HARRY Kalaba says he does not tolerate tribal politics.
Kalaba, the Democratic Party (DP) president, says his party will not go into an alliance where the DP will be subservient to any party.
He said, on Phoenix FM radio’s ‘Let the people talk’ programme yesterday, that the DP would not be like the PF government whose senior officials are from two provinces of Zambia.
On Wednesday morning, a picture circulated on social media of Kalaba, lawyer-cum-politician Kelvin Fube Bwalya (KBF) and former finance minister Felix Mutati.
The trio’s picture was indicative of a breakfast meeting but fuelled speculation of a possible political alliance.
But some social media commenters have branded the picture a tribal one.
“Even if we allow an alliance to be formed in future…And I pray that something tangible will come out of our consultations. But I don’t think we’ll remain naïve to allow ourselves to behave like the way the PF is behaving where you have only about two provinces running the country,” Kalaba said. “We can’t do that. So, those who are propagating that [tribal grouping], that is their own thing and they have got their own agenda. All we can tell you is that look at our party, Democratic Party. We are a party that does not tolerate tribal politics. I don’t tolerate tribal politics.”
He regretted that Zambia was more divided today because of tribal sentiments.
Kalaba, however, indicated that there was no caveat within the constitutional framework of Zambia that stopped him from consulting somebody from the same region as him.
“I know comrade Mutati comes from the Northern, the other one is from Muchinga and myself from the other side. But it doesn’t stop us from making consultations,” he said.
Kalaba emphasised that for now, “for reasons of clarity,” there was no alliance that had been created.
“Please, take it [that way]. When there will be an alliance, we’ll tell you that that is an alliance. Our meeting was just consultative and it was not the first we have had,” he explained. “We have met I don’t know how many times. It was not the first time we were meeting. But because somebody had that picture, they thought it was the very first time [of meeting]. ‘Oh yes, they have an alliance.’ No! Wait a minute! Something even bigger than what you saw is happening!”
He added; “we have told Zambians [that] some of us are not jokers; we can’t start a race we can’t finish.”
“We can’t begin chasing an animal we cannot catch. Never! This animal is being caught next year and the people of Zambia will have relief,” Kalaba said, adding that his and others’ job in the DP now was to bridge the divide. “We’ll seek to talk to everybody that we should talk to. There are people who were accusing us that why don’t you work with your friends. But when you see us talking to other people, again you are the ones who are saying ‘oh! They are tribal!’ If there is a person that doesn’t like tribalism, it’s me.”
He underscored that the DP would not go into a political alliance where it would be underestimated.
“I want to reiterate this point; we have said [that] we are not going to go in any alliance where people will be treating the Democratic Party…Or where our interests will be subservient to their own interests,” said Kalaba. “[But] we’ll go in an alliance where there is mutual respect, where there is no presumption of who is going to be this and that. That is the spirit in which you see discussing amongst us.”