The Mapatizya formula
- Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 11:05
- Special Reports
- 39 comments
On 4th May 2005, The UPND held a press briefing to announce the name of their adopted candidate for the upcoming by-elections on June 9th 2005 for Kalulushi on the Copperbelt and Mapatizya in Kalomo, Southern Province.
The UPND announced that they had adopted Ackson Sejani as candidate for Mapatizya. Sejani was a former Minister of Local Government in Frederick Chiluba’s government.
At this Conference, Sejani announced that he had declared what he termed as a ‘’Jihad Political War’’. He alleged that the war was directed against the MMD’s “electoral corruption and rigging”.
During the subsequent political campaigns, Sejani’s campaign team organized a ‘militia’ that attacked government vehicles, impounded food supply convoys, held meetings without permits and harassed government ministers and caused wanton mayhem against the MMD Camp.
Southern Province Minister, Alice Simango was forced to transfer certain police officers accusing them of failing to prevent attacks against government ministers, citizens and MMD members from the UPND hooligans.
The PF also joined in the violence in Kalulushi and PF leader Michael Sata sent cadres to disrupt an MMD Rally in Chambeshi, which resulted into violent clashes.
Sejani proceeded to win this election and walked to Parliament leaving in his wake, a trail of victims of the bloody violence and destruction of government property.
This model is now popularly known as the “Mapatizya Formulae” in the UPND. It involves the disregard of the law and the taking of the law unto own hands.
The formulae also promotes anarchy to ‘’correct and prevent rigging.’’ It also encourages cadres to resort to violent methods every time they suspect electoral malpractice and unfair campaign methods. It also encourages officials to disregard the authority of the Police, or ECZ officials who are deemed to be part of the ‘’rigging infrastructure’’.
On 16th June 2005, Civil Society Groupings led by FODEP President then Sam Mulafulafu condemned the elections as not being free and fair owing to the high level of intimidation, violence and corruption.
He stated that the elections defied, violated and breached Regulation 51, and Section 18 of the Electoral Act, Cap 13 of the Laws of Zambia. He also feared that the level of violence would impact negatively the upcoming 2006 General Elections.
THE MILANZI AND MUFUMBWE BY-ELECTIONS
Clearly the scenario of the Mapatizya and Kalulushi by-elections replayed itself in the Milanzi and Mufumbwe by-elections.
When Hakainde Hichilema took over the UPND from the late Anderson Kambela Mazoka, he attempted to bring clean and issue based politics. He also tried to shed off the tribal tag that his party wore for many years.
However the electoral losses he suffered in the 2006 and 2008 contests seemed to have deeply impacted on him so profoundly that he has abandoned the very principles that made him attract admiration and freshness.
Hichilema has shown the worst of himself. He now calls himself a ‘’villager’’ and displaying crude conduct and his speeches are characterized by threats of violence, insults and foul language.
It is therefore not surprising that to win the Mufumbwe seat, he had to resort to a discredited template – the Mapatizya Formulae.
Since entering into an electoral alliance and joining forces with the Patriotic Front (PF), Hichilema seemed to have copied the worst traits of and from Sata.
Hichilema’s language is more foul, his insults are more crude, his conduct more thuggish and his ambitions for leadership more diseased, and he has passionately embraced whole heartedly, Sata’s worst traits that attract his supporters but repels many important stakeholders.
This new monster in the 2010 HH, are a concern to many that thought the electoral Pact entered into between the UPND and the PF would succeed and provide credible leadership as HH was deemed to be the moderate and educated one who would balance out Sata’s eccentrics and his tendencies for violence, crude language, and his lack of education.
Donors hoped that the properly structured UPND and its well enunciated leadership and policies would complement the haphazard, personalised and informal outfit of the PF to form an acceptable platform that can dislodge the MMD from power and be a counterforce against its leader Rupiah Banda.
However the radical transformation that HH has undertaken is frightening many stakeholders as where there was one political monster, there are two, where the was isolated non-issue based debates, they are multiplied and where Sata attacked his political opponents, there are a barrage and torrid of insults sprayed against a wide array of political opponents by HH.
HH has also abandoned moderate and rational officials preferring the counsel of radical and like minds like Dr. Chobe Beyani, UPND Director of Research and International Relations.
Many wondered what had brought the two leaders, Sata and Hichilema as they appeared to be opposites in policies and conduct. But the new HH has helped cement the Pact with this common ground. A common ground of insults and violence.
THE MUFUMBWE VIOLENCE
It is therefore not surprising that Hichilema and his National Management Committee decided to adopt the so called Mapatizya Formulae as the method of winning the Mufumbwe By-election.
The Mufumbwe by-election was very important to the UPND to prove their own analysis that claim that voters are likely to revert to the 2001 voting patterns with UPND regaining its 2001 strength. They think that the UPND has regained the so called ‘’Mazoka’s Provinces’’ and to prepare for the possible split with the PF, UPND has to seen to have capacity to win the forthcoming 2011 General Electionsbe alone.
Therefore to give credence this flawed analysis, it was important that Mufumbwe was won- at all cost.
In this election, Hichilema copied the campaign tactics of Sata and chose to camp in Mufumbwe during the entire campaign period.
The UPND transported known violent cadres from Lusaka and the Copperbelt and formed ‘’crack squads’’ to ‘’match the William Banda Militia’’.
When the campaigns were underway, the MMD campaign teams were joined by cadres from Lusaka and the Copperbelt. Due to the critical shortage of accommodation, the MMD cadres found themselves boarding and lodging at a School.
In line with the Mapatizya Formulae, the UPND camp, when learning of this scenario, decided to ransack and attack the MMD camp claiming that the their presence at the school violated electoral laws as the school would be a polling station on election day.
The UPND cadres chose a period when most cadres had accompanied their leaders to political campaigns, attacked the camp, stole cadres food supplies, blankets and beer.
Upon return, the MMD cadres found their colleagues beaten and their supplies stolen. They were riled. They planned and later staged a retaliatory attack that saw Member of Parliament and UPND Vice-President Richard Kapita injured in the ensuing clashes.
The press reports especially from the private media were skewed shifting the blame to the MMD and the Police.
The UPND leadership led by Hichilema himself played innocent victim and stormed the police station demanding Justice.
From then on, the violence escalated between the two camps turning a peaceful quiet and serene rural district of Mufumbwe into a place of violence, running battles and all sorts of mayhem.
The violence culminated into a violent abduction and brutal beating of a police constable Elijah Chiluba on polling day, who was abducted by a group led by UPND Solwezi MP, Watson Lumba. The officer who is accused of being a former MMD cadre was treated the Mapatizya Formulae guidelines that are ‘’intended to protect the will of the people and prevent electoral malpractice.’’
THE MUFUMBWE RESULTS AND WHY THE DISPUTE
Following the death of Deputy Minister Nasim Hamir, a new by-election poll was called for the Chitambo seat in Serenje for 9th August 2009.
The MMD picked Solomon Musonda while the PF/UPND picked Mutale Chanda as its candidates.
During the heated campaigns that followed with Sata claiming that he would beat the MMD, Vice-President George Kunda made a startling allegation few days before the poll.
Kunda alleged that polling officials, who are mostly teachers were attempting to manipulate the poll in favour of the PF.
This allegation surprised many as allegations of rigging have always come from the Opposition. Many wondered how the Opposition could rig an election. The allegation by Kunda was therefore dismissed with contempt with his opponents describing the MMD as a desperate party, in their view, about to lose the election and creating excuses for their impending loss.
The condemnation also came from union leaders who demanded an apology from Kunda as they found his allegations against professional colleagues of fraud and vote tampering totally unfounded and unfair.
But Kunda’s alarm bells seemed to have worked as fraud was prevented and the MMD proceeded to retain the seat with Solomon Musonda beating the PF candidate with 3149 votes against 1803 votes.
Therefore the allegation by the MMD that Mufumbwe seat was stolen from them by the UPND might appear incredulous and is likely to receive similar skepticism as Kunda’s allegations in the Chitambo election.
THE ECZ AND ALLEGATIONS OF ELECTION RIGGING
The Opposition have always raised allegations of tampering of results accusing the MMD of colluding with the ECZ to ‘‘rig’’ elections.
ECZ does not have enough staff to conduct successful elections. The body therefore depends on temporal staff it employs to conduct elections.
Teachers, who have usually conducted polls on behalf as the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), have been found suitable as they are sufficiently educated and are government employees that can be relied upon to carry-out such exercise since they are sworn and bound by similar oaths of secrecy in their jobs.
Teachers have been part of the election process since 1991. Recent attempts and proposals by the ECZ to employ outsiders to conduct national elections was met with stiff resistance by stakeholders as everyone trusted and proffered the judgment of teachers and feared that employing unknown outsiders such school leavers to conduct an election ‘’could be manipulated by the Intelligence’’. Teachers are found across the country and even in the remotest parts of the country. Their credentials are verifiable and are of known abodes.
TEACHERS RIGGING ELECTIONS.
Many acknowledge that the MMD has suffered so many defections and break-aways that some senior members who participated in certain activities, such as Sejani (former MMD Chairman for Elections), ‘’take’’ the secrets to the Opposition and either, help prevent voter manipulation, tampering and fraud or use the infrastructure to ‘’rig’’ the elections for themselves or their candidates.
It is for this reason that the allegation by MMD Campaign manager in Mufumbwe, by-election, Daniel Kalenga that the UPND connived and engaged polling agents to manipulate the election is not misplaced and should be taken seriously.
Kalenga states that the MMD clearly won the election and have verifiable and collaborative evidence that certain teachers who were polling agents manipulated results against the party.
National Secretary, Dr. Katele Kalumba has also announced that the MMD has overwhelming evidence that the UPND were engaged in electoral malpractice through selected agents the party seemed to have infiltrated! He has since announced that the MMD will petition the results.
Kalenga gave the example of Kampushi Polling Station where MMD scored 212 but during the tallying of votes, electoral officials reflected only 112 votes. He accuses the officials of deliberately under-counting by over 100 votes. He also gave another example of Kabipupu polling station which has only 56 registered voters but recorded a voter turnout of over 200!
Kalenga also complained that ballot boxes were brought in without mandatory seals. He also complained that the fraudulent result manipulation was widespread and appeared to have been replicated in other stations.
The MMD have also not escaped any blame. The UPND have accused the MMD of vote-buying and bribery alleging that the MMD was paying up to K200, 000.00 to individual potential voters.
Now, the allegation against the MMD is the known and constant allegations in elections. But the UPND is accused of not bribery, but the systematic fraudulent manipulation of results. The party is accused of participating in institutional rigging of the election!
Many fear that the allegations against the UPND might backfire against the MMD whose moral authority will be taken away since it has always parried allegations of rigging as fantasy.
CONCLUSION
Whatever the case, the Mufumbwe by-election has revealed dark activities in elections. Elections are managed by the ECZ and it should be responsible for this mess. How can outsiders infiltrate the conduct of elections in this manner? The integrity of the ECZ and its officials is at stake.
The insistence by many that the Mufumbwe seat should not be petitioned since it will be a can of worms and might reveal the very electoral tricks used in elections in the past, is nonsense.
It is imperative that our elections are conducted in a free and fair manner. We also need to expunge from the process fraud and malpractices as the so called tricks can be used against any candidates and subvert the will of the people-which is the highest crime as clearly demonstrated in the Mufumbwe.
The violence as adopted by the UPND in their policy of the Mapatizya Formulae is a danger to national security. The UPND should be made to abandon and own up this criminal method of electioneering as it could be is a recipe for break-down of peace and order in the 2011 Elections.
The ECZ through its spokesperson, Cris Akufuna, have condemned the violence and promised to take unknown punitive actions against the erring party.
The Police have since arrested UPND MP, Watson Lumba charging with offences of abduction and assaulting a police officer.
Hichilema as a national leader has a bound responsibility to promote peace and not chaos, to exercise restraint and not promote anarchy. It is criminal for him to seek recourse using violent means. The adoption of the Mapatizya formulae to counter legitimate claims of electoral malpractices reflects him as desperate and keen to go to criminal extents to wrestle power from the MMD.
Loading ...
The problem we have is that the MMD is engineering all this through pepo like william banda.Just because some of Zambians whants bread and butter from the GVNT, the long finger goes to the oposition, leaving the pepo who are in the forefrant.Someone killed two inocent lives and to most of pepo like the athur of this, its nothing and if that vehicle was for the oposition, it would have been a big issue.Can we please as Zambian see between wrong and rigjht and advise anyone, regardiless of the paty they came from.
The Author is blind to so many thing. U can actually tell th@ this is a desperate pro-MMD goon. Violence has also veen perpetrated by the ruling party. If the oppositio parties have turrned violent, its becoz they av learnt from MMD.
William Banda has been making making headlined all in line of threats to pipo th@ dare oppose the Movement for Democracy. Just the otha day, he declared chongwe a no go area to pipo opposed to MMD and a day later lusaka was declared a no go area for Father Bwalya.
Dear Author, do enuf research and you will kno wher this violence was born- from the Movement.
U tried to balance but you failed which clearly shows that u r MMD and not a patriotic Zambian
This is a dull job by a lazy and stupid author. In the face of unprovoked violence and intimidation by MMD thugs, like we saw in Mufumbwe, what recourse are you left with when the police, ECZ, turn a blind eye to apparent electoral fraud and voter manipulation? Mufumbwe was literally under siege. We all know that MMD has been using underhand methods to win elections; use of government vehicles and resources, bribery, vote buying and now intimidation. Mapatizya formula ili che. If you want clean electioneering, play clean as well; you fools.
On “The UPND announced that they had adopted Ackson Sejani as candidate for Mapatizya. Sejani was a former Minister of Local Government in Frederick Chiluba’s [MMD Administration of] government… At this Conference, Sejani announced that he had declared what he termed as a ‘’Jihad Political War’’. He alleged that the war was directed against the MMD’s “electoral corruption and rigging”” this clearly shows that the UPND’s Ackson Sejani was doing this Mapatizya formulae with experience from what MMD does or used to do in the time of Mr FTJ Chiluba as Zambian President of the MMD.
For this reason, thanks Mr Author for reminding us and good MMD leavers have enlightened Zambians of the evils of the MMD and this has continued through people like former Minister Shakafuswa who warned MMD of the same in his constituency should they go for a by-election.
Let this new Mr President RB Banda do what is good for Zambians instead of allowing MMD cadres to think that Zambia belongs to them alone.
Have a blessed day all.
_
Matt 6:33
this author is so wasteful of his time…findsomething better to do unlike campaigning for tired and impotent mmd ..
Who ever the Author is he/she trying to run away from the truth. We all know what MMD cadres and Wiiliam are good at “Violence” please stop twisting things!!! Infact Kabonde should explain where that MMD cadre got the police uniform from…..no wonder they couldn’t protect anyone apart from MMD cadres they were all MMD cadres in police uniforms including Kabonde himself.
MMD accept the loss. WD are you now MMD? Your stories are no longer spicy.
Mr. Author you are very foolish. I rest my case!!!!!
If the author of this article had submitted this to me as hers dissertation for an academic qualification, I would ask herm to go over hers work and resubmit for grading.
If I had time to waste, I would have given a thorough response to counter the apparent bias of the article. The author, without a doubt is not a reporter from a news media, seeking to tell us things as they were/are like the ZWD do, but an agent deemed by hers Political Party to be a clever and fluent writer. The cleverness or fluency is not there, only highly charged, adrenalin induced emotional zeal.
We the Zambians must not be taken for fools, because we are not. Why on earth would the MMD in Mufumbwe not have houses to sleep in? This is an insult on the residents of Mufumbwe. Where does the author think the MMD members of Mufumbwe sleep when there are no by-elections?
Let us suppose that the MMD supporters who were sleeping in schools were visitors from only the MMD would know, wouldn’t their hosts in Mufumbwe be able to give them accommodation in their houses? Better still, what was happening in Mufumbwe was not a conference, but a by-election, accessible only to the residents of Mufumbwe, so why this mass movement of people from other provinces who were not eligible to vote in Mufumbwe?
How do people travel all they way to Mufumbwe, telling their kids tayenda ku gona mu classroom ku Mufumbwe?
What a shame!
The “They think that the UPND has regained the so called ‘’Mazoka’s Provinces’’ and to prepare for the possible split with the PF, UPND has to seen to have capacity to win the forthcoming 2011 General Electionsbe alone… Therefore to give credence this flawed analysis, it was important that Mufumbwe was won- at all cost” shows some “Mazoka’s Provinces”, now did late UPND president A.K. Mazoka ever own any Province in Zambia? Stop this nonsense you terrible politics writers! Whatever the case, the mighty UPND Group has a good analysis that it can win the 2011 tripartite elections alone — without the help of PF. To this end, I am urging all UPND cadres and other wellmeaning Zambians to support the would-be telling move by the UPND leadership to move UPND out of the UPND-PF PACT in the next 5 or so months so that they can start a serious campaing for HH as 2011 UPND presidential candidate even if he may not retain the UPND presidency at the UPND’s 2011 forthcoming general assembly or convention.
On “In this election, Hichilema copied the campaign tactics of Sata and chose to camp in Mufumbwe during the entire campaign period,” I believe that any person who wants o be successful does not need to waste time doing things in a slow manner when there is a quick and proven method to achieve the best results. Therefore, UPND president and 2011 presidential candidate HH did well as a visionary leader of the opposition to copy any useful tactics from Mr Sata and camping in the election zone. Mr UPND president must thus continue to use this useful method to win other upcoming elections.
As for “Whatever the case, the Mufumbwe by-election has revealed dark activities in elections. Elections are managed by the ECZ and it should be responsible for this mess. How can outsiders infiltrate the conduct of elections in this manner? The integrity of the ECZ and its officials is at stake… The insistence by many that the Mufumbwe seat should not be petitioned since it will be a can of worms and might reveal the very electoral tricks used in elections in the past, is nonsense” let the MMD petition the Mufumbwe by-election so that the Nation can know the truth. It is good that novices in real politics like Mr President and Minister Dorah Siliya have taken a route that will expose MMD’s bad practices to the Zambian electorate and other international stakeholders.
Have a blessed day all.
_
Matt 6:33
This is interesting, polling officials conspired with opposition. Please let this petition be heard I would really want to know if rigging is a myt or truth, recount those ballots, and countercheck all this information. Am excited to see what will happen, infact a rerun would be good, and If UPND beats MMD again, well well well, then we know that Mazoka pressure of 2001 has arisen again, UPND is ready to go it alone.
Zambians lets not be fooled. If you observe LT and ZWD may be infiltrated by gov shushus. Why now we have similar articles on both sites. The MMD is really desparate. But l m happy Zambians are able to see that someone is trying to blind us. We know whats happening. Try us later!
WHAT IF UPND RIGGED THE ELECTIONS. You have a point my brother/sister. My bone of contention is that all election result disputes should be subjected to recounts and verification including the presidential election. We should not cry foul only when it suits our desires. Why was Rupiah hurriedly sworn in Mwai Kibaki-style when there was a clear dispute on vote tallys? I wish to remind you that the recount was rejected on flimsy grounds. I wish we had a rerun, maybe we would have a popular president. Alas, we were denied both a recount and a rerun.
Motsepe
If you are right about your views, I should have to change my name because I will be a relative of this blog(WATCHDOG) right?
Politics is about divisible choices, dont have a faint heart even when the race is tight. I dont read LT any more because quite honestly the beat from some of the bloggers is sub standard and perhaps some shady characters send in tyheir shaff but that is the beauty of democracy.
Do you realise how soothing it can be reading your countrymen’s views on matters of national import from the agony of distance(abroad)!
But make no bones about this,as long as the Post continues to be what it is, WE WILL READ AND BLOG ON THE ZWD!
We dont blame Mmembe either as long as he is alos not tired of rewriting the same names and editorials about the same characters, they are birds of the feather and they probably love him
I will not fear any shadows
Continued.
I dropped my pen because I was using my paws!
So uncle Fred must rewrite the same warped head lines for ever just to fix same people all because, as some one said elsewhere, he failed to get his preferred candidate into stae house?
Why should Mmembe conceal his true opinion about HH?
Who does not remember that some of the names the “Post” is praising today were sworn enemies yesterday?
They have the audacity to tell us that William Banda is not grateful for what “they” did for him when he was deported?
Who are they, we dare say, you can send William Banda back to Malawi if you still have the passion for he is not important to Zambia.
Do they know the meaning of black mail?
Do they know that the Post web site is read abroad and painful it is read trash when you see what others are doing with their time?
Let us challenge all leaders to deliver on their election campaigns, not by heckling anyhow.
A friend said jokingly that if the MMd ‘hour’ has indeed stopped at 13.00hours, Mmembe’s post is reeling backwards the paper is forever writing history!
Come off it guys.
Thanks a million times my brother for your straight talk. FYI the good news is that Ichilema’s Mapatizya option will have to undergo tough love in the forthcoming Solwezi central and rigged Mufumbwe bye-elections.Lets see if his violence will not violate him.
Personally I’m very pleased that Watson Lumba is in detention due for appearance before the judge. Conviction of Watson Lumba is in the best national interest. It will be a clear message to would be extremists that terrorism has no dividends. Peer pressure and trolling may have their pick hours, but there is always a point of individual accountability in life.
For abduction and attempted murder of a peace officer Constable Elijah Chiluba by UPND militias, Watson Lumba must go in for not less than 25 years at Mukobeko Maximum Prison with hard labor while his seat is declared vacant. The verdict has to be a deterrent to extremism.
Henceforth citizens in partnership with security wings must start dismattling all these terrorist cells formed by extremists. Its better to lose a few souls of extremists that the country of free law abiding citizens. Exterminate the demons of extremism with a decisive brinkmanship approach in best national interest.Take the fight to the heart of extremism now.
Quite an elaborate article. I have one thing to say about the violence, it is perpatuated by all parties. who can say that there is a difference between the MMD, PF and UPND cadres. I have seen all cadres act violently both in person and on TV. Remember the Nicholas Chizuka press conference or the PF cadres who abducted their former member from Pamodzi and beat him up and there numerous cases of MMD even treatening to gang rape.When you look at at Mufumbwe, you get very different perspectives of who where promoting violence depending on which sector of the media you were following. If you follow the post, it was MMD, if you follow the Government media then it was the UPND.Both parties transported cadres and had a hand in the violence. As for who was worse? well I dont know. But keep in mind that one MP (UPND) was attcked in his room. A police officer was attacked abducted by the UPND and sadly some churches were burnt.We also saw all some terrible pictures . This has to stop and this will only happen when all parties control the cadres
Gordon Brown, Cameron David and Nick Clegg go to the polls less than 24 hours today…I have looked around for the blood shed that we saw in Mufumbwe, and Maphatizye…I have seen none I have looked for the sick reports from a frustrated accounts clerk turned hangman and found none…I have looked for a tiard of insults about who is more handsome than the ohter to occupy 10 Downing Street and I have found none…I have looked to see if the bob will be deployed to evade violence and I have seen no such movement.
You wonder why a whiteman build roads, a car, a plane, a train and even brought clothes and designed them trousers shirt socks shoes under wear? Sometimes I console myself and say its our poverty then am reminded that the English have the poorest of the poor living amongst them…then ask myself what is it?
Greed, foolishness and a myopic approach to life where now politics is the saviour of all things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small
Edwin Sakala fi article fwabu pula , we know you, you think we will be fooled by a this article, guys why are you desparate? Ruling party crying for a petition? Muleya with without ur foolish childish articles
lopa good observationandyou can see that all the three competitors have handled them selves with dignity. While the onus lies more with a curent head of state to behave mature and statemanly, all leaders are expected to behave themselves
Senior Citizen your friend GK is dying in South AFRICA, you also end up dying so do not cheat yourself you can win those elections, in fact next year even frogs will beat some of your MPs . Change has come, which election do you think Mulongoti can win next year? With a moving corpse as VP? If GK can fall sick on a bye election do you think he will manage general elections, elections are not for the sicklings like GK ? Yama muleyibepa, eat those cramps at state house cz nxt year u are going, we do not want a govt of crooks,liars,sicklings
article written by an MMD idiot!
It is amazing to see how desperate some Zambians are to remove a legitimate government. Here you get people who see nothing wrong with violence as a means to silence the masses just because they want MMD out. They behave like UPND or PF will deliver where MMD has failed and yet there is overwhelming evidence to show that these opposition parties have failed to run councils and have swindled the poor tax payer out of billions of Kwacha.
It is sad to see that after 40 years of independence, Zambians are still attracted to primitive ideas of violence and killing, yet independence from the mighty empire was won through peaceful demonstrations. Can we conclude that the Zambian is in more control of himself when he is ruled by the colonialists than when he is ruled by his own kith and kin?
The average European and American would never tolerate anything that suppresses the will of the people and this is why they don’t justify criminal acts perpetrated by either the opposition of the ruling party. If UPND was in the USA or UK and it acted like it has in Mufumbwe, we, the British people, would have supported is outright ban, regardless of how much we want change!
Change must come to better Zambia and not to destroy people’s lives!
But then again, we’re dealing with Africans who are known the world over to resort to violence over issues they don’t understand and can’t prove!
Ba Anthony Lloyd – PhD Anthropology – Oxford UK, show some phd by making an analysis based on facts. I wonder whether you really have that phd. If you do then probably you need to stop being too emotional because that impedes your judgement of critical issues. Do you realise that we have a police force in Zambia? What were they doing when there was violence? Don’t you think the police had a stake in this violence or they would have managed the situation with easiness? Don’t you think the police could not do nothing because the authorising command was that above them? Use the Phd in a way that helps those without it. I mean show some Phd!!
It’s simple.
Do you want to see some decency in the polls?
Cage the beast at the Post, give good perks to the professionals that he has enslaved and allow them comensurate positions in the public media!
Just watch the space, wasn’t Mando in the public media in the one party era?
(By the way I could have lost out on something, was the public media sold to the government in Zambia?)
I know that there could be an editorial policy of sots for the Daily Telegraph on issues around the British monarchy if you like but if in their view the prime minister is not firing they don’t hesitatet to hit out at him! This is from a country that has gone to real war in the last few centuries by the way!
Reason being that they know they will soon be in the line of fire if they don’t poke at him
But you see, politics here is for those big balls(bawlers!) You don’t muck around if you have no issues on agenda.
I just read one paragraph and knew what the motive of this foolish chap called author is about.
Time for such useless propaganda is gone. You are the aggressor and the opposition are the receiver.
If you are saying you were overpowered by the opposition, then I feel pit for you because next year they will not only beat you but strangle you because you are weak despite having armunition. Mind you the police are there to defend people but when they are engaged in Masagalatoni, civil society has the right to defend themselves.
Useless author. Poor judgement and stupid analysis.
All peace loving people should lobby our President to stop the violence. Real peace is only possible if the President decides to do so without bias or malice or hatred against those belonging to the opposition and with NO bias or favour or kid gloves for the supporters either. This is a time when we need a President of the nation not just of MMD or one against opposition figures. Drastic measures have to be taken so that we don’t ever come this way again. The root cause is the use of hoards of cadres imported into the election zone just to harass and kick-ass. Wherever such lumpens gather, you expect friction. Its no rocket science. We can cry & blame others as much as we like but it takes men of good will to rise to the occassion and stop the rot.
This is junk and bunk!!!
Not only is the article junk, so are most of the comments…
Total nonsense!!!!!!!! it is even boring to read.
It’s interesting to note that the MMD propaganda machinery has now shifted to UPND. This tells you that they are feeling the heat of UPND organisational strategies on the ground. UPND must doing something right. It appears they have managed to penetrate the MMD heartland(proof is the twovictories in N/W bye elections). With Mwanawasa and Teta’s demise UPND appear to have won over the pro Mwanawasa voters in Central, Northwestern and Western provinces. As observed by former MMD N/W youth chairman, Mwala(ref yesterday’s post) these provinces are inter-related and usually back the same party. Also the turnout in the last presidential elections was 49% and a good majority of those who did not vote were HH supporters who were discouraged by the potrayal of the elections as a contest between Sata and RB. Actually a good number of HH supporters voted for Sata in that election as a strategy to defeat RB…this was one of the campaign strategy promoted by the Post. That explains why HH is sending shock waves in the MMD camp and attracting vicous attacks from MMD dogs of war.
i love these writings. they have snippets of information u can ever have in The Post or public media. it might injure HH but the analysis accurate. just see how much and how many bloggers have contributed.if this is propaganda, its better than the rubbish The Post give. between RB, HH and Sata, i think RB is better than the rest.these analyses give a particular insight into issues. bias, yes it bought to be a bias. that is why those that are annoyed are also biased. viva ZWD. I dare The Post to give us more than who said what, who insulted who.
i love these writings. they have snippets of information u can ever have in The Post or public media. it might injure HH but the analysis accurate. just see how much and how many bloggers have contributed.if this is propaganda, its better than the rubbish The Post give. between RB, HH and Sata, i think RB is better than the rest.these analyses give a particular insight into issues. bias, yes it bought to be a bias. that is why those that are annoyed are also biased. viva ZWD. I dare The Post to give us more than who said what, who insulted who.
Jonathan Kabaso, you have revealed your real name by the slip of a finger.
If Watson gets convicted, a by-election will be necessitated in Solwezi Central. If the petition is successful, a by-election will be necessitated in Mufumbwe. Furthermore, UPND have revealed their strategy and they are running short of money for by-elections. If they have too many by-elections, they’ll have no money for the General Election. To those of you who are excited with “change for the sake of change and not necessarily for the betterment of Zambia”, are you going to donate to UPND when they run low in funds or will you watch HH run his piggy bank down and out?
The power of an independent press!
I have just seen the Post headline today reads “Cage William Banda…” away from the monotony in the last few weeks!
Some one has awoken,I am convinced my lone call to cage someone at the Post was not a wasted stroke!
If Mmembe were objective, EVERY ONE WOULD LISTEN(at least take him seriously!).
We all want the Post to be heard for Christ’s sake not his daily brack-a-to!
The trouble seems like his head is in a mist, politely I will say polarised.
Predictably,his house is in such a mess that he has to contend with spending some nights outside as other top dogs do!
You made my day, I will tell you a joke, let me just clear my land lord.
Wow!
I read the history about William Banda,the picture is for 28/11/2009,last year!
When I attended journalism class, we were taught that there are very exceptional instances when a paper reports retrospectively because as my lecturer would say, “News is about current affairs from all directions, North,East,West,South” end of quote.
As a journalist you require a pen,be like the hawk, determined, hard nosed(beak)thick skinned with a sharp sight and a spare instinct because even as you hunt, you can also be hunted.
This are familiar vibes to any scribe today, lest we forget these lessons.