Outspoken Catholic priest Father Frank Bwalya says President Michael Sata’s decision to direct the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the embarrassing Zambia Railways Limited scandal that rendered the Mark Chona board dissolved and the consequent suspension of its new Chief Executive Officer Professor Clive Chirwa in what is one of the biggest governance disaster under the Patriotic Front is another case of political immaturity portraying the governance system as “play acting”.
And Fr Bwalya has ducked assertions that he is eying the Presidency in 2016 and that he resigned from the Zesco board as chairman to concentrate on campaigns for the position saying any Zambian had a constitutional right to seek the highest office.
Meanwhile, Fr Bwalya contradicted himself when he claimed he did not read online publications but at the same time seemed to know that some young people whom he described as excited were behind alleged insults carried by internet publications as their first attempt at learning the English language.
Featuring on an internet forum Crossfire Blogtalk Radio Show hosted by UK-based Gershom Ndhlovu and Mueti Moomba and aired in Zambia on Flava fm (Kitwe) and Zambezi fm (Livingstone), Fr Bwalya said events surrounding the Zambia Railways Limited was a reflection of the “play acting style of governance” under President Michael Sata.
Fr Bwalya, a Catholic priest who took leave of absence off the pulpit to decampaign the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), said President Sata was abetting a lot of wrong things some of which he was also participating in.
He hinted that the manner in which President Sata handled a clash between the ZRL board and CEO Prof Chirwa was one of the reasons he quit his lucrative position as Zesco board chairperson saying he wondered how he would have been treated if a similar incident was to occur where he was serving the government.
Fr Bwalya said the ZRL scandal is a clear case of bad practice of corporate governance more so that the CEO was not appointed by the board and had direct access to State House thereby disregarding what should be his appointing authority.
Asked about one of the decision to refer the matter to ACC, Fr Bwalya said; “The damage has been caused already. It’s a form of immaturity, there is a word in bemba ukubuta. The way that thing was handled leaves much to be desired. That is one of the many reasons I resigned from Zesco. Play acting in this part of the world [is what governs us].”
Fr Bwalya said sometimes in Africa leaders get away with careless statements and wondered why what was wrong and condemned under the MMD should not be treated the same when abetted under the PF government.
“It’s true that a president can make a wrong decision based on advise but its nonsense to blame those around him. We elected him to do the job, not those around him,” he said.
He reiterated that his decision to quit was to reclaim his voice in advocating good governance which he said had plummeted under the PF where the respect for rule of law was no longer upheld.
Fr Bwalya said it was better to highlight the ills of the PF now rather than later to ensure that Zambia got the best in governance but was non committal on reports that his decision to abandon the ruling party was inspired by ambitions to become President of the Republic of Zambia in 2016.
“I resigned to add my voice to many other voices to provide checks and balances to the government. It’s better to blow the whistle earlier than later. There are mistakes being made in Zambia, but what makes them serious is that a number of these mistakes are being made under the President and some of them the President is the one committing them.,” he said.
Fr Bwalya condemned President Sata for such careless statements as “no development in regions where the PF was not elected” because they were undemocratic and segregative because citizens had a right to freely select their own representative.
“…Zambians should not skin me alive for what is not a crime. Who says a president from Zambia should come from a certain tribe. I don’t think there will be anything wrong to aspire to be president of this country,” he said without elaborating whether he had intentions to contest the highest office or not leaving the assertion wide open.
Fr Bwalya, a former MISA-Zambia president, in one breath accused online publications of practicising “rubbish kind of journalism on the internet” driven by malicious propaganda.
He claimed the people behind online publications were not even qualified journalists but excited young persons whose first lessons in English language were insults although he did not identify his assertions to justify the basis of his argument.
The man of the cloth claimed he did not even read online publications but sounded well vest that the same publications he did not read published what he termed as insults.
Fr Bwalya, in apparent reference to the Daily Nation whom he has threatened with legal action, said were practicing petty journalism further indirectly accusing its editor in chief Richard Sakala of having scores to settle.
“Look at facebook and some of these online publications, there are a lot of insults and you wonder what kind of young people are there,” he said in confirmation he spends time reading the same online publications he earlier indicated he never took time and had no interest to read.
Fr Bwalya also downgraded his rating of the PF government from the 75 percent he gave them for their first year in office to 65 percent so far saying what was significant is that the performance was not improving by declining although he refused to predict the trend would continue.
The somehow lukewarm Fr Bwalya, who supported the hike in fuel prices, refused to disclose what he received from Zesco in allowances saying this was public domain and could be accessed through the Auditor General’s office.
He also emotionally rebuffed a question from a listener who had wanted to know how he may have applied the allowances he received from Zesco saying such a question was petty and did not deserve any attention.
Fr Bwalya ran a red card campaign to remove the MMD but hinted his frustrations could have been compounded by the failure to meet President Sata for a one-on-one meeting saying he only successfully visited State House in November 2011 and until three weeks ago had made numerous attempts to meet the Head of State but to now avail.
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