. Mwaanga
By MIRIAM ZIMBA –
VERNON Johnson Mwaanga has a historical 50 year political career, characterised by criticisms which earned him titles such as ‘elections rigger’, ‘master dribbler’ and many others.
If this is really an art that he mastered to its perfection, why then did he not use it to his advantage to ascend to the highest office of presidency in the land?
This is a man whose international and political exposure is yet to be beaten by any of Zambia’s citizens-a man who served as minister of Foreign Affairs twice, minister of Information and Broadcasting Services four times, chief Government spokesperson and Parliamentary Chief-Whip five times.
All these positions coupled with his vast experience in the game of politics would surely have stirred in him the desire for higher office, but instead, the opposite was the case.
His experience in his years as a politician made him realise that contrary to public perceptions about the political climax being that of president, Dr Mwaanga has always been comfortable being ‘the Duke’s cousin’, and not the ‘Duke’ himself!
“I have been much happier just being the ‘Duke’s Cousin’, than being the ‘Duke himself,” he says.
“You cannot hope for more in life, since I have never really wanted to be president, I just wanted to be the ‘duke’s cousin’, not the ‘duke’, so I guess I did achieve that to a very great extent.
“Because I have been very close to those who wanted to be presidents, and maybe because I have an idea as to what being a president is all about, and what they go through, I have never wanted that job,” he explains.
“Sometimes when I look at people who are vying for presidency, I tend to think that there is something wrong with them-I ask myself if these people really know what they are vying for,” he adds.
In response to some of the political titles he earned through his journey in the political arena, Dr Mwaanga who described himself as a political strategist, explained that he has never been involved in election rigging!
“I used to be in-charge of elections in 1991, 1996, 2001, and 2006 only because I won all the elections I was in-charge of, I was dubbed a master dribbler, or an election rigger.
“They put it much more crudely. But I think that they were just making political statements because you will recall that we had elections and there were petitions against the results of the presidential elections, but no one ever mentioned my name in any of those petitions.
“So they used to make those statements outside court but because the burden of proof in court is high, one has to prove the person is indeed responsible for what he has been accused of, they never brought this matter before the courts.
“I have never rigged an election in my life. That would be tantamount to interference in the political will of the Zambian people, and I can never do such a thing, it is a criminal offence,” Dr Mwaanga pointed out.
Instead, he explained that he is a political strategist who mastered the art of reading the political mood, and this helped him organise effective political campaigns.
“I am just an election strategist, I know how to read political moods, especially when I was involved in politics, I knew how to do so, I knew how to organise campaigns, and I knew what sort of structures a party needs to organise an effective election,” he explained.
“People used to say unless VJ supports you, you cannot win, which is nonsense, because at the end of the day, it is how you organise your campaigns. When you do not do the basics right, you cannot win an election.
“I went beyond doing the basics and for me that was the most important thing” he recalls.
Perhaps it is skills such as these that a number of countries in the region recognised and seized the opportunity to make use of Dr Mwaanga’s services, a skill he is happy to have passed on.
But of course, this wealth of political knowledge can only come from experience and having endured rising through the ranks of political hierarchy.
This is because his entry into the political arena stems right at the bottom when he developed his skills of conflict prevention and management at a tender age of 17, in 1961 when he was Southern Province youth secretary for the United National Independence Party (UNIP).
He became a councillor in 1962 at the age of 18, in Choma and he steadily rose through the political ranks.
“I have had a relationship with politics going back many years, contrary to what people think that one just needs to present themselves as a political candidate to win,” he explains.
During this period, he would meet regularly with youth members of the African National Congress (ANC) to discuss the need for the two parties to work together against the British Colonial rule, without engaging in violence against each other.
He continued these meetings in 1962 with the ANC Action Group in Choma, when he was regional secretary for UNIP in Choma and Namawla Districts.
This was at the peak of hostility towards UNIP in Southern Province which was a strong hold for the late Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula’s ANC.
He is the founding member of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) and holder of card number 0000003, where he became national vice chairperson for information and publicity on the national executive committee and the MMD chief party spokesperson.
Subsequently in 1991, he was elected as Roan Constituency Member of Parliament for a first five year term.
He also served as minister of Foreign Affairs between 1991 and 1994, a period during which he hosted the Angolan Peace Talks for 14 months which produced the Lusaka Protocol of November 1994.
Between 1995 and 1998 he served as chairperson of the Parliamentary committee on National Security and Foreign Affairs.
In 1996, he was re-elected as Roan MP for a second five year term, and between 1999 and 2002, he again served as minister of Information and Broadcasting Services and chief Government spokesperson . Between 2001 and 2002, he was MMD’s national secretary, and in 2002, he was nominated as MP and re-appointed as Information and Broadcasting Services minister, which saw him also hold the same position between 2005 and 2007.
My politics and my life in the diplomatic service have always been non-confrontational, if you look at my track record, I never attack people by name, I stick to issues,” he explains.
In responding to whether or not he has any political enemies, Dr Mwaanga explained that his approach has always been that of respecting those who opposed his style of politics, which is a constitutional right of every citizen.
“My view is that I respect the rights of those who oppose my style of politics. This is because at independence we fought for people’s democratic right to hold different views.
“I respect their views, I do not regard them as enemies because enmity leads to bitterness, which is a burden too heavy for me to carry, and I leave it for lesser persons,” he adds.
Dr Mwaanga’s late father Samson Simakulika Mwaanga, an educationist, was an ardent supporter of the Late Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula’s ANC, and this is perhaps where Dr Mwaanga drew his interest in politics as a young person.
I came up in a family where both my father and mother were educationists and I always followed politics by listening to the BBC with keen interest, even as a young person.
He, however, never joined the ANC because he believed that ANC employed a more conservative approach to the struggle, when his political views were much more radical.
“I felt that my views had no room in the ANC, but they only had room in UNIP where we saw the need to accelerate the struggle,” he recounted.
Dr Mwaanga has also been a victim of political violence-he was attacked during the funeral of late UPND leader Anderson Mazoka, and suffered injury to his left ear.
From that time, Dr Mwaanga has had five surgical operations in the same ear, resulting from the injuries he sustained, and currently had a pin inserted in his left ear.
“But I have since forgiven the people that did this to me, he explains”.
Although he was only awarded an honorary doctorate in July 2014 by the Copperbelt University (CBU), he had an earlier offer.
In 1970, he was nominated for an honorary doctorate degree by the University of New York, Long Island College together with the then US Ambassador to the United Nations George Bush Senior, but he declined this offer.
Closer to home, Dr Mwaanga played an instrumental role in the formation of a committee for inter-party dialogue in 1992, with the support of the Netherlands Institute for Multi-Party Democracy (NIMD), a Centre for Inter-Party Dialogue, give all the political players a platform to exchange views and avoid possible conflict.
His wish is to be remembered as a committed public servant who did his best for his country and for his people.
“I had a passion for it and that for me the country and the people meant everything. I put the country and the people first, and myself and my family last,” he says.
That is probably the reason why the country has not heard about him being investigated for abuse of pubic funds, because he is a man that respects the laws of the land.
As a young man in the diplomatic service, he used his diplomacy to achieve numerous milestones in the world of international politics.
He served as the youngest member of the UN Security Council, with a record of having been Zambia’s first Ambassador to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic(USSR) at the age of 21 years.
He is a man with a track record of having transcended more than 100 countries across the globe- these and much more in our next edition as we focus on Dr Mwaanga’s life in the diplomatic service.
