By Patson Chilemba
Economic Front (EF) leader Wynter Kabimba says he hopes political leaders will draw a lesson from Chishimba Kambwili, whom he said was inciting fear in one ethnic grouping against another.
But National Democratic Congress (NDC) secretary general Charles Kabwita says now that police have followed through and arrested Kambwili, he expects that they will handle his matter he reported Kafue mayor Buumba Malambo on over assertions that she told electorates to vote for Tonga councillors, Tonga mayor, Tonga member of parliament and Tonga president.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Kabimba said Kambwili was accepted back into PF to help them mobilise the party to enable it win the elections.
“It is therefore unfortunate that in discharging that responsibility to mobilise support for PF, a man of his experience in politics and having served as minister and having been a senior member of the PF could only find ethnicity or tribalism as the only political trump card on which PF would ride to win an election. It’s extremely unfortunate,” Kabimba said. “I think the people of Zambia must be careful, we have never experienced ethnic conflicts in this country. The Zambian people as a whole in these local communities and these outlying areas, including urban areas have continued to live in peace. They have continued to intermarry across our ethnic lines. It’s therefore unfortunate that it is us the politicians, and Kambwili is not the only one, that are trying to divide the Zambian people across tribal lines in order to either seek power or to possess power.”
Kabimba said he hoped that other politicians would pick a lesson from the incident involving Kambwili and desist from trying to divide the people in order to seek power or to continue to remain in public office, saying what was happening to Kambwili applied to both those seeking office and those in government, whom he said made insinuations sometimes which are tribal in nature.
He said they could not be pursued for the simple fact that they were in office, and the police tend to gloss over such things.
Kabimba said an argument could be made against those who made insinuations that if people were led by a “certain group” then their lives were in danger of they would not get a fair deal from the subsequent government.
On the arguments that Kafue mayor Buumba Malambo told electorates to vote for Tonga councilors, Tonga mayor, Tonga member of parliament and Tonga president and that she should therefore be arrested on the same, Kabimba argued that he has heard about the same argument but that people should be careful over it.
“I watched Kambwili’s video and Kambwili’s video was like, paraphrased, muchenjele sana, naisa mukumichinkula (Be careful I have come to warn you), I think he put it in Bemba, that these people that you want to vote for, the people that want to come into power efyo bakulachita pakupela inchito ngabamonafye ishina ati niwebo Bwalya or something bachiposela kulya. Bamona ishina ati niwebo Chanda bachiposela kulya. Ngabamona ati Haa bamupela inchito (what they will be doing when employing people is that if they notice you are Bwalya or Chanda they will be throwing away your papers, but if they see that your name starts with Haa they will employ you),” Kabimba said. “I think the tone was something along those lines. That is different from saying vote for a Bemba mayor here. I think the two are different. In the first one you are putting fear in people against another ethnic grouping that they will not be safe under this ethnic grouping. In the other one you are politicking. That’s my interpretation of the two events. I have not seen, I didn’t see Buumba’s video clip but I have heard some attempts to try to interpret it.”
Kabimba said if one instilled fear in people that they will be discriminated against, and would not get a fair treatment under one ethnic grouping, that amounted to dividing society.
“But if I say vote for me Wynter Kabimba because I am Sala, I am politicking,” he said.
But asked on the impact of the same statements on the people from the other tribes who were voting and contesting in the same Kafue elections, Kabimba said he would not interpret it in that manner because Kafue was a cosmopolitan area, where even if somebody urged people to vote for Tongas, they were not the dominant ethnic grouping in the area.
“The point I am making is that there is a distinction between politicking and a deliberate attempt or intention to instill fear in one group of people pitting them against another group of people. I am creating a very clear distinction myself,” said Kabimba.
But Kabwita insisted that he was not against the police conducting investigations, but he hoped that they would not grow cold fit over the matter he has reported Malambo on.
He said just as Kambwili is being taken to Kasama to answer charges, he hopes that the police will arrest Malambo and transport her to Luanshya where he resides.
