By Tallent Chingovo
Zambian President Michael Sata’s reckless attack on the person of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe and President of the ruling Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Richard Tsvangirai did not come as a surprise though very disappointing.
The story in the UK based broadsheet, The Telegraph is nothing short of an expression of an overzealous self proclaimed Pan- Africanist who is not only ignorant but isolated from the living reality about the Zimbabwean politics. This is not the first time Sata spewed venom against the MDC leader and his party as “stooges of the West”.
Again this comes not as a shocker especially from someone who is synonymous for instigating conflict and diplomatic rows at both the northern and southern ends of his boarders. An objective analysis of his careless statement unearthed a lot about the controversies associated with the character of this President of Zambia.
Back in his own land, they call Sata, ‘King Cobra’. I am not sure where the nickname is derived from but what I understand from my basic knowledge is that a cobra is a snake and a snake spits venom. Biblically Lucifer, Satan the devil is likened to a snake so will I be wrong to call someone named after a snake a Sata(nist)?
Again, basing on his poisonous, destructive and retrogressive nature of his reckless statement one is forced to believe that only a snake, Sata(n) can spew venom carelessly with such velocity. The statement is anti-people and indeed anti-Zimbabwe. Sata arrogantly forgets that Tsvangirai is now the Prime Minister of the of Zimbabwe, a sovereign state and he himself is now the President of Zambia.
Michael Sata is not alien to diplomatic blunders and unnecessary controversies some of which cost and even embarrass him at the end of the day. He is a disciple of conflict, an instigator of rows and a hater of peace who lacks etiquettes of diplomacy and good neighbourliness.
On 15 March 2007, the Zambian leader was deported from Malawi. He was arrested when he flew to Blantyre to hold an alleged regime change meeting with the former President of that country Mr. Bakili Muluzi. For that stupid adventure he received an embarrassing response from the government of Malawi.
He was detained and declared a prohibited migrant and bundled in a Land Rover truck and driven across the country to the Malawi-Zambia border in Chipata. For no apparent reason the overzealous Zambian leader exhibits his insatiable love to trigger conflicts in neighbouring countries. Having failed to get an apology from Malawi, he now opens a new rift between his country and the people of Zimbabwe.
Unashamedly he uses his blood filthy hands to point at PM Tsvangirai as a stooge of the Western powers. It is this same Sata whose supporters went on a rampage looting property, and murdering opponents in Zambia in October 2006, when results that he came third, slipping from first in a national election filtered through.
So really who cares when such an ordained and certified hater of peace speaks statements that are more likely to cause conflict in the neighbouring countries? Sata’s limited intellectual capacity and little wisdom could not help to remind him that sharing the border and the mighty Victoria Falls does not automatically and necessarily mean sharing the executive authority of Zimbabwe.
He forgets that the executive power of Zimbabwe lies in the arms of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe and not in those of leaders from the SADC region or any neighbouring President despite the geographical position. ”
We don’t know the policies of Morgan……there will be elections and Mugabe will go and someone else will take over but not someone imposed by the western countries” he throws up. The vomit does not end there, he goes on” you people, the Western countries, you taught us that democracy is elections, now somebody wants elections and you say no”
Who is Michael Sata to determine the political processes of Zimbabwe? Who is he to tell us when to have elections and who to choose as our next President? Did he ever hear Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s comment on internal politics of Zambia, even when he appointed the Scottish citizen, Guy Scott as the Vice President of the Republic of Zambia?
If not, so where are all his guts to attack our Prime Minister coming from? Sata should be reminded that MDC’s policies were/are quite appealing and marketable that they made Tsvangirai the winner of 29 March 2008 election.
The same policies of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai are the ones that make him the most popular political figure in Zimbabwe and make his party the largest political entity, basing on the numbers of supporters. So an attack to PM Tsvangirai is an unjustifiable attack on the sovereign state of Zimbabwe.
That reminds me of an old street lingo that says “being big-headed (literally) does not necessarily entail being intelligent or even wise”. Sata’s lessons on democracy are defined within the context of holding elections despite electoral, constitutional and even security irregularities, hence his definition of democracy as just holding an election.
One then wonders how this intellectually challenged man is going to lead the economically troubled state of Zambia for the next five or so years. Sata should leave Zimbabwe and its leaders alone and concentrate on fighting graft which is so rampant in his own country. He is fast creeping into the belly of the beast and soon and very soon he will find himself hanging on the wrong web.
Tallent Chingovo is a member of the MDC-T Youth Assembly
