M’MEMBE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SHAMELESS TRIBAL PROPAGANDIST

Scoop Editorial: November 3, 2022

CARELESS words uttered today may come back a hundred years later to haunt you a tenfold and this is exactly the situation Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe has found himself today because of his cheap tribal propaganda which he started spewing donkey year ago using The Post Newspaper.

Many years ago when it served him right, M’membe put coals into gumboots he thought would be worn by another person, only to find himself putting on the same boots and this is why he is today hobbling around like a demon possessed maniac trying to clean his mess. This is what we have always advised people against.

Yes, M’membe hated Anderson Mazoka, the founding president of the United Party for National Development (UPND) as much as he hates Republican President Hakainde Hichilema but he did not end there.

He also hated the tribe where these two come from and extended his hatred to any other tribe connected to the Tonga groupings. It was M’membe who called the larger Tonga grouping the Bantustan, a pejorative term used to demean the Tongas, Lenjes, Ilas, etc.

M’membe also hated anyone connected to these two leaders plus the Tonga tribe and that is how the people of Western and North-Western Provinces found themselves on the wrong side of the bed with him. The offence all these committed was to support the UPND which was and is led by a Tonga.

When his Post Newspaper was alive, M’membe actually used reporters from these regions to propagate his tribalism to hide his intentions and his tribal talk heightened under Michael Sata. The planned alliance between UPND and the PF before the 2011 elections failed because of M’membe’s insatiable hatred for Tongas and as they say, old habits die hard, he is back propagating tribalism by accusing those in power of practicing it.

This is the same M’membe, the coward who kept quiet when Edgar Lungu and his friends sidelined other people from other regions on account of tribe. He saw nothing wrong with Lungu’s tyrannical rule which saw no Cabinet Minister from Southern, for example. He saw nothing wrong with civil servants from these regions being fired or retired “in national interest” on account that they supported the UPND and today wants to open his stinking mouth and say there is tribalism in Government.

In his feeble mind, M’membe believes Cabinet Ministers such as Chushi Kasanda, Paul Kabuswe, Chipoka Mulenga, Frank Tayali, Reuben Phiri, Mike Mposha, Elvis Nkandu, Peter Kapala, Doreen Mwamba, Felix Mutati, Elias Mubanga, Peter Phiri, and Henry Sikazwe are all Tongas and have been appointed because they are President Hakainde Hichilema’s tribesmen and women.

But we know that M’membe stands for nothing. He has zero principles and can do anything as long as that would benefit him at the end of the day. As a media owner, he specialized in riding on blackmail. He blackmailed those in Government to bend to his demands for personal aggrandizement.

We are not gullible. We have not forgotten the DBZ loan and the Zambian Airways story and how the country lost as a result of his cunningly deceitful ways. His own business crumbled right before his eyes all because of deceitfulness while playing the victim. His political journey is also another mess.

Not long ago, M’membe branded the PF and UPND as Siamese twins because they have the same ideology and that only socialism has the mantra to better the lives of Zambians but the Kabushi and Kwacha by-elections exposed him for who he is.

He crawled back to the PF, the same people he condemned day and night, to forge a loose partnership with the aim of supporting Bowman Lusambo and Joe Malanji. What he was looking for was relevance to the PF. He knows he cannot contribute anything to the PF but wants to use the PF to revive his dwindling fortunes.

Had the PF managed to field Lusambo and Malanji and had they won, he would have shouted the loudest about how popular he is because he always wants to be the centre of attraction and this is why he cried the loudest when the duo did not participate in the election.

In the history of this country, there has never been a person as puffed up as Fred where tribalism is concerned, not even Chishimba Kambwili but what he does not realise is that this is not The Post era where one can churn out propaganda and people follow blindly.

Zambians are now enlightened and no one in this country will ever win an election on tribal sentiments. Zambians have lived in harmony across tribes. Today, there is no family in Zambia which has not intermarried with other tribes and it would be a farce for anyone to think of breaking family ties on account of political relevance.

If that was the case, the PF would not have lost the 2021 election because they had nothing to tell the Zambians serve for propagating hate speech and tribal segregation using their chief tribalist, Kambwili.

Kambwili preached hate speech and tribalism all his entire life, up to the last election. Kambwili went as far as lying that a female teacher was brutality attacked in Sinazongwe for being Bemba. He even went as far as saying even if Jesus was to come down today and stand in an election, he would still get no vote in Southern Province because people there are tribal. Where is Kambwili today?

So, M’membe should not even defend himself and try to sway the public from who he is. He is a full-fledged tribalist who hates people from certain tribes with a passion; a person who hated his own father in-law to his grave but today wants to play the innocent.

M’membe is just lucky that President Hichilema is not vindictive as his predecessor was and that is why he has found his voice after crawling back from under the bed where the PF had shunted him for fear of being arrested because he is a coward.