Maravi

PF MPs challenge Sata to identify successor

PF MPs challenge Sata to identify successor
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sunday July 20, 2008 [04:00]

SOME Patriotic Front (PF) members of parliament have challenged their party president Michael Sata to identify and groom some members to take over from him. Commenting on Sata's statement that there would be a leadership vacuum in PF without him, Bahati member of parliament Besa Edwin Chimbaka yesterday said since Sata had confirmed that the party might experience a leadership vacuum in an event that he retired, he should put in place measures to identify and groom potential leaders that could take over from him.

"If president Sata says there will be a vacuum in PF if he stepped down, then he is confirming to himself that he yet has a very serious assignment to identify and groom people to take over PF leadership because PF is a party that can stay long," said Chimbaka, who is one of the 26 PF 'rebel' members of parliament attending the National Constitutional Conference NCC.

"It's his duty now to take leaf from what is happening in MMD, to begin to groom leaders to take over from him because when he retires there should always be people to take the party on."

Chimbaka cited political parties in the United Kingdom and United States that had been in existence long after the people that formed them retired or died.

"When you look at political parties in the UK; the Liberal Party and Conservative Party, you see that they have been going on for a very long time. Even in the US, the Democratic Party and the Republicans have been going on for a long time because the people that were in leadership earlier on identified people who could take over," Chimbaka said. "So Mr Sata has a duty right now, if he so realises, to ensure that he identifies people who should be able to take over from him and begin to groom them."

Chimbaka said it was not just a matter of party members availing themselves for leadership positions but also for the leaders to identify potential members who could be nurtured into good future leaders.

"At the moment, him having said so, he should be able to initiate the process in order for him to identify people who can run this party when he retires," said Chimbaka.

Nchanga member of parliament Wylbur Simuusa urged Sata to give some of the party members tasks in order to groom them to take over from him when the time comes.
"President Sata is one of the most experienced politicians in the country and I think for us who are not so experienced we have a lot to learn from him," Simuusa said. He said the PF still needed to grow further before the members could start talking about finding alternative leadership to take the party forward.

"We can say yes there will come a time when we can even talk about replacing the top leadership but at the moment we still need that experience for us to be stronger and more established as a party. So his role right now I think it shouldn't be to be holding on to the presidency but I think he should be deliberately bringing up other leaders around him, he should be giving them a bit of training in some tasks."

He said one would only attain experience enganging in various tasks.
"I think he should play the role of the mother 'hen'- for lack of a better word - where a hen is teaching the chicks how to fly or hunt," said Simuusa.

Roan member or parliament Chishimba Kambwili said the PF did not have a shortage of leaders who could take over from Sata. However, Kambwili said Sata was currently the president and had to continue with his duties.

"I think PF has got capable leaders who can take over from him but the most important thing to realise is that this is not the time to take over; he is still the president of the PF," Kambwili said.

He said according to his understanding in politics there was no grooming.

"In politics you don't groom, you introduce people to politics and then people aspire for positions, you must earn your eminence," said Kambwili. "Once you have gotten your experience, anybody else can be president. In my own understanding, God appoints who is going to be leaders of a country or political parties and if you are not anointed by God you will never be."

Kasama Central member of parliament Saviour Chishimba said it was foolish for Sata to think that there would be a vacuum in PF if he was not there because leaders came from God and not human beings like him.

"When someone says without him then there will be a vacuum that is foolishness in the sense that God is in control of every situation. I don't believe in man, I believe in God but I respect human beings because they are God's creation," Chishimba said. "God is in control of the situation. When President Mwanawasa became ill, you have seen the nation rising and praying to God and that ought to continue."

And Sata accused Hakainde Hichilema of using his (Sata’s) and President Levy Mwanawasa's illness to become a national leader. Addressing a media briefing at the PF secretariat in Lusaka yesterday, Sata accused Hichilema of spreading false rumours about President Mwanawasa's illness.

"In PF we are aware and the government is aware that Hakainde has been going round talking about me and President Mwanawasa; he is among the people who are spreading false rumours about President Mwanawasa's illness and about me that I am not fit, I am very sick so it's only him who is fit...we know where he has been, he has been to the Copperbelt and the state is aware," Sata alleged. "Hakainde slow down! What is important and at stake at the moment is national security, national unity and people of Zambia at the moment Levy Mwanawasa is our relative because he is the President of the Republic of Zambia."

Sata dismissed Hichilema's claims that he was an opportunist when he suggested that a medical board be instituted to examine President Mwanawasa's medical condition.
"There is no opportunist, an opportunist of what? Where did he learn English? Did he pass at the university or did somebody write the examination for him?" Sata asked. "Hichilema should not take mileage from my illness and President Mwanawasa's illness thinking he can become a national leader. He is a provincial leader and no more."

Sata bragged that he was much closer to President Mwanawasa and knew a lot about his current medical situation than Hichilema would ever know.

"Hichilema is trying to bring the tension which we have killed, we want people to be united but he wants to bring tension where we should be quarrelling. Who is Hakainde anyway? At the moment we are nursing a President and there is no need for me to quarrel with him. What worth is him for me to quarrel with him?" he asked.

Sata, who had earlier in the week suggested that the Chief Justice assists the nation by appointing a medical board, which should travel to Percy Military Hospital in Paris, France to monitor President Mwanawasa's condition, changed his stance saying he did not mean that a medical team should come from Zambia.

"We are not urging government to send a team of doctors, there are already doctors attending to the President. Under medical ethics, the doctors who are attending to the President cannot reveal the confidentiality between them and their patient," he said.

Sata said Zambia was not an island, hence it should learn from other countries on how they handled the situations when their heads of state were ill.

"In 1973 when president Gamal Abdel Nasser was sick in Egypt, the Egyptian law was invoked where the government appointed a board of medical doctors and out of that board of medical doctors there was a spokesperson who was updating the world on the illness of president Nasser. When Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated, they knew he had been shot, there was an authorised medical board which was informing the world how president Sadat was doing," recalled Sata. "When Indian Indira Ghandi was assassinated, the government instituted a professional medical team to inform the nation. When (US president] John F Kennedy was assassinated, they knew he had been shot but there was a government medical board who were informing the nation about what was going on."

Labels: LEADERSHIP, MPs, PF, PRESIDENCY, SATA

posted by MrK @ 3:52 AM