Mbulu backs Sata, eyes Kalulushi seat

Mbulu backs Sata, eyes Kalulushi seat
By Mwila Chansa in Kitwe
Tue 10 May 2011, 04:01 CAT

MINEWORKERS Union of Zambia (MUZ) immediate past president Rayford Mbulu says Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata’s leadership can foster change in the country. And Mbulu, who has since applied to contest the Kalulushi parliamentary seat on the PF ticket, says the labour movement needs transformation.

In an interview yesterday, Mbulu said that as someone who had worked amongst the people, he believed that he had a lot to offer to the country especially if he worked in conjunction with progressive people.

“I am no longer MUZ president; I am just an ordinary citizen and given an opportunity to participate in the governance process, I believe I can add value to this our country,” Mbulu said.

“I still believe I was prematurely terminated from the position of MUZ president but I can’t just go into oblivion like that, I believe I still possess some leadership qualities which if I use with progressive people can take our country to another level.”

He observed that intolerance had become a vice in Zambia’s political dispensation and that this was against democratic ideals.

He said it was sad that the current government viewed people that did not ‘dance to their tunes’ or had divergent views as enemies.

Mbulu said Zambia was for everyone and that no single person had title to it. Mbulu added that the termination of his contract was orchestrated by the government under suspicious circumstances in an effort to block him from contesting the ZCTU presidency.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the mine workers for their support during my tenure. The mine workers were with me all the way and I would also like to thank all the workers of this country for their support because I had almost 100 per cent support when I was about to contest the ZCTU presidency but my support was blocked by the powers that be,” he said.

Mbulu explained that when he intended to contest the ZCTU presidency, he wanted to make the labour movement more viable, relevant and acceptable to the workers.

And Mbulu observed that the labour movement needed the kind of transformation that promoted solidarity whereby an injury to one should be an injury to all.

He hoped those still in the labour movement would continue spearheading the interests of the workers because the labour movement was supposed to be an independent institution that stood on its own without any bias or compromise.

He said if the pre-independence labour movement had leaders such as the ones in the current one, Zambia would not have had attained independence.

Mbulu said labour leaders needed to put their heads together and ensure that investment trickled down to the masses. Mbulu added that Zambia is a rich country that had been extremely mismanaged.