We are not surprised by Katele Kalumba’s utterances going by the comments attributed to him in reference to HHs style of politics. Katele Kalumba says HHs politics are shallow and HH needs help. Katele is a man who was convicted by courts of law on cases that involved abuse of public resources. This is the man who was once Minister of Finance for this country and found it prudent to dip into the national purse. When he was taken to court he was convicted, and his cases are still in court after he appealed, this man was convicted of theft involving US$20 million, this is the man Fred Mmembe is today glorifying.
Kalumbas politics are not based on principle, this is the man who forgot his own dignity and the little principles he had, kneeling before Mwanawasa in view of everyone in Matero and started issuing praises to Mwanawasa. Fortunately Mwanawasa did not bite onto that level of patronage, but never the less embraced Katele as part of the MMD. This is the man who swore allegiance to the President of MMD then, Dr FTJ, but later he changed his mind. These are the politics Katele is used to. This is the reason he is trying to be easy on PF, because he wants favour. This is the depth Katele is used to; sinking to the deepest level of patronage, for him defines depth. We shall not take that away from him, he is deep in patronage, he is deep in thought, but very shallow in common sense and principle.
We know Katele is a PhD in Public Health, maybe he should confine himself there. HHs was on radio yesterday, and he raised pertinent issues including the PF agriculture mismanagement, but that according to Katele is shallow. HH has explained to the PF what he thinks they should do to fix some of the problems dogging this country, he explained to the PF how they should have handled the Minimum wage issue, and Katele thinks these are shallow politics. HH will not stand on a pedestal and issue praises, HH will not bow before Presidents like Katele did to Mwanawasa because HH is a self made man.
As though that was not enough, Fred Mmembe writes another of his editorials in his paper and calls HH as chameleon. Again that does not surprise, Mmembe in 2010, vowed never to cover UPND. This time around for 8 days continuously, UPND is in his newspaper. Mmembe is on a smear campaign of HH and it is not working. Here is the real chameleon, in 2011 he wrote that Sata was a saint. On 25th October 2007 he wrote this editorial he titled “Sata the Hired Gun” who, four years later turns out is a Saint called Saint Micheal and we quote “Not long ago, home affairs minister Lt Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha described Patriotic Front (PF) president Michael Sata as a shameless old man.
Some people might have felt that Lt Gen Shikapwasha was being hard on the old man Sata. But things have to be called by their names. Sata is, in truth, a shameless old man………. We know that Sata and his minions will accuse us of harbouring a vendetta against him. They will accuse us of wanting to destroy their saviour, Sata. We have no vendetta against Sata and we don’t have to destroy him because every time he speaks, he shoots at himself……….. This is what we mean when we say Sata stands on no principles. He behaves like a dog of the wind. He is a restless person who changes direction as often as the wind does. In short, he has no direction. He doesn’t even believe in what he says.” Again the same Gen Ronnie Shikapwasha is the man he is crucifying in the papers accusing him of being a man of no integrity.
Mmembe should just concentrate on the money being wasted by his Government, we have the highest wage bill in the history of this country. The Government coffers are being raped day in and day out, the Government is broke, the Ministries are not receiving their supplies, and Mmembe chooses to divert attention from real issues. Mealie meal is 80 kwacha in some places and Mmembe has not even made an effort to advise his friends strongly. We challenge Mmembe to show evidence of the boasting and bragging he talks about of HH. We have never heard HH mention anything about himself, HH is a top economist, top businessman, his CV speaks for itself but we have never heard him boast to anyone.
Since Mmembe is obsessed with tribes which led him to call tongas “bantustan” why does he address the over 90% cabinet occupied by one tribe, or he is too blind with hate to see all this. If Hakainde does not have support for anything progressive, can Mmembe tell us what is progressive about this Government and tell us when Hakainde did not support that which was progressive instead of issuing blanket statements. Yes our society standard has been set and we quote what you quoted of what Dr Kaunda said in 1965 “Our society in Zambia shall be non-tribal, non-racial, and that our society in Zambia shall only judge each and every individual according to his behaviour” and we agree with you, isn’t it stupid that the same Hakainde you are saying is chameleon had to remind you and everyone else that it is foolish for one tribe to assume superiority.
A few weeks ago you said HH was inconsistent, today you say he repeats the same things he says all the time, isn’t that consistency? What you however do not dispute is that he repeats them because he is passionate about those things. You can learn a thing or two from world leaders who say one thing so many times, its easier to hold them accountable, unlike one who says so many things and cannot remember what he said three months ago. Talking of repeat stories, please give us something new about HH that we have not heard before.
Colleagues be careful with Mmembe, we have shown how the man changes positions when it suits him. The man lacks principles, the man hates Hakainde to the core, if killing someone was legal in this country Mmembe would have long killed HH. His hate of HH is unbelievable. HH has been on UPND for 7 years and he has not got the Presidency, we know that what about people that were there for 10 years and 4 attempts and had no convention. HH is going nowhere if that is what Mmembe is hoping for. HH is being made popular by the day just compare his public appearances prior to 2011 and post 2011, everyone says “YOU TOLD US SO”.
We advise Fred Mmembe to just start rebuilding the reputation of his newspaper which has gone down. Had it not been for the Government adverts and other covert operations this paper would not survive the next day, but that should not be the case because the media is very important, but not in its current state.
Source: UPND
The post Opinion: M’membe’s Hypocrisy Exposed appeared first on Zambia Reports.