Jonas Shakafuswa writes…
MY PHILOSOPHY IN MY POLITICAL ASSOCIATION IS SIMPLE. I WILL GIVE YOU ALL MY SUPPORT AS LONG AS YOU GIVE THE BEST HOPE FOR THE PEOPLE OF ZAMBIA.
I don’t believe in small gods among men, but the best in men who bring out the best out of men. Simply put if you don’t show me the vision for a better Zambia, I leave your Association.
That is just me. You can love to hate me or just like me. I left UPND in 2006 and stood on MMD because LPM inspired me with hope for this Country and asked for my input in his vision for the Country.
This was the time of immense division in UPND after the illness and eventual death of Mazoka, MHSRIEP. I jumped at the challenge given by Mwanawasa and was privileged to work under Hon. Magande as deputy Minister of Finance.
I feel that was the best time of my life. The challenge was huge and the journey was rough as people never saw the good Mwanawasa and his Government had for the people. If anything most people wanted to see failure.
I believed in the Vision of LPM and its path. This was very trying moments. I had to face the likes of the Post Newspaper, who were bent on seeing Mwanawasa fail. They never saw anything positive in him. I had to stand and defend LPM and became a target of the Post.
Today I can challenges any post on me, and provide witness account on how the post twisted event to make me public enemy. But then as fate had it LPM died in 2008 and RB came on the scene. I refused to support RB, because his campaigners were using a wrong campaign message.
That RB will remove Kaso ka Mwanawasa and allow us Ministers to make money. I refused to move on that path and the rest is history. I was fired by RB. But looking back you will find a hand of the post. I gave the post interviews.
You will be happy to not that they twisted the interviews to show as if I was against everything RB was doing. I remember an article that made RB annoyed. It was the 2009 budget. The headline was Shakafuswa calls the budget a skeleton.
Well they called me to say the budget was empty. I explained that the budget without money is like a skeleton, a frame which needs flesh and blood to operate. Once the money is released it becomes operational.
RB only took it that I called his budget a skeleton and fired me, lost elections subsequently in 2011. The rest is history. Show me your vision and I will support it. I gave an interview to a Mast reporter.
His editors added my political history to show that I have associated with most political parties in this Country. Yes that is true. Zambian politics has no political ideological orientation, but is persuaded by a regional agenda which does not go well with me.
