PF and the tribal card
By now it should be clear to all that it would be illogical, any more, to expect PF leaders not to express tribal sentiments.
The PF secretariat is sitting on a report that says one of the major reasons the party lost the 2021 elections was tribal campaigning. The PF had hoped that their heightened tribal campaigns would marginalise the UPND presidential candidate and consequently help them clinch re-election. But to their rude shock, they lost the election and in an embarrassing fashion for that matter.
But even with that humiliating lose and their own postmortem report, the PF have ploughed on with their ethic politics. During the Kabwata bye-election campaigns, the PF repeatedly insinuated that the UPND candidate, Andrew Tayengwa, was a Zimbabwean. This is despite Tayengwa and his mother being Zambians by birth. On the final day of that campaign, Chishimba Kambwili came out openly and asked the people of Kabwata ‘not to vote for a Zimbabwean.’
A few weeks following their bitter lose in Kabwata, PF acting SG Nickson Chilangwa mocked UPND voters in the 2021 elections as having voted pa ng’ombe (a cow), a derogatory remark clearly referenced to the Tonga people and like tribes. Yesterday their MCC for information & publicity Raphael Nakachinda called the people of Bweengwa and Tongas in general as abatutu (village bumpkins).
One may wonder why PF leaders can’t divorce themselves from tribal sentiments and hate speech given the clear message that majority of Zambian people despise this behaviour. The answer is simple if the saying ‘We get the leaders we deserve’ holds true. In short, like followers, like leaders. This would mean that the core of the PF base has elements who enjoy politics of tribal supremacy and dominance.
So when Kambwili, Nakachinda, Chilangwa, Luo or somebody else makes tribal utterances, they are simply playing to their political base. The political speak for such behaviour is ‘throwing red meat’ or ‘making a dog whistle’. In short, the PF have enough people, at its very core, who enjoy this manner of behaviour.
One must look no further than how key PF members are clamouring over Nakachinda and falling all over each other to attend to him following his arrest. A man they should be chastising for his divisive and shameful behaviour. Not the PF. To them Raphael Nakachinda is a hero.
Zambia Blog