MMD Responds To Attacks by Wynter Kabimba

Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba’s unwarranted attack on the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) as reported in the Sunday Post of 29th June 2014 cannot go unchallenged. He was quoted as saying:

We are lucky as a country that God gave us Michael Sata to redeem us from the MMD slavery and corruption.

It is rather disingenuous of Mr Kabimba to unashamedly accuse us in this manner and dishonestly reduce the 20-year rule of the MMD to one thing – Corruption.

We wish to remind Mr Kabimba that if it had not been for the MMD fighting for liberation from the One-Party State, he would not have a platform to pontificate today. No amount of falsehoods from Mr Kabimba will ever erase the proud history of the MMD. We not only brought back multi-party politics which the Patriotic Front Government is attempting to destroy. We liberated the press which he is using today to spread his lies and innuendos.

Soon after assuming power in 1991, crippling shortages of essential commodities became a thing of the past. The public transport sector became fully liberalized and Zambians were empowered with home ownership for the first time since Independence. They could freely criticize the president, engage in private business, had unfettered access to foreign exchange, could freely associate with others, sue the government, travel anywhere they wanted, participate in free and fair elections (against fellow humans and not frogs) and access an improved judicial system. The standard of living of the average Zambian as measured by Per Capita Income, Life Expectancy, Infant Mortality and many other statistics remarkably improved on our watch.

Is this what Mr Kabimba calls “Slavery”?

His accusations of corruption in the MMD have already been dealt with before. He is attempting to resurrect a dead issue. The New MMD under my leadership has already made amends and opened a new chapter by acknowledging our past mistakes. Ironically, the current Patriotic Front (PF) government from top to bottom, including current ministers, has people who were previously key members of the same MMD government he is now trying to discredit. Is he saying his colleagues in government are corrupt slave-masters?

The rule of the PF in the last three years has completely vindicated the MMD which warned the Zambian people that they were dealing with a dangerous group of people who would cause them to regret their decision to vote for the PF. Everyone from marketeers, farmers, businesses men, investors, donors, labour unions, NGOs and miners are mourning the great tragedy that has befallen Zambia because of the PF Government. It is not uncommon to hear street vendors and taxi drivers say “Mudala alitu gon’ga”, meaning “The old man lied to us.”

Zambians have been taken on a disastrous boat ride (Pa Bwato) to nowhere by the PF Government and not a single day passes without them wondering where we are going. They now realize that the PF Government is just power-hungry and has no vision, no heart and no genuine compassion for the suffering people of Zambia.

The PF must be the most hypocritical government since Independence. They have taken us backwards a quarter of a Century to the time when Zambians lived in fear of their own government. Our people are not free to speak their minds; not free to assemble; not free to campaign; not free to even have indoor political meetings. They can be arrested anytime on flimsy grounds; can be beaten anyhow and even killed by PF cadres. We are back to the days of the “Party and its Government” when the State machinery was abused for intimidation of anyone with dissenting political views.

Is this not the real slavery Mr Kabimba should be addressing?

Mr Kabimba has accused the MMD of corruption, and yet the scale of corruption in the PF government begs belief. How did they award the single-sourced tender for renovations of State House to their own Minister of Finance within weeks of assuming power? Why are there still many unanswered questions on the procurement of oil through Trafigura, for which Mr Kabimba himself was investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), only to be “acquitted” under very questionable circumstances?

Why does the Road Development Agency (RDA) report directly to State House? Why are there leaked bank statements in the public domain suggesting that large sums of money have been paid into the president’s personal bank account, allegedly as inducements to award multi-million Dollar road construction contracts? Why have Chinese Companies suddenly become the darlings of the PF when prior to 2011, they were accused of corrupt dealings with the MMD Government? Why was a banquet thrown for these companies when they were targets of threats to be repatriated upon PF getting into power? Who is really benefiting from the celebrated “unprecedented infrastructure development projects” of the PF?

Why is there a deeply entrenched culture of lawlessness in the PF, such that Mr Kabimba is now publicly confessing to illegally smuggling in Kenyans to conduct Parallel Voter Tabulation during the 2011 elections without the knowledge of the Electoral Commission of Zambia? Why is illegal land-grabbing from innocent Zambians by PF cadres being tolerated by the PF Government which is wasting time and resources by appointing an unproductive Lands Commission of Enquiry? Why are PF Ministers arguing and contradicting each other in public?

We shall leave it to the Zambians to answer these questions.

The New MMD stands on a platform of honesty, morality and integrity. We shall endeavor to be truthful in managing the affairs of our people. We will at all costs avoid the temptation, which the PF has fallen into, of making sweet, exaggerated but unattainable promises to our people. When faced with difficult decisions, we will tell the people of Zambia the truth about what can and cannot be done. We will not promise to do things in “90 Days”.

We wish to remind Zambians that Mr Kabimba’s accusations are just another chapter in the vicious ongoing campaign to destroy the MMD through various machinations that include targeting its Members of Parliament, telling outright lies and spreading misinformation. Even prior to the 2011 elections, Zambians were subjected to an endless bombardment of attacks and accusations against the MMD through a vicious, widespread and malicious propaganda campaign.

Instead of focusing on bringing the much-promised development, PF are wasting time and tax-payer money sponsoring divisions within MMD while publicly pretending that MMD is a dead party. If MMD is dead, why is so much effort being put into destroying it?

The PF party President Michael Sata on 31st October 2012 as reported by ZANIS acknowledged that the biggest threat to the PF Government is the MMD. He said “… there is a big vacuum; we are on a big MMD volcano….” Needless to say, he was right.

The New MMD will continue emerging victorious from each and every attack from the PF which thrives on deception, falsehoods and extreme exaggeration to win cheap popularity from unsuspecting nationals. We shall never be put down or destroyed. Every attack is like an exercise of a muscle that makes us stronger and bigger and is leading to renewed public support. The MMD is being purified by fire, removing all the chaff and producing pure gold.

MMD stands ready when re-elected to hit the ground running from day one due to its vast knowledge and experience.

Zambians, we urge you to never experiment again.

MMD