AFTER three months of waiting and political wrangling among various parties, sanity has prevailed and Zambia now has a new President and a first woman Vice President in Edgar Chagwa Lungu and Inonge Wina respectively, something over which Zambians deserve a huge pat on the back.
Zambians deserve the accolades because in the beginning, the situation looked so unpredictable after President Michael Sata died last October but praise God all is well chiefly because the losing 10 presidential hopefuls and their supporters have gracefully accepted the people’s choice.
The race particularly between Mr Lungu of the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) and Mr Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) was so tight that it kept Zambians at the edge of their seats as results from across the country were being announced by the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre.
Bad weather caused delays in voting in certain parts of the country, thus adding drama and anxiety as the nation waited for the counting of ballots and announcement of final results that had to be verified.
For its part, the ECZ, under the leadership of ‘Iron Lady’ Ireen Mambilima, and various stakeholders, including the Zambia Air Force (ZAF), once again did a sterling job despite the odds.
After acting chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda, the returning officer, declared Mr Lungu as Zambia’s sixth Republican president, replacing the late Mr Sata, accusations of tribalism and regional voting emerged.
But watchers of the Zambian political scene would agree that what happened during the January 20, 2015 presidential by-election was a mere continuation of the voting pattern that has developed since independence from Britain in October 1964. The Southern Province, Western and North-western provinces have always been opposition party strongholds.
It must be remembered that when young Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party (UNIP) and the ‘Old Lion’ Harry Nkumbula’s African National Congress (ANC) formed a coalition government in 1962-3 it was because neither party could master a two-third majority under the 15-15-15 Ian Macleod constitution.
Under this arrangement Kaunda, who was regarded by others ethnic groups as a Northerner, and his UNIP, won 14 seats while Nkumbula with his lieutenant Mungoni Liso, both Southerners, won seven seats most if not all of them from their traditional strongholds: Southern, Western and Northwestern parts of the country.
The other point is the fact that major urban areas, especially the Copperbelt, the melting and mixing bowl, have always voted for the ruling parties: UNIP from 1964 to 1991 when Frederick Titus Jacob Chiluba and his Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) ousted Kaunda from power.
When Michael Sata, a Northerner, resigned from the MMD and formed his own party, the PF became the dominant party in Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt, Lusaka, parts of the Central Province and the newly created Muchinga, which had been an integral part of both Northern and Eastern provinces where opposition parties were weak or virtually non-existent.
It would appear to me that by overwhelmingly voting for their ‘favourite son’ Hichilema, Southerners, with the conscious help of their Western and Northwestern ‘sympathizers’ were seeking to break the dominance or is it monopoly of political power by the coalition of Northerners. Given the huge margins by which Hichilema ‘thrashed’ his closest rival PF’s Edgar Lungu, one of the 10 dark horses, this issue can be said to have become entrenched if not internalized consciously or unconsciously among the people in the affected regions.
So the voting pattern did not change and may not change for a long time to come if nothing concrete is done to change the thinking among the people. Endorsements of presidential candidates, especially by eminent persons, including traditional chiefs, is tantamount to influence-peddling and must be banned (by law) rather than discouraged because they have the potential to divide the nation along tribal lines.
Instead of paying lip-service to ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ all Zambians must look at and treat each other as brothers and sisters regardless of tribe or place of origin. It was embarrassing if not insulting to see a well meaning and only woman presidential candidate, Edith Nawakwi, the Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader receiving five votes in a constituency where the winner scored a whooping 19,000 votes. Really?  That shouldn’t happen in a Christian country.
That, I thought, was bordering on hatred for someone by fellow Zambians. Tribal sentiment and resentment for others won’t build Zambia. Only love and tolerance of one another will do. A nationwide mopping up operation is clearly needed to save the country from self-destruction.
It is for this reason that President Edgar Lungu deserves to be praised for being far-sighted – by appointing Ms Inonge Wina, purely on merit. As PF chairperson, she stood by him, strictly on principle, when the party was at war with itself in the run-up to the January 20, 2015 presidential election. She had also been one of President Sata’s trusted helper and party organizer.
Her appointment by Mr Lungu, in my opinion, must also be seen as the long-delayed reward for the Wina brothers, Arthur (Inonge’s widow) and Sikota who had been outstanding nationalist leaders since independence.
Even during the fight against colonialism in the 1950s and the abolition of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1963, the two Westerners consistently supported the men and women they revered as their leaders irrespective of tribe or place of origin, as Reuben Chitandika Kamanga (Easterner) and Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe (Northerner) both Kaunda’s former Vice Presidents, would testify if they were still alive.
No history of Zambia would be complete without acknowledging the role the two nation-building Winas have played. Whenever some power-hungry individuals agitated for a breakaway of the former Barotseland, the two brothers acted as pacifiers and often emerged the winners because they firmly believed in a united nation called Zambia.
Once again congratulations Mma Inonge Wina, the entire country will be looking up to you as you work patiently with Edgar Chagwa Lungu lift Zambia to a higher level than Sata and other leaders left it in terms of development and national unity. Women in particular have hailed your appointment as inspirational. It raises ropes that it won’t be long before the country puts one of them into State House as Republican president. And my word, why not? By coming fourth in the just-ended presidential by-election, Nawakwi demonstrated that she possesses what it takes to scale the mountains come 2016. But will she and FDD survive? Only time will tell.
The same goes for other small parties and their candidates. It was plain to everyone that most if not all of them, were inadequately prepared financially to support the expensive campaign to capture the highly prized job in the land. Lovers of multiparty democracy and a level playing field were delighted that smaller parties had managed to have their presidents’ names like Elias Chipimo Jr, Ludwig Sondashi, Daniel Pule, Eric Chanda, Peter Sinkamba, Godfrey Miyanda, Tilyenji Kaunda and Nevers Mumba, on the ‘Big’ league log.
However, the bid question is: do they have the financial wherewithal to participate in the 2016 general elections, which are only months away?
So their immediate challenge is to start mobilising resources and remain visible by putting up organizational structures with full-time staff, failing which they should kiss everything goodbye. People are not prepared to support a party that is run like a canteen by a sole proprietor whop pops up only when there is an election.
One thing for sure, is that with stability returning within its ranks, the PF will not be easy to beat given its impressive record since September 2011 when it came to power after Mr Sata defeated Mr Rupiah Banda, then of the ruling MMD.
The PF broke new ground in local and international affairs when Mr Sata appointed Dr Guy Scott as Zambia’s first white Vice President, a record in post-colonial Africa though South Africa’s Frederic de Klerk is said to be first to hold the honour by being Nelson Mandela’s number two following the 1994 all-race elections that marked the end of apartheid.
Dr Scott, as Acting Republican President, scored another first in Africa. He also rose to the occasion and performed remarkably well from the time he was appointed by his fellow PF colleagues to carry the mantle till he gave way to Mr Lungu as President of the country and the PF.
A man of many hats, Mr Lungu (by appointing a woman Vice President in Inonge Wina and pledging to retain Mr Sata’s national development policies) seems to have created fresh problems and tasks for his future presidential rivals.  He has certainly upped the antenna.
Meanwhile, I wish to remember Botswana’s former Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Lt General Mompati Merafhe who recently died and was buried in his home village of Serowe two weeks ago.
Gen Merafhe was a great friend of Zambia. He loved Zambia and always fondly spoke about the ‘great window of opportunities’ that the construction of the proposed Kazungula Bridge by the governments of Zambia and Botswana would open for the two neighbouring countries.
He and his late colleague and former Northeast District (Masunga) Member of Parliament Chapson Butale of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) would never fail to ask about their ‘Zambian friend ‘Mike’ every time I happened to meet them.
Mr Butale was Botswana’s Minister of Health and Mr Sata then held the same portfolio in the Chiluba MMD administration and the latter would often say, “How is my friend back in Lusaka? He is a good friend of mine; once in a while I do phone him to compare notes. Botswana and Zambia have similar health problems”.
Readers of this column will probably recall that Gen Merafhe was the first top Botswana government official to whom I presented the late Dr Francis Khama’s prospectus on HIV/AIDS K-Punch drug that he had developed from his Ndola laboratory. This was after fellow Zambians Kali Muluzi and Jackson Njovu had secured an appointment to see him over the issue.
In perfect diplomatic fashion, the man credited with single-handedly transforming the once Bechuanaland Protectorate Mobile Police Unit into a formidable Botswana National Defence Force (BDF) as its first Commander, received us with a smile, saying: “What can this minister do for our brothers from Zambia?”
A former Mahalapye Member of Parliament (MP), Gen Merafhe was a strong advocate of total Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional integration.
Mahalapye is what Kabwe is to Zambia, it is the headquarters of Botswana Railways, located in the Central District about 300km from Gaborone, the capital.
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