ECL built Schools in Bally’s village but HH has never built anything in Luapula or Eastern: Bally is blackmailing Tongas like Hitler did to Germans
By Dr. Chris ZUMANI Zimba
1. Introduction: Free lessons from Adolf Hitler of Germany-1933 to 1945
When Adolf Hitler became ‘President’ in 1933 on NAZI Party ticket, he was the most popular and powerful politician across Germany. He was a skilled politician, vicious activist and gifted public speaker who could mount the podium and speak for hours and hours while everyone is prayerfully listening and joyfully clapping like they had seen the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
During his 13 years time in power between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler had become politically so powerful, institutionally so elevated, ideologically so great and iconically so renowned everywhere. The media and political space was monopolized to himself alone to the extent that, most Germans feared at the mention of his name as if he was a human god.
Blindly, many Germans willingly supported Hitler’s authoritarian policies of destroying one of the best functional democracies of that time in Europe. He made Germans believe that ‘Hitler was creating a modern superpower and gallant war state that will dominate and conquer Europe and the world for them as a Aryan race- superior humans’. Hitler identified racism as his biggest and best political tool to manipulate, blackmail and own pure and original Germans to himself.
In most of Adolf Hitler’s public statements, he praised the German pure race and wondered why Jews, Christians and other foreign races were prospering more than the owners of the land. He could even publicly cry and mourn for the sufferings of ‘his people’. His worst and priority racial cleansing targets as as well as victims he blamed for the sufferings of Germany People were Jews. Consequently, Hitler used state institutions to systematically massacre and covertly assassinate millions of Jews in the name racial fairness and Justice.
Given that he mastered the art of political manipulation and blackmail, most Germans didn’t see that Hitler’s political agenda of restoring sovereign power, racial pride, economic dominance and military supremacy would result in plunging their motherland into a sure oppressive one party regime, brutal repression, ethnic regionalism, racial cleansing, genocide, and indeed world war chaos. Hitler made most people to ‘see sense’ in what he was doing.
But this Adolf Hitler did not just succeed at destroying himself by committing suicide eventually, he clashed his full top government team into total political darkness and changed Germany’s sovereign pride into a bloody dictatorship. This racist and unstoppable Hitler became wholly and solely responsible for a deadly global war that destroyed the entire Europe and most parts of the greater world from 1939 to 1945.
2. How Bally is blackmailing Tongas in 2024 with hate speeches and regional politics
When President HH visited Choma during his 2024 New Year trip, he rationally expressed divisive politics by calling of ethnic gods and nepotistic hate comments just like he does in many of his speeches. This time, Bally was reminding and inciting Tonga speaking people of Southern province that they were harassed, abused and segregated by previous governments especially under the PF.
Addressing the people at Masuku in Choma, President HH told the people of Southern Province that before he became president, they were being beaten when they visited Intercity in Lusaka for speaking Tonga. The Zambian leader complained on how dangerous weapons like panga’s were used against Tonga speaking people during the previous government. In his speech, HH was invoking a bloody and oppressive scenario that ‘existed’ against Tonga people before he became president.
In addition, the Zambian president openly said that the PF government had deliberately sidelined Southern province in terms of development. Our HH went on to remind them that Tonga speaking people were ethnically segregated and discriminated in the country by giving them a maximum of two bags of fertilizer for farming each under past regimes. HH was practically ‘crying and mourning’ like Hitler used to do for the suffering his people endured before he became their political saviour.
In response, on 3rd January, 2024, Citizens First (CF) President, Harry Kalaba became politically angry and lamented that he was dismayed at the continued use of tribal language by President Hakainde Hichilema in his public speeches. He noted that every opportunity the President has to address the nation, he chooses to be divisive rather than helping to heal the divide. Kalaba went on to call upon all well meaning citizens to oppose and condemn HH’s ethnic hatred, political tribalism and divisions.
3. Our critical analysis on HH’s divisive comments and tribal politics in Choma
As evidenced by his gospel of ethnic politics, regionalism and hate speeches during his End Year Press Conference and recent speech in 2024 in Choma; this Bally is still so politically bitter, regionally segregative and dangerously divisive;
By sustaining naked political lies, ethnic tensions, divisive rhetoric and regional politics, HH is trying to manipulate and hold the people of Southern province to ransom. Bally want to politically keep Tongas to himself for 2026 and beyond so that they vote and vote only for him as their only messiah: Bally is merely exploiting and blackmailing Tongas;
Clearly and consequently, President Hakainde Hichilema is not repentant and ashamed to preach ethic hostility in 2024 and plant political discrimination on tribal and regions grounds in a country that is founded on “One Zambia, One Nation”;
HH must emulate Lungu just like Kenneth Kaunda who kissed all places and citizens with the same amount of love as Zambians regardless of tribe, political affiliation or religion and planted their legacy of goodwill, fatherhood, developmental projects and equal delivery of public services;
HH is lying that PF especially under ECL discriminated people of Southern province. Lungu went down to Dundumwezi and everywhere in Southern province where he was insulted and rejected and openly kissed them with human grace, love, compassion and generosity to preach “One Zambia, One Nation” as Republican President;
HH is aware that in 2016, Dundumwezi constituency with a voter turn out of 79% gave Zambia’s President, Edgar Lungu only 252 votes against Bally himself who got 30, 810 votes. In 2015 Presidential by election, Dundumwezi voted the same and even worse with Lungu getting less than 85 votes against HH who got more than 14,500 votes;
Despite this place making history to embarrass a sitting president with insulting votes, Lungu went back to them and kissed them with multiple developmental projects in the name of “One Zambia, One Nation”. In 2019, this Edgar Lungu initiated and commissioned the US$ 20.9 million, 247 Kilometers; Kalomo-Dundumwezi-Ngoma-Itezhi-Tezhi first ever climate resilient road in Zambia;
Clearly, Lungu was not discriminatory as HH now insults him as he didn’t take such climate resilience road projects to his strongholds in Muchinga, Eastern, Luapula or Northern provinces: he gave it to the people who rejected him in Dundumwezi because he took them for Zambians only;
At a victory thanks giving rally in Lusaka, Lungu committed that “We have a responsibility to show the people in the areas where we got few votes that we are One Zambia, One Nation. If I didn’t get those 252 votes in Dundumwezi, I wouldn’t have gotten 50% plus 1”. And ECL just walked that talk in Southern province and everywhere by raining developmental projects;
In Dundumwezi and Kalomo district itself, Lungu left signatures of development such new clinics, schools, boreholes, district hospital, hydro power plants, farming support services with improved agricultural output, livestock treatment facilities, etc just like many other places across Zambia;
In the actual village of HH and actual area where Bally grew up as a child, Lungu felt bad to see school hundreds of pupil learning in a cracked school built in colonial era in 1956. In 2017, Lungu promised the Tonga people of Bwengwa in Monze district that he will do everything possible including using his personal money to build them modern classrooms;
In 2020, l was with the President when he launched new blocks of classrooms at Bweengwa Secondary School, a place where HH was born and grew up. Lungu, not HH gave Bwengwa new learning facilities built from his own money with the support of private own friends out of love and free generosity. Remember, Bwengwa always voted for HH and it is Bally’s own home;
Whilst HH is merely pretending that he loves all Zambians including those in provinces where he lost to ECL like Luapula, Eastern and Muchinga in 2021, Bally has failed to show true love and generosity in these regions by using his personal money to build even a single school or clinic toilet: atleast, l don’t know of any to my knowledge;
Despite being paraded as the ‘richest Zambian’, this Bweengwa born child called Bally did not at any point thought of rehabilitating his own home school, Bweengwa Secondary School, for his own relatives and tribespeople until the politically insulted and rejected Lungu showed up to plant love, grace and generosity in 2017;
For a President with a heart of bitterness, divisive rhetoric and segregative tongue, there is nothing strange to learn that HH has never used even 0.00001% of his wealth to built a simple school block or guard house anywhere in Luapula, Muchinga or Eastern Province where he lost to Lungu;
Despite Bally birthing hate speech and confirming ethnic homophobia by preaching unfounded stereotypes in Southern province, many Zambians know that Lungu’s Economic Advisor at State House was Hijani Hibene, a Tonga-Ila from HH’s home village and chief in Bweengwa of Namwala district;
While HH is openly preaching and justifying political tribalism and regionalism among the Tongas in 2024 by lying that the PF government segregated them, honest people are fully aware that it was the 6th Republican President, Dr. Lungu who built and launched the US$259million Kazungula Bridge and One Stop Border Post Commissioned in May, 2021;
This Edgar Lungu our HH wants to portray as a ‘wicked man’ against the people of Southern Province did initiate and constructed new houses for police officers in Chikakanta, Mazabuka, Choma and Kazungula districts while Bally has never emulated ECL’s legacy of true fatherliness in PF strongholds so far; and
Generally, HH must remember that Lungu was a man of after God’s heart- a man for all the people and developmental projects speak for ECL in Monze, Mazabuka, Kazungula, Monze, Livingstone, Choma, Kalomo, etc where he was repeatedly rejected and politically called evil names. In fact, developmental projects speak for Lungu everywhere across Zambia.
4. Conclusion and public appeal
As we land the plane, it is important to note that, this HH has terribly failed to fulfill and deliver his 2021 campaign promises to Zambians in general and Southerners particular this far. Hence, it is not shocking that Bally has adopted Adolf Hitler type of discriminatory rhetoric and ethnic divisive propaganda to manipulate and blackmail the Tonga speaking people to himself for political purposes. This is evil, dangerous and unacceptable in any functional democracy.
Therefore, I am calling upon opposition politicians, civil society groups, scholars, the church, students, media, activists, traditional leaders, the youth, men and women movements across Zambia to condemn and oppose HH’s continued assault to our country mantra of “One Zambia, One Nation “. Everywhere, political tribalism and divisive regionalism does not build nations, like racism it only destroys and kills them.
In Proverbs 6:16 to 19, the Bible is very instructive and our President, HH must take time to read and meditate on it as he governs Zambia:
There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:
haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.
Dr Chris ZUMANI Zimba is a Political Scientist, Researcher, Author & Consultant specialized in Comparative Global Governance and Democratic Theories. He holds a PhD, MA, BA and Cert in Political Science. Zimba was President Lungu’s Political Advisor from December 2019 to August 2021.