GOVERNANCE activist Brebner Changala says the PF is a collection of vandals whose misrule extends to tribalism.
“Let President Lungu wake up for once, or this country will be on fire sooner rather than later,” Changala warns.
He says if those in the PF don’t like Tongas, Lozis and people from North Western Province, “the best these gangsters can do is [to] allow them to have their self-determination so that they rule themselves.”
Changala also charges that Vice-President Inonge Wina has betrayed her own “kith and kin” by opting for silence when they are being insulted and degraded.
Changala was reacting to commerce minister and Malole PF member of parliament Christopher Yaluma who, last weekend, told his constituents that the people of Southern Province were so intolerant of other tribes, such that they could beat up non-southerners.
“UPND cinama nshi (what kind of an animal is the UPND)? Mwebantu imwe mwebenda(you people who travel) ako kene mufwele kukanwa akalembelwe ati PF (that same PF-branded face-mask you are wearing) teti upite mu Southern Province naufwala kukanwa bakakuma (you can’t pass through Southern Province wearing that; they will beat you),” Yaluma lied.
“Bakakuma bakakufumya namu bus tawakaninemo (they will beat you up and not even allow you to get on a bus). Takwaba ukulumbula ishiwi ilya PF nangu party imbi, FDD, ishili iyakulya (there is no mentioning of the PF or any other party, for that matter, like the FDD, which is not from there). Aba abantu baishibana fye bekabeka (these people just know themselves). Tabafwaya (they don’t want)! ….”
He added that: “takwaba nangu umo MP mu Northern Province uwa UPND (there is no single UPND MP in Northern Province).”
“Takwaba nangu umo MP mu Northern Province nangu ku Muchinga nangu ku Luapula nangu ku Central Province (there is no single UPND MP in Northern, Muchinga, Luapula and Central Provinces),” Yaluma claimed.
“Takuli (there is nothing) except ku North-Western naku Western (in North-Western and Western Provinces). Ku North-West babako banga babili, nokufuma balefuma (there are only two UPND MPs in North-Western and they are about to resign). Bushe cinshi GBM aya fuminamo (what made GBM to leave)? Efyo ndefwaya mipushe (that’s what I want to ask you). Cinshi GBM afumineko (what made GBM to leave)? Aliya asanga ati tamuli ubuyo (he went but found out that there is no benefit). Bucushi bwekabweka (it’s all suffering).”
All the 12 constituencies in North-Western Province in North-Western Province are held by the UPND and six out of 15 in Central Province are held by UPND members of parliament.
The minister also told the gathering that southerners: “baliitemwa (they are self-centred),”
“Elo kaitemwe tafwaya nangu umuntu umbi kano umutundu wakwe (and a self-centred person doesn’t want any other person, unless a tribesman). Nomba, elo imwe muno mulelumbula ati UPND kuno mwebantu (now you people here are mentioning the UPND)! Tamwakwata nensoni (aren’t you even ashamed)?” said Yaluma.
But Changala called The Mast and lamented that the viral video of Yaluma disparaging southerners was nothing but: “hate speech against a tribe that they don’t like in PF.”
“I want to bring Edgar Lungu to life, if he is hibernating elsewhere. He has no option but to get rid of Yaluma. He is supposed to be disciplined for using his privileged ministerial position to incite hatred against very innocent Tonga people who have literally nothing against the very Bembas he (Yaluma) was preaching to,” Changala said. “Yaluma must be gotten rid of by President Edgar Lungu! He is holding that office of minister in trust by the people of Zambia. Yaluma’s conduct is a manifestation of the entire PF administration led by one Edgar Chagwa Lungu – that it is dawned to them that one Tonga citizen is about to assume the office of public service. They are jittery and they are now using tribal sentiments to scare away the Bembas that they will have nothing to do with a Tonga.”
He is distraught that many people in the PF have discarded the motto of ‘One Zambia, One Nation.’
“There is no way a Cabinet minister, in charge of commerce for all the 10 provinces, can go and say the people of Southern Province can kill PF members when they go to Southern Province. Has he got evidence to that effect? That is banditry and that is against the Constitution,” he said. “PF is a collection of vandals who have guided this country on tribal lines. They think they will benefit from this to stay in power longer than it’s necessary.”
Changala has since urged all Bemba-speaking, people who mean well to disown Yaluma.
“From today Yaluma is an illegitimate Cabinet minister who will be in that office by fraud if President Edgar Lungu does not remove him from his position,” Changala said. “He (President Lungu) has tolerated Nkandu Luo – same thinking. Now it’s Yaluma who has gone public inciting the Bemba people to rise against the Tongas.”
Meanwhile, Changala indicated that: “if they (those in the PF) don’t want Tongas, Lozis and North-Western Province, as I hear in that video, the best these gangsters can do is [to] allow them to have their self-determination so that they rule themselves.”
“If PF doesn’t want Southern, Western and North Western provinces, allow them to rule themselves. Let them have their self-determination,” he charged.
He further asserted that Vice-President Wina deserved strongest condemnation for choosing to remain silent amidst tribal sentiments, even against her own tribe – Lozi.
“Her own kith and kin are under siege and she cannot defend her own people, yet she is number two in this fiasco,” noted Changala. “You [Vice-President Wina] have betrayed them as they are being abused, insulted and degraded in the most barbaric and banditry way by one tribe that thinks it’s superior to any other tribe in this country. Let President Lungu wake up for once, or this country will be on fire sooner rather than later.”