UPND AND ELECTORAL FRAUD
The UPND has not been genuinely winning by-elections in Muchinga, Northern, Luapula and Copperbelt provinces. It’s been nothing but shameless fraud.
But we are told in Proverbs 20:17 that
“Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.” This verse sounds a warning against fraudulent dealings. Like many frauds, there is a temporary pleasure involved (Proverbs 9:17).
But the consequences of that fraud will come, eventually. Those results can be intensely bitter. Most people have, at some point, discovered something hard in a soft bite of food while chewing. The experience can be surprising and painful.
Some have even broken a tooth biting down on a hard object. One can only imagine what it would be like to start chewing a sweet, soft piece of bread, only to have it suddenly turn into rocks. Yet this is what fraud does: promising pleasure (Genesis 3:4–5) but leading to suffering.
A related English proverb is the phrase “crime doesn’t pay.”
Obviously, people commit many frauds because it’s a way of getting benefits. The point of the English expression, as well as Solomon’s proverb, is that the eventual consequences greatly outweigh the short-term benefits.
The Holy Scripture records a drastic example of this, when Achan looked on what God had said was off-limits. Rather than following the command to destroy everything in Jericho, he took “a beautiful cloak from Shinar, and 200 shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels” (Joshua 7:21). After gaining what seemed so attractive, Achan hid the loot in his tent.
However, his sin cost him his life. According to Johsua 7:22–25, messengers from Joshua ran to Achan’s tent, retrieved the stolen items, and laid them down before the Lord. Then Joshua and the people of Israel took Achan, the illicit goods, and Achan’s sons and daughters—all accomplices in the fraud —to the Valley of Achor, where they put Achan and his family to death by stoning.
So let Mr Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND continue to deceive themselves. They shall soon meet their Waterloo. Their activities have a predictable ending.
Severe defeat or failure awaits them in 2026!
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party