Good riddance in Kabwata

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THE PILGRIM, February 10, 2022*

I wish I was in Kabwata last week Thursday with my vote, just to teach some politicians a lesson. My wish may not have been granted, but I’m happy that the people of Kabwata delivered a desired result. As I reflect on the outcome of the election, I won’t treat candidates of unseemly character with an airbrush. Grab your seat and let me show you what I mean.

Of the seven candidates that entered the race, my attention was drawn to two names, Chilufya Tayali of Economic and Equity Party (EEP) and Henry Muleya of Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP), who I found quite odd.

If you haven’t been keen on local politics, Tayali is EEP leader who muses about becoming Zambia’s president someday, while Muleya serves as second-in-command to PeP’s pugnacious president, Sean Tembo, who’s clearly bent on becoming a pain in the neck for the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND).

Closely following the Kabwata contest, I started wondering what kind of country we’re creating where people can run for President on Monday, later take off their clothes and run for Member of Parliament on Tuesday. How did we get here as a country? What implications does such behaviour have for Zambian democracy?

You see, such candidates compel opinion writers like myself to warn people and endorse one politician over the other.

Of course, the news department is supposed to be neutral but as a columnist I will tell you without hyperbole that besides staying from the Kabwata by-election, the two party leaders shouldn’t have gotten any votes. We all know they came out a horrible distant fourth and ninth.

As a reporter who covered all presidential candidates in the last election, I was hoping that Muleya and Tembo would consistently continue to cut the image of presidential contenders, who would use their critical feedback to help drive government policy in the best possible direction.

I was also hoping that after failing to scoop the Lusaka mayoral seat in August 2021, Tayali this time around would be magnanimous to allow a different face, perhaps a young person, to represent his party in Kabwata.

But this is unlike anything we’ve seen in Zambian politics in recent times. These two politicians have just perpetuated a practice we saw most shockingly with Golden Party president Jackson Silavwe last year, who, smooth-talking as he is, also reinvented himself as a candidate for Mufulira Central Constituency.

It’s some kind of political comedy but what such clearly self-seeking behaviour shows us is that we’ve a growing number of party presidents who should be punished for their narcissism by not voting for them during every political cycle.

We’ve so-called opposition party leaders who are not willing to diligently walk the political treadmill like President Hakainde Hichilema, who consistently ran five times for the presidency before he knew what victory means.

Instead, our political scene suddenly seems to produce political charlatans who are forming political parties on the pretext of democracy, when all they want, in reality, is to make a quick buck or to seize the first opportunity to escape failure.

It’s true that democracy promises a utopia, where a marketplace of ideas leads to better decision making and economic prosperity for people of all walks of life. But I’m afraid that if unprincipled politicians persist, we’ll create a dystopia, a democracy of weak men. Men who neither know nor value true grit and determination, who would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder in a world of towering leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

I think that as a society we’ve no problem with career politicians. What we’ve a problem with, like the Kabwata electorate has demonstrated, is politicians who seem not to know what they want.

In the run-up to the elections, Tayali himself said that EEP is a small party that would rather field it’s best candidates, as if to suggest that as party leader himself he is the alpha and omega. What sort of hubris or condescension is that?

Politicians like Tayali and Muleya, having gone through their day of retribution in Kabwata, should take a break and seriously reflect on what sort of brand they want to continue selling to the Zambian people.

Is it a Zambeef that sells meat today and sells cars tomorrow? What is it that you stand for?

Former President Levy Mwanawasa had put it nicely: “I’ve not come into politics…to play games of deceit and plundering. I’ve come into government to make a contribution to my nation and I want everybody to help me solve…problems.”

Well, words aside, you know what kind of a man Mwanawasa was. He wasn’t a slouch. His integrity stood him in good stead until untimely death vindicated him as one of the best leaders this country will ever know.

So I’ve no problem saying good riddance after President Tayali and Vice President Muleya lost their parliamentary bid in Kabwata. Ode to UPND’s Andrew Tayengwa on the victory.

But going forward all politicians in this country should learn to be consistent and strive to sell a consistent brand to the electorate.  

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's best-selling newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail