Mwale bemoans lack of outrage over Zambia’s governance

FORMER member of parliament Mathews Mwale says there was lack of outrage within the Zambian population with regards how the country is being run. And Mwale says an alliance does not mean that involved political parties should absorb each other.

In an interview, Mwale, who was Chipata Central FDD lawmaker from 2001 to 2006, said people seemed to be submitting to the PF.

Whereas the economy is not doing very well, instead of being outraged, people now seem to be just submitting and I think that PF is taking advantage of that to assume that that means now they are entrenched and they do not need an alliance. So its weakening that programme of an alliance. When you read in the social media, within the PF there has been agitation to kick out those of the MMD that got jobs and yet its part and parcel of an alliance agreement, he said.

Mwale observed that there was a claim within PF that MMD had gotten some of the key positions in the party.

Now you see the fortunes of people like [Felix] Mutati taking a nosedive downwards from a senior portfolio of Minister of Finance he gets shifted to a somewhat backyard Ministry of Works and Supply and soon or later as he tried to reorganise his party at a card renewal at Mpezeni Park in Chipata, a month later he is given the boot out of not only Cabinet but also out of Parliament. Its a double kick, he said.

Mwale said the appointment of Lunte member of parliament Mutotwe Kafwaya as Mutatis replacement as works minister raises some questions.

And also paradoxically, to me, this raises questions. His replacement is a person from his own power base – the constituency that he actually gave away because he never lost election. He gave away Lunte, he paved way for whoever is there so that he can concentrate on running the party. So you can see that isnt it true to speculate that they are trying to get to what is assumed to be his power base by appointing somebody from his own constituency? he said.

Mwale said as far as the PF was concerned, the factors that necessitated an alliance were no longer relevant.

When now the President fires Mutati and says it is his constitutional duty to remove and hire, I agree with him but I beg to differ when he says that there is no need for speculation because speculation is a natural consequence of unexplained events or pronouncements. If you want to divorce your wife, you dont just tell her ‘I have decided to divorce because I have the right to divorce you, he said.

The natural question is ‘why have you divorced me? …so you cant say really dont speculate. If, for instance, a reason had been given for firing Mutati the public would not speculate, they could not even ask questions. But the fact that he has just been removed, people will speculate so that they can put bits and pieces together in the past in the present and in the future of why they think he has been fired.

On Mutatis dismissal from the PF government, which marked the demise of the PF-MMD loose alliance, Mwale said alliances should always be based on faith.

Alliances should be based on the commitment to what you agreed upon regarding the alliance. But also alliances mean that both parties should still maintain their own characteristics and their own DNA as different political parties, they do not mean absorbing each other. Alliances mean party A must remain what it is and party B must also remain what it is and go into an alliance throughout the lifespan of that legislature. To suppose that an alliance means that the other party must follow blindly or without argument to the other partys approach to issues is not true, he said.

Mwale said each political party in any alliance had a right to remain in the alliance or to leave.

In this (PF-MMD) case, you see that events after the last election up to this time, so many things seem not to be holding up to this principle of alliance. I think that at the moment the PF feels they no longer need an alliance, they think that it is irrelevant; they think that they are so entrenched now that come 2021 or whatever date an election will come about, they will win the election. Now, I dont know where they are basing this on, said Mwale.