A video footage has yet again surfaced in which Malole MP Christopher Yaluma, who is also Commerce Minister, is addressing a public gathering in Northern Province where he is planting extremely hateful and vitriolic messages against the peaceful people of Southern Province. This is indeed sickening.
To start with, we are wondering how the PF ministers, government and party officials have completely defied Mr. Lungu and the Ministry of Health mandatory guidelines on combating the spread of Coronavirus. These bunch of tribalists are busy organising and addressing public gatherings without any adherence to social distancing and mandatory wearing of masks especially by the poor villagers they are addressing.
These PF ministers, party and government officials are coming from Lusaka, which is the epicentre of COVID 19 and going to rural communities where they are freely mingling and politicking ahead of the 2021 elections. While they safely talk from the safety of their masks, they don’t bother to share with the people they are addressing who are unwittingly made to defy social distancing.
Of course, we know the problem is with Mr. Edgar Lungu himself who has gone into hibernation. The few minutes he appears to address the nation, in the confines of his hiding hole he even causes more confusion. His statements call for a myriad of clarifications and press briefings on what he actually meant or didn’t mean. The interpretations further worsen the situation, and we have seen how no one now trusts whatever he says.
It’s not a long ago that the nation was treated to a divisive tribal, hateful and baseless disparaging speeches by Lungu’s Ministers like Ms. Nkandu Luo and other senior party officials targeted at the people of Southern Province. What crime have they committed?
Typical of Mr. Lungu, he did nothing to these PF leaders despite his national address during parliament condemning tribalism.
But here is a senior government official who is a cabinet minister in Mr. Yaluma preaching deep hatred against the people of Southern Province. It appears this is now a cabinet resolution.
For those who don’t know Mr. Yaluma, his wife is a Haamanenga, a Tonga from Monze who’s father John Haamanenga from Chikuni, Chief Ufwenuka, was Monze Central MP in the 80s. What does Mr. Yaluma tell his Tonga wife, children, and in-laws from both families? If there was to be tribal conflict in the country, would Yaluma pick up pangas and hack his wife, children, in-laws and other Tongas extended family members of Chiyobola Village, Chikuni Mission in Monze East where his wife comes from.
Even more worrying was how Mr. Yaluma could stoop so low as to engage in tribal politics based on lies such as UPND has no MPs anywhere else other than Southern, Western and North-Western Provinces yet as an MP, he interacts with UPND MPs from Central and even Copperbelt.
Yaluma equally knows UPND has elected councillors even in Northern Province and the rest of the country. With such people surrounding Edgar Lungu who can tell such lies, you wonder what lies they feed him as a basis for policy implementation.
We know the PF leadership has lost all manner of lies to tell the Zambian voters over the failed economic policies, hence now resorting to politics of divisions based on tribal hatred against those they think have better alternatives.
Yaluma is among the PF politicians who could be looting public resources for personal gains without any benefits to their constituencies but now wants to scare our citizens from voting for those who offer better services to the country. No wonder he was expelled from his party’s Central Committee, he is of no tangible value.
We call on Mr. Yaluma to publicly apologise to his wife, children and in-laws, who hail from Southern Province and do the honourable thing by resigning as cabinet minister. If he won’t, we call on the President to fire him like all Presidents before him would have done.
President Lungu will do well to understand that Zambians frown upon the tribal talk and tribalism. The more the President ignores or neglects to take action against his own Ministers who preach tribalism and hate speech against a section of the country, the more the Zambian people take it that he tolerates and agrees with them.
Patrick Mucheleka
UPND Deputy Secretary
