CHABINGA’S SHOW

ZAMBIANS are not fools and anyone who underrates their wisdom is doing so at their own peril.

Moreover, the best that some people can do is to remain quiet instead of attracting the wrath of the public.

Our advice is directed at Mr Robert Chabinga, the suspended Mafinga Patriotic Front Member of Parliament and purported Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.

Mr Chibinga yesterday held media briefing which he claimed that it was not true that the country’s democratic space was shrinking under the new dawn administration.

Mr Chabinga said President Hakainde Hichilema has enhanced the democratic space in the country and that he was able to hold a press conference without being denied because under Mr Hichilema, there was more democracy than ever.

Yet, police are on record that they are looking for several Patriotic Front (PF) MPs in Kanchibiya for allegedly holding an illegal meeting.

Moreover, the record is there of police disrupting media briefings claiming that they were not notified.

But Mr Chabinga ought to be reminded that he cannot fool and convince Zambians that he was Leader of the Opposition for they know the whole story – he is an appointee of an impostor in the name of Miles Sampa.

He was not elected by his fellow PF members of Parliament and does not enjoy their support in the august House.

Zambians know that the PF faction under the leadership of Miles Sampa owes its existence to the machinations of the government machinery and the State.

Mr Sampa, as it is common knowledge stole the PF presidency through deceit engineered by the UPND government.

The October 24, 2023 convention at which Mr Sampa engineered his election was organised as a retreat for the PF. It was not legally an elective convention for the PF leadership.

Unknown to other senior PF members and even the secretariat, Mr Sampa, with tacit approval from the powers-that-be emerged from that dubious gathering with the presidency of the PF.

The so-called convention at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka was provided with state security.

It is in the public domain that none of the eight candidates who were contesting for the PF presidency were aware of the happenings at Mulungushi.

And working at breakneck speed that defied all logic, the government engineered to have the list of office holders altered at the Registrar of Societies.

One of the casualties of this illegal assault was the Registrar of Societies Thandiwe Mhende- Phiri who lost her job because she refused to be part of the illegal machinations of the State.

Mr Chabinga’s media briefing yesterday was bereft of any policy direction but played to the gallery of their sponsors.

Thus, he described former President Edgar Lungu as a power-hungry man who would want to return to the presidency for his own interests.

And not to disappoint them, he threatened that he will soon move to liquidate media houses that would continue to refer to Mr Brian Mundubile and Mr Raphael Nakacinda as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and PF secretary general respectively.

Easier said than done or could this be what they are cooking up?