By Guston Chola Sr
The history of political parties since the formation of the African National Congress (ANC) in the late forties favours United Party for National Development (UPND) to win tomorrow’s general election.
This follows a simple analysis of what is in the name, a fact that many will disagree with and which others will find acceptable, depending on which side one is, enforced by past victories.
In many instances naming or selecting a name denotes future precedents or what that person or organisation stands for or will do. Names are randomly rarely given but done so after great consideration. Believe it or not the stars are firmly on UPND to carry the day. Granted that various opinion polls, for and against, solicited or otherwise, have given incumbent Patriotic Front (PF) and President Edgar Chagwa Lungu the victory, the win is for his rival Hakainde Hichilema.
The British settler government did not allow Africans to belong, let alone form a political party, but were only allowed social gatherings in the form of welfare associations. These were considered not harmful. Lacking thrust, certain of Northern Rhodesia’s nationalists dumped welfare associations and formed what is to be Zambia’s first political party the African National Congress (ANC). The purpose was to annex the Africans and to give them a voice, a privilege that was denied to them for many years. By inference a congress is the social act of assembling for some common purpose or a group of people with a common ideology trying together to achieve certain general goals.
The formation of the ANC achieved this goal, being the original intention. The result was soon to show. After almost a decade of lackadaisical leadership there was stirring in the party and an agitation for action. Those who thought the ANC as a Congress did not go far enough broke away and formed a much more militant Zambia African National Congress (ZANC) which attracted the former general secretary of ANC David Kaunda to become its leader.
ZANC’s militancy was short lived and soon the party was proscribed.
But they liked what they saw and a new party, much more ferocious came into being with the formation of the United National Independence Party (UNIP) by Paul Kalichini. They invited Mainza Chona, a lawyer, who had just failed to oust Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula in Choma as ANC leader, to be interim president waiting for Kaunda’s release from prison in Salisbury. Thus, with Mainza Chona’s faction, UNIP was born.
But their decision to reserve the presidency for Kaunda who was in prison in Salisbury did not go well with some. Unionist Dickson Konkola left the party as he could not accept a foreigner to be their president.
Whilst ANC was contented to maintain its status of a pressure group, UNIP had introduced a new
concept in its midst – independence. Its major thrust was to end the newly introduced Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland with its racial segregation.
UNIP sought to unite Africans and fight for independence, two aims which were entrenched in its name. Then came with it the slogan – independence now – which resonated well with the African population buoyed by colour bar and lack of prospect for the majority.
Hence UNIP was able to bring independence to Zambia. People desired independence and willingly
stood for their leaders and independence became a reality on 24 October 1964. UNIP had achieved its purpose and entrenching their rule became more paramount. This culminated in the introduction of a one-party State, and in 1972 swallowed up the ANC in the Choma Declaration which dispensed with plural politics. Limited civil liberties, economic hardships and other listings were unfathomable for Zambians.
This called for change. And they were not to wait for long. Certain of the nation’s luminaries met in Lusaka and the pressure group Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) was formed.
There were two key words prominent in MMD – movement and democracy. The movement was
necessary to bring the people together and to reintroduce democracy which had been lost and civil rights eroded by the UNIP dictatorship. As a movement it drove people’s expectations and achieved what it was formed for, and luckily for Zambia it saw multiple parties being formed.
But development was still lacking. It was in the second term of the MMD that one Anderson Kambela Mazoka decided to join politics. His entry to a humble position of treasurer in Lusaka’s Bauleni Ward raised many eyebrows and flustered many feathers.
Mazoka’s decision proved too much for MMD national secretary Michael Sata in particular who
seemingly had ambitions of his own. Sata saw the action as a door ajar for Mazoka to get to the presidency of MMD and Zambia, which obviously he was hankering for. It was totally not accepted. He could not stomach the idea. Hounded out, Mr Mazoka had no option and left to form his own party – the UPND. Well, as the saying goes, either dance well or quit the ballroom, and he chose to do just that.
In the meantime, Mr Sata worked hard to push President Frederick Chiluba to go for a third term, a plot he knew was bound to fail. But all along he knew that it gave him chance to lead MMD, being the national secretary. However, Mr Sata’s scheming came to a rude stop when the mantle fell on the former vice-president Levy Patrick Mwanawasa to run as MMD candidate. He tried to linger on in the MMD until he was ferreted out of the party and forced to admit he was the leader of the Patriotic Front.
Like all parties born out of frustration the Patriotic Front was a party without character. Until it won election, the PF existed without a manifesto of its own. It survived on sarcasm of its leader and very few imagined it could even win elections. What propelled it to 2011 victory was the ineptitude of the MMD and, above all, the slogan of ‘more money in the pocket, lower taxes’ and other sweet sounding promises which have disintegrated in its ten-year reign.
Today, Zambians are paying heavily for being overly trusting. The debts which MMD cleared have come back to haunt the nation again. The national reserves which MMD built up to $3.15 billion had all been decimated. PF has not even added a dime. Instead, is a crippling international debt while corruption has punctured the ceiling. Inflation, which was less than six percent when PF took over, has galloped to unimaginable 24 percent. Civil liberties which MMD reintroduced have all been curtailed. Today, no one is at liberty to criticise the
government without a threat of going to jail.
The courts have been compromised and nothing tangible is expected unless one was from the ruling
class. The police no longer serve Zambians but those in power.
Whereas PF has no indicator of why it was formed apart from patriotism, UPND has massive. The first is united. Thus, first it seeks to unite Zambia, bringing together fragmented people set apart by the PF’s divide and rule policy and tribalism talk.
The second one is a party that stands for national development. Since political parties started being formed UPND is a party that has made unity and development its goal.
It might have been the core attention of Mr Mazoka to create something different away from what the MMD were doing. As a former chief executive officer of Anglo-American Zambia and Zambia Railways, he had seen the impending doom coming through unregulated privatisation and wished to play a role in future to rectify it. Companies were being wholesomely sold and liquidated. Zambia would need a fresh start. And he would be around to offer a hand. He didn’t live long to see his dream come true.
The current leader of UPND Hakainde Hichilema, like president Mwanawasa, was totally unprepared for the leadership roles thrust on him. He was busy making money as senior partner at Grant Thornton
and many people have derided him for being a perpetual loser. They point to the number of times that he had stood and lost. Perhaps that’s his virtue. French sculptor Francois Auguste-Rene Rodin says patience is also a form of action. As a sculptor he knew better the art of patience to reach perfection.
No one ever imagined the kind of attention that HH has been receiving from every corner of Zambia.
PF and its candidate incumbent President Edgar Chagwa Lungu and their sympathisers have plotted endlessly how they can prevent him from standing but to no avail. They have tried, through Edith Nawakwi who seems to be their angel even though she made Zambia lose $6 million through the Carlington maize scandal, over privatisation and other perceived evils, has always emerged unscathed.
HH has faced a barrage of hurdles during this election, PF have restricted his movements and denied flying rights, but still wormed his way around. His resolve must be a warning that things are no longer the same. The persecution that has been witnessed has had no precedence in Zambia since independence. Mr Hichilema has not been given a chance to present himself. There is nothing that PF have not plotted against him just to ensure President Lungu does not leave State House. The Zambian airspace has become his personal to holder and that of his henchmen. They have thrown caution to the wind in their guest to win.
Once that former United States statesman Benjamin Franklin advised: sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power. The opposite is what Zambia is receiving.
There are 15 men and one woman vying to become president of the Republic of Zambia after August 12, but historical fact favours one whose party stands to unite the people of Zambia and ensure national
development.
Perhaps it’s him that will fix it. It shall be known when every vote is counted and announced.
The author is a former deputy minister in the Mwanawasa government, a former diplomat and former Times of Zambia deputy editor in chief. Cell: +260 966 783383.