COMRADE MAPULANGA, IT IS TOO EARLY TO ‘LIONISE’ PF AS AN AFRICAN GIANT

THE Forum in the Daily Nation (June 20, 2022) covered an opin ion by Comrade Simon Mapulanga entitled “A genesis of Socialism.”

There are a number of in accuracies and distortions that should be clarified.

I won’t indulge into apol ogies or polemics, but will leave that to the publicly known Socialist idealogues and leaders of the Zambian left wing such as Dr Fred M’membe and Dr Cosmas Musumali to do.

I just want to clear one in accuracy and engage in my main area of concern.

Comrade Mapulanga writes that Socialism was founded by Karl Heinrich Marx in 1789. This is incor rect because Karl Marx was born on May 5, 1818 and died on March 14, 1883.

Comrade may need to do further fact cross-check. Otherwise, Karl Marx would be the only theorist to initi ate an ideology before his birth.

My main concern though, is Comrade Mapulanga’s hy perbole that PF is the best party in Africa. Let us drop the word “best” because it is too subjective and replace it with seniority. PF cannot claim seniority among the political parties in Africa, not even here in Zambia.

There are only three po litical parties in Africa that can claim to be senior po litical parties. These parties include the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, in government since 1994. The party was formed in 1912 and has since cele brated the century of exis tence in 2012.

Another is the National Liberation Front of Algeria, formed in 1954 and in gov ernment since the indepen dence of Algeria in 1962.

The third and last is the Chama Chamapindunzi in government since the in dependence of Tanzania in 1961.

Where does this leave the PF, formed in 2001, formed government in 2011 and kicked out in 2021?