ZAMBIA NEEDS EXORCISM TO CURE UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS OF HATE – LUBINDA

ZAMBIA NEEDS EXORCISM TO CURE UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS OF HATE – LUBINDA

PF faction Acting President Given Lubinda says Zambia needs exorcism to heal from unprecedented levels of hate which emanates from the highest office.

He adds that all those who sat to arrive at the decision to declare Tasila Lungu’s Chawama seat vacant before her father’s burial must consider themselves inhumane.

Meanwhile, Lubinda says government’s emotional outbursts over Bill 7 show that the proposed amendments are not for the nation but for a few individuals.

In an interview, Monday, Lubinda wondered how Tasila, daughter of late former president Edgar Lungu, was expected to appear in Parliament when her father had not been buried six months after his death.

“It’s so shameful that people can gather and collude to declare a seat vacant when the incumbent member of parliament hasn’t put to rest the remains of [her] father. How on earth do those people in Parliament expect a person to leave the body of their father in the morgue, in the mortuary? And go to Parliament and they sit in Parliament and debate? Every person, when their parents die, they take leave to go and put the parents to rest,” he said.

“And a funeral does not end until after the burial. If President Hakainde himself told us that he had stopped public engagement, he has stopped travelling because the body of his predecessor hasn’t been buried, how do they expect the blood daughter to abandon the father’s body and come to Parliament and say, ‘here! here?!’ That’s mockery, that’s inhumane, and all those who sat to arrive at the decision must consider themselves inhumane”.

Lubinda further said the country needed an exorcist to heal it from the unprecedented levels of hate.

“I’m saying Zambia needs healing from this unprecedented level of hate. National dialogue on hate? There is much more than national dialogue that is required. I think that we need exorcism. We have to write the Vatican. And the Vatican [needs] to send exorcists. We need exorcism to take out this hate because unfortunately this hate emanates from the highest office. This hate can be seen… For as long as that hate is not removed from the highest office, it permeates throughout all society systems. So we need an exorcist, not dialogue. Dialogue won’t do anything. I mean if there is a person who doesn’t know what dialogue is, the only thing he knows is lecturing [it’s Hakainde Hichilema],” Lubinda said.

“His hate for Edgar Lungu has outlived Edgar Lungu’s life. It’s unbelievable. His hate for Edgar Lungu has gone through to the wife and the children, and now it has cost Tasila Lungu her seat. It is hate that has caused that, it’s nothing else, it’s not the law. Anyone who has a little bit of love would have understood and appreciated the fact that there is no way that Tasila Lungu could be in Parliament and start smiling and laughing and shouting ‘here! here! Madam Speaker’ before her [father] is buried. Who expects that? It is just driven by hate, that’s all. But I want to assure Tasila that the God of their father will one day vindicate [her]. And she must be assured that she has won the hearts of many, many people for enduring all this pain for the love of her father, and we in the Patriotic Front will stand with her”.

Meanwhile, commenting on the cancellation of negotiations between government and the Oasis Forum, Lubinda said the Forum was in order to stick with their original demands.

“They [government] cannot accuse the Oasis Forum of going there without an open mind. The Oasis Forum are demanding that Bill 7 be dropped in accordance with the ruling of the Constitutional Court. There cannot be two ways [about] that. Their demand is, ‘stop Bill 7 because it is illegal.’ How do they expect the Oasis Forum to be open about it? This is a clear-cut matter. It is black or white, that’s all. It can’t be grey. So when they say that the Oasis Forum went with their original demand, yes! Because their demand is that they are not going to watch their Constitution being raped by Hakainde and UPND. The position that many Zambians have taken on Bill 7 is to respect the Constitution of the Republic of Zambia by respecting the judgments of the court,” Lubinda said.

“All of us, including the President, are bound by judgments of the court. And since the court said that Bill 7 was unconstitutional, it means, therefore, that it is non-existent. It does not exist. The Constitutional Court threw it in the trash bin! They threw it in the dustbin! They threw it in the garbage box! It should not be referred to by anyone. So the government is just being arrogant by saying that we have stopped dialogue with the Oasis Forum because their position is fixed. They cannot have a fluid position over a matter that is so straightforward”.

Lubinda accused government of being emotional on the matter, something he added was proof that the constitutional amendment process was not for the nation but for a few individuals.

“The Oasis Forum did not go there to say, ‘let us talk about the content of Bill 7.’ They went there to say Bill 7 is a nullity in its entirety. But remember that after the Oasis Forum said, ‘we want to protest’, the President quickly went into the press briefing where he was saying, ‘come, let us have constructive dialogue.’ What does constructive dialogue mean? It meant that he was willing to listen. But the truth of the matter, as it has come out now, is that he is not willing to listen. It is the government which is being arrogant. It is not the Oasis Forum. But government has to be reminded that those in government must not be emotional, because they are governing for and on behalf of the people. They cannot run [the country] with emotions,” said Lubinda.

“They have to govern, bearing in mind that what they are doing must be in the best interest of the Zambian citizens. Now that they are showing emotions, that they are being emotional, it shows that Bill 7 is not for the nation. Bill 7 is for a few individuals who see themselves as beneficiaries. When we had Bill 10, we were listening to all the people, we went ahead and listened to the people who agreed to make amendments.

At no time did we say, ‘no, we are not going to listen to any grouping.’ We listened to all the groupings and then went ahead until Hakainde Hichilema locked up his MPs like they were in a cattle kraal. So the show of emotion is the evidence of the fact that the content of Bill 7 is for individuals. Had it been for the state, the state would not have had an emotional outburst. The state has no feelings, the country has no feelings”.

News Diggers