By Patson Chilemba
We are not afraid of them, says chairperson of the SADC Electoral Observation Mission in the just ended Zimbabwe general elections Dr Nevers Mumba.
The Zimbabwean ruling party, through treasurer Patrick Chinamasa, has sent chilling threats towards Dr Mumba and President Hakainde Hichilema for being what they term as lackeys of western imperialism and warning that they would live to regret.
But speaking with Daily Revelation, Dr Mumba said those attacking him were just childish and sensitive and that he was not afraid of them.
Chinamasa accused the late president Levy Mwanawasa of having started the anti-Zimbabwe crusade, accusing him of having been used by former British prime minister Tony Blair to use Zambia as a base to attack Zimbabwe, but Dr Mumba who served as Mwanawasa’s vice-president at one point, said Mwanawasa was angry with what was happening in Zimbabwe but his goal was not regime change as all he wanted was democracy to be restored there.
“So I can only speak as having been part of his team. But he never ever shared with us that he was involved in any desire for a regime change. So it’s very unfair to accuse a man who is not with us,” Dr Mumba said, adding that people must understand that Zambia still exercises freedom of expression and there is nothing wrong with the president getting angry at something. “And to connect me with the president to any plan of regime is being childish. I think they are just sensitive.”
Dr Mumba also defended himself against Chamisa’s assertions that he was a disgrace and a lackey of the west and that it was so unwise and unpolitic for President Hichilema to send him to Zimbabwe.
“We have read all that and we are in shock as to … We are just in shock. Non of that exists. President Hichilema has never discussed anything regime change and so we can’t get involved. We did our job, we are back and posterity is going to judge everyone in this case,” Dr Mumba said. “So let’s wait and see what the future holds and see who is right and who is wrong.”
About the threats from Chamisa that those who have eyes “let them eye”, Dr Mumba said: “We are not afraid. We are not afraid. Truth will always survive. Truth will always conquer. Truth will always win. So that’s all we can say in response. We are not afraid.”
Chamisa warned saying “those with eyes, let them ‘eye’ “
“For those who don’t know the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, let me fill you in about him. During his tenure of office as Zambian President, he became the darling of Western countries and, cheered on by these sanctions-imposing countries, became very hostile towards Zimbabwe and ZANUPF. He went further than mere rhetoric and, working in cahoots with Tony Blair, had agreed to a Tony Blair proposal to use Zambia as a base for British Military Forces to launch a military offensive against Zimbabwe with a view to reversing the land redistribution program and effecting regime change,” Chamisa warned. “Zimbabwe picked up the intelligence about the hostile intentions of Blair and Mwanawasa. As SADC Chairman in 2008, Mwanawasa convened an Emergency SADC Summit on Zimbabwe in Lusaka with the intent to rally other SADC leaders to the view that a military intervention in Zimbabwe to remove ZANUPF from power was inevitable. Mwanawasa invited Tsvangirai to the Summit. As Zimbabwe, we objected to the attendance of an opposition leader at a Summit of Heads of State. Our objection fell on deaf ears. President Mugabe decided to boycott the Summit and instead dispatched a four Minister delegation to the SADC Lusaka Heads of States Summit to engage Mwanawasa and dissuade him from the path to plunge Zimbabwe and the region into an Armageddon. I led the delegation to the Lusaka Summit.”
He said to beef up and bolster the strength of the delegation, then Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe sent President ED Mnangagwa (then Speaker of the National Assembly) to join the delegation.
“The Emergency Summit started around 3 pm on Saturday, 12 April 2008, and went on nonstop into and throughout the night until it adjourned on Sunday, 13 July 2008, around 6 am. Cde Mnangagwa’s inclusion in the delegation was a masterstroke. It saved the day solely because he was personally known to Mwanawasa. I assumed then (which I have not verified) that Cde Mnangagwa and Mwanawasa were either classmates or contemporaries at the Law School at the University of Zambia. Mwanawasa’s venom and hostility were evident and palpable, but in the early hours of Sunday, while not yielding his ground, Mwanawasa was purely out of respect for Cde Mnangagwa, beginning to treat the delegation with a modicum of civility,” Chamisa stated. “The Lusaka Emergency SADC summit was inconclusive, and Mwanawasa made it known that he was taking the matter to the AU Summit to be held at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. Mwanawasa suffered a stroke, and that put an end to the regime change agenda as a SADC-initiated project at the behest of Tony Blair. Rev. Nevers Mumba is making a spirited attempt to take the regime change agenda from where Mwanawasa left it. Like Mwanawasa before him, he will not succeed in his evil intent. He does not know what mettle Zimbabweans are made of.”
He charged that Dr Mumba was a complete disgrace and an embarrassment to the region and the African Continent as a whole, and that it was very unwise and unpolitic for President Hichilema as Head of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security to appoint Mumba, a “lackey of imperialism and neocolonialism with a known regime change background (against ZANUPF), to come and observe Zimbabwe’s Harmonised Elections.”
“President Hichilema did, wittingly or unwittingly through Mumba’s appointment, stoke the fires of Western-inspired regime change in Zimbabwe and will live to regret it. President Hichilema’s previous known political association with Chamisa creates unwholesome perceptions about his intentions towards Zimbabwe and ZANUPF,” said Chamisa and warned that “Those who have eyes, let them “eye,” and those who have ears, let them “ear.” Nokuti hatigoni kurega kutaura zvatakaona nezvotakanzwa.”
