The Kambwili conundrum

By now, it is certainly beyond any doubt that while I don’t so much like to discuss politics and religion on my blog, the two subjects are probably some of the topics I cover the most. For this reason, I will drop the ever present now monotonous disclaimer that I always add intuitively to the blogs that cover the two subjects.

This is a very interesting time in politics, when US president Donald Trump is threatening North Korea with “fire and fury like never seen before”, President Jacob Zuma is narrowly surviving his eighth vote of no confidence and here in Zambia Chishimba Kambwili the once very powerful man in the nation of Zambia, has embarked on a tour of apologies. I must also add that the names Mmusi Maimane and Julius Malema have been mentioned by Zambians quite a lot of late.

Well, where do I start from?

When Chishimba Kambwili (CK) was expelled from the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) party, I did put up a post on Facebook to weigh-in an opinion and I never intended to ever comment again on anything related to the man. However, his recent tour of the country apologising at every opportunity has compelled me to weigh-in once more.  

First Chishimba Kambwili went to southern province to meet some selected chiefs and apologise for his outbursts when he was minister especially that statement where he accused the Tonga people of being highly tribal beyond any match. He had suggested back then, that not even the Nazarene Jesus Christ would be spared from the kind of tribalism practised by the Tonga people. Those words by the way were said by a chief government spokesperson. Today the PF have distanced themselves from such utterances and they have called them highly tribal and divisive saying Kabwili’s greatest enemy is his mouth.

I should mention that political discourse in Zambia over the last two years or slightly over has been lacking objectivity but just full of tribal and regional predisposition. The kind of subjectivity in political discourse exuded lacks any basic sincerity, and has only exposed the level of polarity in our society. It makes me wonder if our politicians today seek office in earnest or just to enrich themselves. Another thing I also wonder is if internal democracy in Zambian political parties does exist or it is just a fallacy. I say this because, how is it possible that all members and followers of a political party are not allowed to have diverse positions on matters but instead expected to toll the same line all the time. The only time you hear different views on issues is when one gets the boot like the case of Kambwili.

Sadly Kambwili should bear a lot of responsibility for this intolerance that has gripped Zambian politics. As a matter of fact he should bear more responsibility than just intolerance and tribalism so rife in Zambia today. The conduct of Kambwili when he had little power scares me of what he could become if given more power. What would happen if God forbid he became the head of state?

Kambwili can fool some people all the time, but he won’t fool all the people all the time, and I suppose the Chief Chitimukulu had John Fitzgerald Kennedy in mind when he turned the burly Roan MP away from his palace recently. When Chishimba Kambwili ‘rocked up’ at the Ukusefya pa Ng’wena traditional ceremony, he was promptly turned away by police. Though I may not agree with the police action of turning him away, but the question is, what was he doing there? Records indicate that the man has never attended any of the previous ceremonies the whole time he was a powerful minister. It can even be assumed that he may never have attended any, his entire life. The monster of intolerance which he created was on hand to turn him away as police swung in quick action. So this tour of duty of his to apologise to the nearest chief he can find will not fool some of us.

Since Dr Kambwili is on the apology pilgrimage, next step, let him apologise to all journalists and media organisations for the way he treated them when he had power. He would be shouting at them in his office for no reason mostly because they worked for media houses he didn’t like. I vividly remember one incident when he dressed down a reporter from The Post newspaper. That reporter was just trying to put food on the table, man! Another incident was when he tore into radio phoenix and threatened to deal with a specific presenter.

That period when Kambwili was information minister was probably the worst period for Zambia’s media industry. These days we don’t even have any professional journalists or media houses. The Kambwili reign made sure to make daylight between pro-government and anti-government media. Nothing in between and completely no professionalism just propaganda for or against. Of course he didn’t achieve this alone, but he was the most vocal, while other may have just been ‘pulling strings silently’.

I was an avid follower of Sunday interview TV programme, but then Kambwili made the program his personal propaganda tool where he featured at will vilifying his opponents and perceived enemies. After watching him twice, I vowed never to watch the program again and to this day I haven’t watched a single minute of the program since then.

I hope we never see a politician of this kind ever in our country. Sadly he has a huge cadre of followers.

The poser Dr Kambwili finds himself in now, and which he will face the next few months and years will be as a result of the zealots that urge him on. Make no mistake about it, there are pockets of die-hard Kambwili supporters out there especially in some few towns on the copper belt province. When I talk of Kambwili, I actually use the doctor title only because that is what he prefers to be addressed as. I hope this blog doesn’t misrepresent me as one who has a lot of hate for Kambwili because frankly I like a few thing about the man.

I like politicians who speak their minds and more often than not, say things 'off the cuff', as we see them for who they really are.

They don't claim to be a lot of things they are not, least of all humble. With them, what you see is what you get. I like that in a politician and it explains why I have a soft spot for Donald J. Trump. Michael Sata was the same, he said things as he saw fit. The same can be said of Dr. Guy Scott (now that’s someone I call doctor with ease). This ‘bruteness’ that Kambwili often portrays perhaps explains why a lot of people (mostly his hardcore supporters) call him junior Cobra. My view is that in politics it’s better to make your own legacy than follow in the footsteps of others.

Chishimba Kambwili's chips are down now but definitely not out. He is not the type. His next step will be very interesting. He has been expelled from the PF, a political party he co-founded with late Michael Chilufya Sata and a few others not in the PF picture now. If you ask me, it is a good thing when organisations outlive their founders and in the process evolve. But that is not the direction of my thoughts now.

What next for the man fondly referred to as CK? I doubt the UPND, a party with its stronghold in the Tonga speaking region of Southern province, will welcome him let alone entertain him.

They will vividly remember the once all powerful minister of information who would walk to ZNBC at will and ask Grevazio Zulu to interview him on Sunday interview where he would utter disparaging remarks against an entire Tonga tribe and the southern province all to score points against a few political opponents among them Hakainde Hichilema and a few of his lieutenants who are Tonga. The statement that the Tonga people wouldn’t even vote for Jesus christ, as long as he wasn't Tonga will forever remain engraved, albeit negatively in the minds of many.

I don't know if CK knows this but southern province gave Fredrick Jacob Titus Chiluba overwhelming votes in 1991. Back then, only eastern province voted for Kenneth David Kaunda, the rest of the country embraced change.

Now that CK has lost his place from the table of the powerful, what next for him? What change in him are we going to see? They all change, at least their tone of words, when they lose power. When Nevers Mumba became vice president and very powerful, I couldn’t recognise him until he was unceremoniously dropped by Levy Patrick Mwanawasa.

Back to CK, I doubt the UPND which is the second biggest political party in Zambia will entertain him. They may sympathise with him here and there because he is now on the one side as them but they will not go to bed with him. The same way Winter Kabimba couldn’t charm the UPND once he lost his political power and found himself in the political doldrums of opposition party leader in present day Zambia.

The funny thing is that CK and Winter cant also work together. CK was the chief orchestrator to the fall from grace of once most powerful man in PF, Winter Kabimba, at least this is what outsiders know. At least the gossip from the barber shops suggests this version (or as the saying goes, Nkhani yamu kachasu).

CK & Winter can’t also work with Saviour Chishimba because the two hounded the latter out of PF when he dared challenge Sata for PF presidency back in 2005/2006 when none even dared just dream that there would be a day of PF without Sata. I however think that the closest person Kambwili can work with is really just Saviour Chishimba, especially going by recent event. Whether this can happen or not remains to be seen. This is one big conundrum.

It is one of the hardest things to do trying to figure out who Chishimba Kambwili can work with as his bullish and brute nature makes it hard for him to endear himself to many. I know for sure he cannot work with Mike Mulongoti or Nason Msoni either. They will remember how he antagonised them and called them all sorts of names among them 'nashala neka party'.

Maybe CK may work with Elias Chipimo, which I strongly doubt. The two are not birds of the same feather, their methods are so different. Chipimo is a very thoughtful man, perhaps the most sober politician we currently have in Zambia. I must add very intelligent too. And that is such a parallel to Chishimba Kambwili, according to me.

But nothing surprises me in Zambian politics of today. We definitely need change in our politics of today. Of course it is a step by step process because society and politics are organic and dynamic. They evolve with time. The only problem with our politics is that it is evolving for the worse and not getting better. There is gradual degradation in our way of politics.

In all that I have written, Zambia today finds itself at a crossroads of identity, a highly polarized society where the content of individual character matters less than does a person’s tribe because of politicians like Kambwili. I know he is busy trying as hard as he can to remain relevant to the Zambian political landscape, but even though he has some pockets of faithful disciples, he may not succeed with a comeback. This is the conundrum for Chishimba Kambwili.

But who am I to judge any of our current politicians? Who am I to judge Chishimba Kambwili? For all we know or may not know, he may be a changed man as everyone can learn how to do good the same way they leant how to do bad. This is what Nelson Mandela tells us in his 1994 book, Long walk to freedom.

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

Zuma’s nine lives

For a man who is said to have received no formal education, I have always thought of Zuma as a very intelligent man. He is in all manner made for the words, smart and cunning a fact he seems to be well aware of thus constantly puts those traits to use even though his shrewd nature has more often than not put him in trouble. It must be mentioned that Mr Zuma has also in many instances used his guile nature to good use.

His profile from various sources, suggests that he was a key figure in brokering peace between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Africa National Congress (ANC) in Natal region in the early 90’s. The profile further indicates that Zuma’s Zulu heritage played a big part in ending violence that was then present in Natal region as the Mangosuthu Buthelezi led IFP, apparently put extra emphasis on Zulu pride and political power. This in my view was a very important role that the ANC would not have given to someone without the credentials. The Zulu are quite a proud and militant people and at the time the situation was very delicate.

The belligerent nature of the Zulu people can easily be confirmed in the firmness and military mentality of King Shaka. In more recent years, precisely 2015, some pockets of South Africans engaged in xenophobic attacks against fellow African nationals immediately after a statement from the current reigning Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini, quoted as saying "Let us pop our head lice. We must remove ticks and place them outside in the sun. We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and be sent back." The attacks on foreign nationals that followed were shocking and only best described in the words of Donald Trump, fire and fury, and went on unabated for weeks. I wrote about those xenophobic attacks in a blog post I called thou-shalt-kill-thy-neighbour.

 

Of course it will be nonsensical and extremely unfair to suggest that every Zulu is militant based on the fact that there once lived king Shaka who was Zulu. However, there are many out there who get aggressive just because they are Zulu. They may be in the minority, but they exist and its fanatics that brew up trouble. The Zulu are the largest ethnic grouping in South Africa with an estimated population of over 10 million. You may agree or not agree with me but this simple task makes Zuma a genius in my eyes.

In this context, Zuma's Zulu heritage made him the perfect panacea in ANC's efforts to end the violence, emphasizing the aspect of political power and not tribal ‘domination’. The tag of Jacob Zuma being a proud Zulu has more often than not proved to be the antidote for his political rise in post-apartheid South Africa. For his efforts in bringing peace and unity in the Natal region, Zuma was rewarded with a meteoric rise in the ANC rising to deputy president in 1997 and in 1999 becoming the deputy president of South Africa.

Although Zuma was removed as deputy president of South Africa in 2005 by then president Thabo Mbeki after being implicated in corruption scandals some of which saw Zuma’s financial advisor Shabbir Shaik convicted for corruption and fraud, he has always found an opportunity to rise. In the same year Zuma faced rape charges which he later won after the court agreed with him that the sex was consensual. The highlight of the rape trial was when Zuma admitted to not using a condom despite knowing that the woman was HIV-positive but that he took a shower after the sex to decrease the risk of contracting the virus. The statement was heavily condemned by many people especially that Zuma was at the time head of the National AIDS council.

The legal battles which culminated into Zuma being dropped as South Africa’s deputy president did not keep him down forever as he emerged to defeat the incumbent Thabo Mbeki as ANC’s president in 2007. The following year Zuma was cleared of all corruption charges and his supporters propagated in a bellicose manner that the charges were politically motivated by Mbeki who was then recalled by the ANC National Executive Committee leading to his resignation. In 2009 Zuma became president of South Africa winning by a big margin and becoming the first Zulu president as both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki were Xhosa.

Throughout his presidency, Zuma has faced a plethora of allegations and legal battles ranging from questionable arms deals, failure to declare his assets, dubious appointments, to the influence of the wealthy Gupta family and most recently the upgrade on security and private setting at his personal homestead at Nkandla in rural Kwazulu-Natal. Since then, the two main opposition parties the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Democratic Alliance (DA) have repeatedly campaigned for Zuma’s resignation but to no avail. More recently factions within the ANC have emerged prompting the opposition to push the latest vote of no confidence in Zuma’s presidency to be done though a secret ballot.

This was the eighth time Zuma faced the no confidence vote and had won the previous seven easily. However when the eighth vote was held on 8^th August 2017, the motion was defeated 198-177. The outcome was expected, but not this close. The result essentially meant that even thought there were some abstentions, at the very least 26 ANC MP’s voted in favour of the motion with the opposition, under the safety net of secret ballot. It is more frightening if at all there are any opposition MP’s that voted against the motion, then the number of ANC MP’s ready to recall Zuma and risk everything is higher most likely close to 40.

I am highly skeptical of there being a 9^th No-confidence vote coming soon. But should it come, that too will be defeated as Zuma has a political life of the proverbial cat. He has nine lives and unlike when the ANC recalled Thabo Mbeki, they don’t have a successor in waiting now (Especially not a successor in waiting who will be the first Zulu president after two Xhosa). There is too much for the ANC to lose. In addition, the threat of the DA is more now under the leadership of Mmusi Maimane than it was under Helen Zille, though the DA is still not a much trusted party in Black South Africa.

Whatever happens, Mr Zuma is smart enough to outwit his opponents. He is definitely not going down now. Not from a motion of no confidence. Jacob Zuma was clearly thrust to power on the back of two Xhosa presidents, after the end of the apartheid era. He represents the biggest tribal grouping in South Africa, and that is a big factor in African politics. A factor far more important than Zuma’s tribe is the fact that he represents the ANC, a party of Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu. This is the party synonymous with the struggle against apartheid and is still very popular in most parts of the nation no matter how unpopular Jacob Zuma has become.

It can be highly argued that many ANC MP’s who voted to keep Zuma, basically voted for their livelihood as a snap election now would have proved too unpredictable. Voting for Zuma would have essentially meant voting themselves out. My view is that Zuma understands these dynamics and he knows well enough how his survival rests on him keeping all the dynamics at play to his advantage.

Jacob Zuma may have survived yet another motion of no confidence, but the truth is that his enemies are now everywhere and that he is hanging by the thread only because there is clearly no ready successor. The question is for how long will Zuma's cunning and witful nature save him? He will survive for now but should South Africans find a suitable successor, he will be gone. I hope the likes of Mmusi Maimane do know this - that it is just a suitable and sobber successor (or alternative) that the people seek.