Maravi

Katele Kalumba

Katele Kalumba
Written by Editor

Honesty is a very important virtue and without it, there is very little one can achieve in life, especially in political leadership.We think everything – respect, relationship, serious analysis and understanding – is possible among people who are honest with themselves and with others. Dishonest people have never deserved anybody’s respect. As the saying goes, “It’s easier to discover a liar than a cripple.” A lie can’t be dissimulated.

We should not encourage narrow-mindedness in our politics, for no nation can be great whose people are led by politicians who are narrow in thought or in action. A powerful human following can only be assembled through the cogent example of a morally superior conduct of political leadership.

That is why we beg the leadership of the ruling MMD to turn their backs on their bad and disgraceful history of corruption and realise that if they are to play a meaningful political leadership position in our country and are to be regarded as decent leaders, they have to act up to different standards than the one that they have been following over the last few months.

Of course, we say this bearing in mind that the besetting temptation of all politics is to concern itself with the immediate present at the expense of the future. But they should all know that this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it’s a good place for all of us to live in.

Zambia is in trouble today not because her people have failed, but because her leaders have failed. What our country needs today are leaders to match the greatness of our people. There is too much mediocrity in our political leadership. There is growing anger in this country over the way politicians are managing public affairs, but strangely that anger is mixed with despair, a feeling that the problems are just too great, too complex, to be dealt with by the type of politicians we have.

If our politicians’ response to that despair, anger and confusion amounts to little more than slogans, if they give the impression to our people that they believe that they can just make a loud noise and everything will fall down, they are not going to treat them very seriously at all – and they don’t deserve to be treated very seriously. They can’t continue to play cheap politics when people’s jobs are being lost every day. The people will not, cannot, abide posturing.

It seems to us lately that some of our politicians have become like school boys. They are more concerned about winning or losing elections. They are more concerned about their so-called victory in last October’s presidential elections. What victory? Whose victory? The victory they are talking about is for themselves, it’s personalised victory. It is not victory for the people. We say this because the people seem to be casualties of their victory. The ones losing jobs are not to be found among the leaders and their supporters who are talking about victory; they are to be found amongst the people whose jobs are destroyed, whose services are crushed, whose living standards are pushed down to deeper depths of insecurity and misery. These are vile times under these dishonest and selfish politicians.

There is need for honesty, selflessness, values and principles in our politics. Of course, there are some who seem to think that power and principle are somewhat in conflict when it comes to politics. Those people who think that power and principle are in conflict only demonstrate the superficiality, the shallowness of their thinking. Let us try to restore honesty and dignity to our politics. As we have said before, the individual does best in a strong and decent community of people with principles and standards and common aims and values.

What values, what principles, what standards is Benny Tetamashimba trying to advance? What does Tetamashimba stand for? What does he believe in?

For some time now, Tetamashimba has been defending Frederick Chiluba, saying he is innocent, he is not corrupt, he is not a thief because no court has found him to be so, he is innocent until proven guilty. Tetamashimba was saying all this while Chiluba was on his defence following the magistrate’s court finding him with a case to answer. And today this same Tetamashimba, from the same mouth, is saying that Katele Kalumba should step aside from his position as MMD national secretary because he has been found with a case to answer on corruption charges:

“You know when you are put on your defence by the court, it means the court had been convinced by the prosecution that there is merit, that you did some wrong things. So you are put on your defence. They are now telling you that the onus is on you to prove otherwise. As at now the court is saying they are guilty until they prove otherwise and Katele is one of them. He should have stepped aside.”

This is how unprincipled positions on issues change. This is purely chameleon behaviour. And it’s very difficult to follow or trail a chameleon because it keeps on changing its colour, blending itself to the new environment. This is how Tetamashimba is continually changing his position. When Levy Mwanawasa was president, Tetamashimba was one of the most ardent critics and denouncers of Chiluba’s corruption. But when the regime changed after Levy’s death and Rupiah Banda, who is more tolerant of corruption and more accommodating to corrupt elements became much closer to Chiluba, Tetamashimba changed. He stopped denouncing Chiluba and went to the other side of the pendulum – he started defending him in the most ridiculous and senseless ways.

The MMD has a reputation for accommodating and defending corrupt elements. Its chairman, Michael Mabenga, was found to be corrupt by not only the High Court of Zambia, but also the Supreme Court of this country. But shortly after that finding, the MMD convention voted him national chairman in total disregard of his corruption record. And Katele was voted for as national secretary while he was facing corruption accusations. All this corruption was not an issue for the MMD. What has changed today?

Running a country is a complex business. It requires maturity, patience and sober-mindedness. These are the qualities that Rupiah Banda must demand from those around him. The rantings of Tetamashimba may appear useful to Rupiah today but it won’t be long before they land him in trouble.

We have no business condoning the corruption charges that Katele is facing. We have always denounced the MMD’s accommodation of corrupt elements, including that of Katele and Mabenga. We have been very consistent about this. If we thought that Tetamashimba was making the demand that he is making in an honest fashion, in a fair and consistent manner, we would have no problems with him. We would actually support him.

Today, Rupiah’s government is busy doing all sorts of things to try to rehabilitate Chiluba’s tattered image. It is not long ago that Rupiah’s government embarrassed the Chief Justice by making him sit next to a convicted criminal, Chiluba’s wife Regina.

Consistency is important. Government must be run on the basis of clear principles that engender confidence from the public. The government must not do things that show the public that it does not respect the rule of law. Such behaviour from government officials leads to the breakdown of law and order and could end in anarchy.

Rupiah’s government seems to be all about divisive politics, the politics of crushing this one and that one. They seem to spend most of their time on intrigue, on scheming and very little time is devoted to the nurturing of principles and other positive virtues. There does not seem to be any real commitment to our people and their interests. This is why people like Tetamashimba have no shame. It is not difficult for him to say one thing today and do another tomorrow. Tetamashimba will say whatever fits in today’s scheme. Whether or not it contradicts what he said yesterday is neither here nor there.

Tetamashimba can denounce Katele on allegations of corruption and defend Chiluba on the same allegations of corruption. He does not see any problems with this. We have a problem with this kind of behaviour. What Rupiah is condoning from Tetamashimba is not a denunciation of corruption. It is the denunciation of a perceived political enemy. We say this because we have no doubt that if Katele was Rupiah’s praise singer and was not perceived as a challenger to Rupiah’s hold on power and control of the MMD, Tetamashimba would be the first one defending Katele. This is what is wrong. We cannot have a situation where a government makes all its decisions on the basis of who is with us or against us. The nation is far too complex to expect that everybody will be agreed on all political issues. There is need to accommodate divergent views. If Katele is not supposed to be a leader in the MMD, there are many others including Mabenga who should not be.

We have not forgotten that at the last election, Tetamashimba openly told the public that the MMD should adopt Rupiah because that would make it easy for them to use state resources for their campaign. Today, this same Tetamashimba is saying the MMD should adopt Rupiah because of the Eastern Province vote. Is that what it is about? We thought presidents are supposed to be elected because they stand the best chance to take the nation forward.

Anyway, this is expecting too much from the likes of Tetamashimba. Like old man Daniel Munkombwe candidly admitted, this is politics of benefits, it has nothing to do with the people. This is what the MMD has reduced itself to. It will be expecting too much of Tetamashimba to think that he will make a principled stand. It is this same Tetamashimba who one day was supporting Maureen Mwanawasa as the best candidate to replace Levy. And in a few months, he was denouncing her. It is clear what kind of politics Tetamashimba plays. He will gravitate wherever he thinks power lies. Tetamashimba is truly what they call ‘muselela kwakaba’.

Rupiah should know that he has surrounded himself with many Tetamashimbas. He should not be surprised if people who are today eating from his hand start denouncing him when they believe power is moving. This is the kind of politics Rupiah is encouraging. He seems determined to surround himself with praise singers. Praise singers do not care who they sing for as long as they get something in return. And given our political system, it won’t be long before Rupiah’s hour to leave the stage comes and then he will know and see what we are talking about.

We hope our people are seeing what kind of leadership we have. A leadership that cares nothing for its people but merely devoted to its own interests.

As for Katele, this is the price he will pay for the type of life he has lived. And we only hope some of our politicians will learn something from this. Katele is not an ordinary party cadre. He is a highly educated man, a cultured person who would today be playing a very critical role in the political leadership of our country. But today, he has been neutralised, he has been consumed by the choices he made. Without corruption, without dishonesty, Katele would truly be among the best of our political leaders. It is sad to see such a nice fellow destroyed almost in a permanent way by dishonesty. And this is why we try very hard to fight corruption and protect the best of the sons and daughters of this country from its consequences.

Corruption robs us not only of financial or material resources, but also of the human resource that would otherwise be available to deal with the many challenges facing our people. Losing Katele is not a small thing. Let’s learn from the mistakes of others. Let’s learn from the experiences of others and strive for integrity, honesty and excellence in whatever we do. If only Katele had been honest, if only he had fought for integrity, our country would have continued to benefit from his many skills.

Labels: KATELE KALUMBA

posted by MrK @ 2:08 PM