patriotic Front (PF) to be further weakened by 2026 as a number of its leaders will be jailed apparently because of overwhelming evidence implicating them in crimes. Although Zambians are “dissatisfied” with load shedding, this will pass as better rains will restore our hydropower generation capacity. Similarly, better rains may improve our food situation and our dissatisfaction with mealie meal prices will dissipate.
“People may be dissatisfied with mealie meal prices for now, the situation is bound to change between now and 2026. First of all, if we have a good season, as they are expecting, I was looking at the weather forecast made by the Washington Weather Bureau, which is the biggest weather bureau in the world, they said that Zambia is going to have a very good rainy season this year. So, at the end of the day, if we come to 2026 and people are dissatisfied with UPND, what is their alternative? Is it PF? The answer is a no,” Mwaanga is quoted as saying, by News Diggers.
First things first: it is now abundantly clear that Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND choir got into government by committing a massive electoral fraud: they lied to Zambians that they would drastically lower the cost of living and doing business. In government, they have become extremely arrogant and have rapidly driven up the cost of living and doing business. A more combative, militant and politically conscious population would long have violently booted Hakainde Hichilema and his pathetic, zealotic UPND political choir out of government. Vernon Johnson Mwaanga must surely know this?
Besides the extremely high cost of mealie meal and electricity, everything else that matters to sustain life in Zambia has shot up, since the UPND got into government. Vernon Mwaanga knows this, and surely must understand, as a political scientist, that the legitimacy of the UPND government has been eroded by their pathological numerous lies? Ironically, Mwaanga is encouraging the UPND government to “stick to their agenda”!
“So, just stick to this agenda which you have because that agenda is beginning to produce results especially after this debt restructuring which was a major problem. The people will know what to do. For me, I don’t care whether Edgar Lungu, whether the courts decide that he should stand, the voters will know how to deal with him. So, just stick to your programmes. Carry on working, work hard and produce results which is what people are looking for and at the end of it all, they will not be interested in the noise which is coming from other parties. They are looking at… and you will be able to say this is what we have done since we came into office. The list is growing and that’s what matters in politics, the results.”
This is dangerous nonsense to the extreme, coming from Vernon Mwaanga’s mouth! Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND are raping and ripping apart the very foundations of Zambia, its Constitution, courts, Executive and Legislature, and all state institutions, in their ruthless efforts to cling to power. And Vernon Johnson Mwaanga does not “care whether Edgar Lungu, whether the courts decide that he should stand, the voters will know how to deal with him.”
Holy Mother of Jesus! Was this man truly with us when we fought to restore our full political rights during our struggles for multiparty democracy? Why is Mwaanga ripping apart his proud reputation as a fighter for democracy and multipartyism? It matters terribly, absolutely, existentially, what the courts will say about Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s eligibility to stand in the 2026 elections and beyond. At this point in time, this is a definitive moment for our judiciary: it either affirms its relevance in our country or forfeits its right to exist, as it is.
Hichilema and the UPND promised to be far more superior to the Patriotic Front in developing and advancing our freedoms, Constitution and democracy. As in all things, in this too Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND lied, and are therefore an imposter and illegitimate government surviving in government because Zambians are a very tolerant people, and extremely peaceful people. Why is Vernon Johnson Mwaanga not encouraging Zambians to rectify the humongous political mistake they made on August the 12th, 2021, by electing political frauds, cheats, into government? The truth and principles matter, all the time, especially for political veterans.
There is something chillingly cold and sadistic in these opinions, expressed by an individual who participated in our struggle for independence, early independence government, and above all, in our gruelling long struggles against the one party state and for multipartyism, for “alternatives” in government. No freedom fighter, genuine liberator, can tell a suffering people such as Zambians have been reduced to, today, that they have no alternative to their suffering than to retain in government their tormentors, precisely because “they have no alternatives”! This is a profound moral, philosophical, ideological and political repudiation of everything a true liberator believes in: absolute trust and faith in the people to be their own true liberators, and to always sort out their tormentors. For genuine freedom fighters, the people always have alternatives to suffering, injustice, autocracy, dictatorship and the inevitable lies, corruption and all forms of oppression and exploitation.
Tellingly, Vernon Mwaanga says this, about the Socialist Party (SP), quoted in the same newspaper: “Is it Socialist Party? No. They (Zambians) had enough of socialism under UNIP and it brought misery. So, what is the alternative? There is no alternative at the moment. There’s no alternative, so, you colleagues who are in government, just work hard and produce results because come 2026, I expect this government to get back into power because there is no credible alternative available”. Mwaanga was speaking when Minister of Water Development Collins Nzovu apparently paid “a courtesy call” on him at his residence. Mwaanga told Nzovu that even if people were dissatisfied with the UPND in 2026, “there was no credible alternative to elect into power.”
Now, Vernon Johnson Mwaanga understands and knows that there are many kinds of socialism: he is a political scientist, educated thus, in the UK. Vernon Mwaanga must find time and educate himself on the fundamental differences between Kaunda and UNIP’s “socialism” and the “socialism” of the Socialist Party. His reckless and mindless dismissal of the SP reeks of opportunism, ingratiating and a fawning attitude to the governing party, with a view to carelessly undermine the SP. Again, in a country saturated with right-wing and all kinds of capitalist political parties, why is Vernon Mwaanga trashing one of the extremely few, openly socialist alternatives to all the capitalist parties on offer to Zambians? I am shocked at the mindlessness with which Mwaanga has rubbished perhaps the only real ideological alternative to the UPND and all other political parties Zambians have: the SP.
“You look at the opposition parties which are there, which one? PF, they have not even had the elections to elect the president. You know how many past presidential candidates there were? Nine. After the elections, the party split even more. So, you just have to stick to the lane where you are, continue giving solutions. People are interested in giving solutions. They are not interested in the noise which is coming from UKA or whatever they call themselves. One day this is the secretary general, they wake up the next day, you find there is another. Following day, these ones have split from UKA, they’ve gone,” Mwaanga told Nzovu.
Mwaanga, it has been reported, “encouraged the UPND government to stick to its developmental agenda, adding that people were not interested in hearing the noise which was coming from the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA),” News Diggers has reported.
Of course the US and its Western allies and institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will support Hichilema as he is their very willing puppet. The extreme and punitive austerity they have unleashed upon Zambians to ensure they can collect their enslaving debt and loot and plunder our natural resources is the programme Mwaanga is encouraging Hakainde and his UPND not to abandon: how patriotic and anti-imperialist! Zambians have a responsibility to themselves: to sort out their tormentors, oppressors and exploiters, whoever their supporters are, including political veterans like Mwaanga!
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