BIZWELL MUTALE SHOULD SAVE HIS CROCODILE TEARS FOR THE GULLIBLE

IT’S people like Bizwell Mutale who are making Zambian politics look dirty. In fact, there is nothing worth grandstanding for over Mutale’s return to United Party for National Development (UPND) because such a decision is made purely not on principle but on the basis of personal aggrandizement.

Yes, at the time he was in UPND and up to the time he was leaving for the Patriotic Front (PF), Mutale may have had something to offer to the UPND but not anymore. Of course, we know how he mobilised the Zambians in South Africa and how he was an influential figure before his stomach led him to the PF but we are not oblivious to the fact that the mere act of ditching the party that he fervently supported all these years at the time it mattered most has rendered him a square peg in a round hole.

We know that politics is a game of numbers and one returning pervert adds to these numbers. As a matter of fact, Mutale has every right to join any political party of his choice or any grouping of his choice due to his birth right of association but such decisions must make sense first to the decision-maker and secondly, those surrounding him.

Today, Mutale is telling the nation that President Hakainde Hichilema has done a lot and needs the support of Zambians but what he has forgotten to tell the Zambians is how or at what point President Hichilema became such a darling to him when not long ago, he went on the podium to claim that no Tonga from Southern Province would ever rule Zambia and that come 2021, Edgar Lungu would still win.

It is even laughable to hear him say he would go flat out mobilising the party but the question is; what new message does he have in his mobilisation drive to the same people that he toldthat no Tonga would rule this country in apparent reference to the current Head of State?

Zambians have not forgotten how people like Mutale and Kebby Mbewe patronised Southern Province to go and spew hate speech and tribalism using chiefs because it served them right. It was people like Mutale and Paul Moonga who went on rampage in Southern Province attacking the UPND and preaching Tonga tribalism.  

We haven’t forgotten how his colleague, Moonga, even went to the point of regretting that he was Tonga, all because of his hatred for President Hakainde Hichilema in order to find favour before his paymasters. When they had the backing of the PF, nothing stood on their way in their quest to champion its cause. When lives were lost because of the unprecedented political violence that the PF plunged this country into, people like Monga were having a field day, patronising some sell-outs of chiefs in Southern Province to disown HH.

Today, Mutale is in reverse mode; coming to the podium with fake tears of a repentant and playing the Prodigal Son but was this same Mutale going to come back if the UPND had lost the election? Was he going to re-join the UPND with teary eyes and ask to be re-admitted on account that HH needed the support of all Zambians?

Mutale simply failed to read the times when it was evident that the boat was sinking. He jumped onto it and saw it fit to insult the very people that sprung him to political stardom all because he fancied the opportunity to be adopted as a parliamentary candidate and in his wildest dreams thought he would win.

Mutale is only coming back now to talk about mobilising the UPND because he can smell the 2026 election and wants to position himself in the UPND to achieve what he failed to achieve with the PF.

Mutale has no new message and his “repentance” is more for personal gain than adding value to the UPND. We are not saying Mutale should not have re-joined the UPND. All we are saying is that all these prodigal sons who are now making ceremonial homecoming pilgrimages must be treated as ordinary members regardless of what they may have contributed.

Just like Kelvin Sampa, Mutale deserved no such grandstanding like we saw. He must actually be placed at the far end queue and prove his worth from there. He must never be condoned to get preferential treatment ahead of those that ducked the guns when he was drinking coffee with Lungu and only jumped on the bandwagon to be given a seat at the table.

Charles Kakoma quietly re-joined the UPND despite having been a very high-ranking official in the party. Why should a Prodigal Son’s party be thrown for Mutale who insulted the party and its leadership when the highest bidder came knocking on his door? What is so special about him? Talk about following, how much following does Mutale have?

We know that there is this impression that there are no permanent enemies in politics or that politics is a game of no principles like we have seen among the group of opposition allies where Harry Kalaba and Lungu have finally buried the hatchet overnight and are standing like brothers, plotting to come back into power together.

However, at least one must have personal integrity to realise the damage they have caused and for once be ashamed to make public stunts that could only be defined as being stupid. Mutale has shown us that he is a cheap commodity that can be bought or sold on the market as long as someone has money and what it takes to acquire him.

If by any chance, Lungu and his alebwelelapo praise-singers win the 2026 elections, will Mutale remain in the UPND? Had Lungu won the 201 elections, was Mutale going to “come home”?It is this lack of principle that makes politics look like it is a dirty game.

Politics is supposed to be for offering service to humanity but the number of people behaving like masquerades in the way they politic has distorted everything and this is why today, we find ourselves in such precarious situations where there is a thin line between public service and personal aggrandisement.