By Sishuwa Sishuwa
Ordinarily, I do not respond to reactions to my articles that make no attempt whatsoever to engage with the substance of my writing. I believe that ad hominems, however well presented, are not arguments.
The Patriotic Front (PF) media director Sunday Chanda’s reply to my article, ‘Lungu should cut his term of office, not the salaries of public officers’, falls into this category. ‘An acutely septic sceptic – a very unsure Sishuwa’ is so devoid of substance that any response to it risks conferring upon it a seriousness it in no way deserves. Nevertheless, in pursuit of genuine intellectual debate, I have broken my own rules on ad hominems and made a rare exception.
To recall: the premise of my argument was that President Edgar Lungu’s decision to effect a 15 to 20 per cent reduction on the salaries of top-earning civil servants was illegal. I developed this point by citing the different rulings of our courts, including the Supreme Court, that have consistently held that employers have no powers to adversely alter an employee’s salary without the employee’s consent. I further cited the Employment Code Act No. 3 of 2019, which codifies the successive court rulings. Chanda neither disputes my core argument nor offers any alternative explanation to my assertion that the president’s action was illegal.
At a glance, I welcomed his contribution in the belief that he was joining the debate on an important subject that I think deserves serious discussion. A closer reading of his article subsequently shows that debating by way of attacking the dissenter’s thoughts and demonstrating the weaknesses inherent in them was the least of Chanda’s objectives. The PF media director was far more interested in discrediting me and rubbishing everything I say, have said or ever will say about Lungu’s decisions, leadership and administration.
The style he uses to achieve his aims is to boldly state that I don’t mean well, am biased and incapable of appreciating the ‘achievements’ recorded by Lungu and the PF, while at no point does he categorically affirm or state anything substantive himself. Now, I recognise that Sunday Chanda has every right to be ignorant, but I consider it my duty to diminish his ignorance. Allowing his drivel to go unchallenged would leave readers uncertain about what my true affiliations are and the epic magnitude of the PF’s failure – how much Lungu and his friends in government have so spectacularly mismanaged things that they have made it so easy for Zambia to be studied as a bad example of pretty much everything.
So let us unpack Chanda’s ad hominems on a case-by-case basis. The ruling party’s media director starts his reaction to my article by drawing attention to my institutional affiliation – University of Zambia – and claiming that I have violated the staple values of my academic training: presentation of evidence and commitment to objectivity.
Sunday Chanda: “One would have thought that by being an academician, UNZA don Sishuwa Sishuwa would be a person whose outlook would be guided by empirical evidence and objectivity. Far from it! The prejudice and cynicism in his recent article in News Diggers wherein he attempted to disparage and “hex” President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s announcement that he had significantly reduced his salary in solidarity with the masses, confirms what many Zambians already know; Sishuwa is part of a political coven of chronic cynics.”
Comment: Here, Chanda is seeking to diminish my status in the university by claiming that academics present evidence to back their arguments – something that, in his view, I have not done. He is ignoring what my first paragraph, after introducing the article’s topic, illustrates: the illegality of Lungu’s decision to unilaterally vary the conditions of service of public sector workers.
In support of my position, I cited two examples of rulings made by our superior courts and the law in form of the Employment Code Act No. 3 of 2019, which the PF passed in line with how the courts had consistently ruled on the matter. These are the sources I relied on to make my case about Lungu’s illegal move to slash the salaries of chief executives of parastatal companies and non-unionised civil servants. Chanda completely ignores this evidence. He also fails to cite any law that empowers the President to take the measure that Lungu did. I implore him to do so. Like many people, I retain that intellectual integrity of one who, though not lacking in urging their own opinions, is both respectful and willing to abandon their point of view if its weaknesses could be shown. Embedded in me is a love of learning, the pursuit of ideas and the power of reason in achieving consensus.
Chanda makes no attempt whatsoever to demonstrate the relationship between the argument I presented and his accusation that I am being cynical. He alleges that I lack objectivity, but does not demonstrate how. I believe that being objective does not mean not taking a position. To be objective does not mean to be neutral. In my view, to be objective simply means to uphold the truth and justice, to be honest with others and especially with oneself, to think and speak with absolute clarity and without fear, to risk anything in order to live the dictates of one’s conscience, to act our beliefs and give full expression to the courage of our convictions.
As a matter of fact, upholding the truth is also an academic principle. In many instances, it requires taking a clear position on a subject, so that no one is deceived. If an elephant is stepping on an ant, one cannot claim neutrality; he or she must make clear where they stand. If President Lungu has violated the law, to be objective means to state this position truthfully without any ambiguities. To claim that while the president has violated the law, on the one hand, he has, on the other hand, also not violated it, is opportunism and cowardice.
Here is the PF media director again: “Sishuwa and his ilk don’t mean well. They are druids of doom and gloom. They never see any good in any good deed or any positive achievement of the President and the PF Government. On the other hand, they promote hate and bitterness in a bid to stir up anti-government sentiment. They scheme to incite mayhem and disorder, so that they may manipulate an opportunity to impose on Zambians their disorderly and regionally inclined “warlock” who has been rejected by Zambians six times (and counting).”
Comment: It is under this paragraph where Chanda attempts to build a profile for me as a treasonable element, one who is out to ‘stir up anti-government sentiment, to incite mayhem and disorder’. First, I dismiss Chanda’s insinuations that I support any presidential candidate, even as this is my democratic and constitutional right, with the absolute contempt they deserve. Where in my article, or beyond it, is the evidence of my leaning towards any politician? Second, I will not be bullied into silence by dark threats and badly disguised charges of treason. I have the right to think and express my opinions. While I have the academic tools, I do not speak out because I am an academic. I speak out because it is my responsibility as a citizen – my primary identity – to hold the government to account, to promote the ideals and objectives of Zambia’s constitution. I insist that every citizen needs to take these duties seriously. To be silent in the face of abuse, injustice, inequality and corruption is to actively participate in sustaining the status quo.
We must attack the chronic syndrome of low expectations, which has become our lot. Our crises are a testimony to how little we Zambians expect and demand from our public leaders, from life, for ourselves. Lungu must be made to answer how, in a country with millions out of formal employment, he expects Zambians to tolerate the recent massive hikes in the prices of electricity and fuel. Lungu must account for how the country is going to pay the mountains of different debts without hiding behind the isolated few perfectly normal government deeds Chanda is singing about. Lungu must explain why even the abominable IMF won’t bail out his government until he demonstrates capacity to reduce corruption and wastefulness in government expenditure. Lungu must tell Zambians when the electricity shortages will end – these have brought the economy to its knees and are inflicting painful and unbearable suffering on the masses. Lungu must explain why he wants to continue to be president when he has more than proved that he has no clue about how to resolve the historic crises his party has saddled Zambia with.
If Chanda’s head, like that of his boss, carries no ideas about how to explain to Zambians exactly when their sufferings will end, he must not attack the messenger and incite violence against a citizen who is simply doing his civic duty by alerting the country to the unstoppable decline Zambia has fallen into. More importantly, Chanda must never demonise, accuse anyone of bias and even treason without evidence. This is the darkest most sinister way of silencing public criticism of a failed president. There is absolutely nothing wrong with calling on Zambians to unite and rid themselves of leaders who are institutionalising incompetence in the running of the state and government. Zambia is a hellhole, if Chanda and Lungu do not know. Responses such as Chanda’s to criticism of a clueless government actually incite the masses to revolution.
I will not be bullied into silence by dark threats and badly disguised charges of treason. In any case, it is the government, not me, that has created the terrible conditions that have made Zambia a tinderbox. Causing mass unemployment is inciting the masses to rise against the government. Impoverishing millions of your people is demanding that the people remove you from government. If treason is the ultimate betrayal of public trust, then Lungu and the PF government have committed treason. Punishing industries and homes by failing to provide affordable and accessible electricity is treason – you are destroying both the economy and human life. Treason is when you mortgage future Zambians to unsustainable debt. Regionalism is when you divide a country to a level where tribe and province become political weapons. These are self-evident truths.
When a government starves or fails to feed millions of its citizens; when untold numbers of its citizens, especially in urban areas, lack a decent roof over their heads and live cramped in slums and shacks without even the minimum sanitary requirements; when tens of thousands of school-age children cannot find school places while thousands more are kicked out of school into a bleak future; when the government manufactures poverty, disease, ignorance, superstition, want, and ill health; when it unilaterally slashes the salaries of civil servants at a time when they deserve a pay rise because the economy is in a free-fall; such a government is stirring up anti-government sentiment.
When a government makes it impossible to democratically oppose its actions because some within its ranks control the police like a private militia, cause the judiciary to dispense injustice, suppress civil society, the media and the political opposition, and manipulate elections; when its leaders abrogate the oath to uphold the constitution and the rule of law; that government is inciting citizens to rise against it.
When a government contracts such a huge debt that it effectively bankrupts future governments and enslaves everyone including generations yet to be born; when a government sentences its citizens to 15 consecutive hours of load shedding everyday; when an administration does not know how to get a country out of a huge crisis it has created and refuses to resign; that government loses its moral right to govern and is effectively inciting its citizens to rise against it, to rid themselves of such a one and install another one.
What is shocking is that we Zambians, who have known so much misery at the hands of this and previous governments, are not responding to these government invitations to rebel against our sub-human existence. What kind of human beings are we? Elsewhere, the people will rise to protest in the spirit of defiance, fight with limitless courage in pursuit of liberty and happiness, in order to reclaim their dignity. Chanda and the PF government should thank Zambians for our apparent passiveness – while it lasts. If they do not want people to rise against them, Chanda and the PF should create conditions that make it possible for citizens to actualise their full potential, to enjoy their freedoms and lead meaningful lives.
Let us get the next paragraph from the PF media director: “It would be pointless to even try to explain the President’s goodwill in reducing his salary, and the fact that such a reduction for Senior Civil Servants and Parastatals would be a demonstration of leaders ready to sacrifice, because Sishuwa and his kind have already deliberately made up their minds and taken up a position of “no matter what you say or show us, we will not listen to you”.
Comment: Did Chanda read my article? Had he done so, he would have noted that I never criticised the president’s supposed ‘goodwill’ in reducing his salary. I said the law does not support his decision to reduce the salaries of senior civil servants and heads of parastatals without their consent. Chanda deletes and makes disappear the substance of what I stated and resorts to the deployment of ad hominems. As well as addressing himself to my point that Lungu’s decision is illegal, it would have been more helpful for Chanda to quantify the total cost of the savings to be realised from the pay cuts and then demonstrate how the said savings would directly translate into significant improvement in the quality of life of the vulnerable or poor Zambians, who are badly affected by the huge increases in the cost of fuel and electricity tariffs.
Sunday Chanda again: “Are they being realistic when they say that PF has done nothing good at all?
Comment: I invite Chanda to re-read my piece with dispassionate eyes. Sometimes we see what we see not because that is what is there to be seen but because that is what we want to see. Jaundiced eyes make this falsification of reality possible. Where did I say that ‘PF has done nothing good at all’? The key point I made was that Lungu and the PF have unleashed a devastating hunger crisis, brought up a divisive Constitutional (Amendment) Bill No. 10 of 2019, tolerated grand corruption in government, acquired a massive public debt, fostered deep ethnic divisions, seriously eroded our democracy and collapsed the economy. Chanda would have done well to demolish each of these arguments by demonstrating how and why they are untrue.
The PF media director: “What about the increased enrolment in schools, because of the boom in the construction of schools across the country? Is that a “crisis?”
Comment: Yes, the PF have built schools, but they have left them empty with no teachers, as thousands of college and university graduates remain unemployed even after being educated by the state at a huge cost. In some cases, especially in rural Zambia, the teacher has to buy the necessary school material from is own low wage. Many schools are also empty because pupils cannot afford to attend. Also, given that the PF is manufacturing unemployment at mass level, what exactly are they preparing the pupils for? Isn’t it dangerous to raise the expectations of young people when they are leading them nowhere?
Sunday Chanda: “What about the increase in fully stocked clinics and hospitals? Is that a “crisis”?
Comment: Does Chanda know that the company that had been supplying medicines to Zambia for the past two decades has now stopped all supplies to the Ministry of Health because they are owed millions of dollars by the government? Can he explain why a new contract has been awarded to three companies, one of which is connected to a minister, to supply medicines at 30 per cent more than the company that has not been paid? How is it sensible to award a multimillion contract to a new supplier when you have failed to pay the previous supplier?
Which hospitals is Chanda talking about when he says they are fully stocked? To be fair to Chanda, he did not say that the clinics and hospitals were fully stocked with medicines, medical equipment or health workers. He simply said they are ‘fully stocked’. It may be that the PF media director was referring to the fact that our public hospitals are fully stocked with dead bodies and patients awaiting death to liberate them from the misery of being in a hospital without medicine and sufficient nurses and doctors to attend to them. Public hospitals in Zambia are disease centres and working stations to the nearest cemetery. Otherwise our politicians will not be rushing to South Africa and India for medical check-ups, injured arms or flu. When was the last time Chanda was in a rural hospital in Chadiza, Mungwi, Sesheke or Chiengi? I urge Chanda and the PF to get out of their comfort zone, go around the country and see for themselves the deplorable state of Zambia’s public hospitals.
Once upon a time, we had a health system and network of provincial hospitals that, though not without their problems, at least functioned and could provide a range of basic medical services. Now, outside of a few quite good hospitals in Lusaka, it seems that a patient is more likely to survive if they stay outside any public hospital than if they entered it. This is testament to the decades of neglect in maintaining our national infrastructure. Hospitals are crumbling with insufficient staff, shortages of medicine and a lack of basic medical equipment. Again, this should cause an outrage, since it is something that affects all of us – that is apart from those who can fly abroad to receive medical treatment.
What is worse is that this is not a problem that is concentrated to one area of the country. It is a nationwide crisis. When I visited Lewanika General Hospital in Mongu, Solwezi General Hospital in Northwestern Province and Mansa General Hospital in Luapula, for instance, I found patients lying on the floor, with no beds, let alone doctors to attend to them or medicine to cure their basic ailments. These fellow citizens had come to these hospitals for treatment and yet they were being left to die.
The collapse of provincial hospitals has wider consequences. Patients, if they can survive the journey on Zambia’s deplorable roads, now travel to Lusaka’s University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and consequently place an overwhelming burden on the resources of the nation’s highest health facility. This influx of patients who are unable to obtain medical care outside the capital city has reduced UTH to the kind of death trap that mirrors the provincial hospitals these patients were trying to escape from in the first place.
Instead of saving lives, our public health facilities are now dispensing death en masse. Mortuaries, rather than operating theatres, are increasingly becoming the busiest parts of our public hospitals. Zambians are struggling to find new spaces to bury their loved ones, and are looking for extra land to create cemeteries. This is the state of Zambia. If Chanda does not know this, then it confirms the depth to which Lungu has sunk the country because he is surrounded by uninformed elements.
The PF media director again: “What about the significantly improved road infrastructure and bridges across Zambia? Is that a “bad thing”?”
Comment: I do not know anyone criticising infrastructure development. What is being criticised is (a) poor project selection, with low priority investments (especially roads) in parts of the country where traffic levels are low; (b) overpriced contracts (e.g. Lusaka-Ndola road) many of which are clearly corrupt; and (c) neglect of rehabilitation and maintenance. These are certainly bad things!
Sunday Chanda: “We could go on and on until Kingdom come cataloguing President Lungu and PF achievements, but whats the point when some people who are living in denial like Sishuwa have made up their minds “ukufwa na no”! Their scepticism has become septic. It is eating them up.”
Comment: Unlike Chanda and the PF, who are outraged by my simple and well-meaning article, what is anguishing me is a catalogue of terrible conditions that Lungu and his government have unleashed on the different sectors of the Zambian society.
What is eating me up and giving me sleepless nights is the despair, pain and anguish that afflict the majority of students in public universities whose living allowances were callously scrapped by the PF government – condemning many to illicit and non-academic activities that take their attention away from studies.
It is the shrinking space for democracy, dialogue, and respect for everyone’s rights in Zambia, and the haunting plight of council and post office workers who have gone several months without pay (I met a worker at Lusaka Main Post office in December 2019 who told me that they had just received their May 2019 salary!). What is eating me up is the grand corruption in government, one which according to the Financial Intelligence Centre, has facilitated the theft of close to a staggering $US1.3 billion over the last three to four years – the same amount that Zambia is seeking to borrow from the International Monetary Fund. It is President Lungu’s illegal attempts to force salary cuts on miserable, impoverished and indebted non-unionised public sector workers.
It is the fact that millions of present and future generations have been condemned to repaying carelessly acquired debt that will never benefit them. It is the harsh reality that tens of thousands of my fellow citizens cannot find employment after leaving college and university. It is the sight of barefooted, half-naked and undernourished rural children who have never known the inside of a classroom, whose hopes and aspirations have been dashed by a system that does not know that they exist, and who get permanently damaged, both physically and mentally, because of lack of food. It is the extreme levels of inequalities and the conditions of degrading poverty, which continue to characterise our society.
It is the fact that while a poor Zambian is sent to rot in jail for stealing K6 in order to assuage hunger, those who are well-off like Amos Chanda are left free by state investigative wings that are supposed to question them for fear that they might implicate some in the higher echelons of power; others such as Maxwell Mwale and Christopher Singogo, convicted for corruption and sentenced to many years in prison, are given a presidential pardon only after countable weeks in prison.
It is seeing hundreds of retirees, death shining in their eyes, who once worked so hard and passionately for Zambia, camped outside Cabinet Office or the Ministry of Justice, scorched by the sun and sometimes soaked by the rain, desperately crying for what they worked for. It is the death of meritocracy in many institutions but especially the police and the army, which has stalled the career progression of many young bright and principled officers. It is the miserable pay of devoted and dedicated public school teachers, much of which pass from their bank account to the account or hands of the landlord or the moneylender.
It is the shameless set of corruptible leaders, who have betrayed Zambia to foreign commercial interests, who pawn off the country for a few trinkets, who accumulate through brazen theft of public resources and massive sale of mukula and Zambian land to so-called investors, and who strut around with self-importance when they are nothing but disposable playthings of even bigger global kleptocrats. It is the self-serving elite class at the heart of public life, including those who occupy key positions in several state institutions and are complicit in the fall from grace and selling of Zambia, and in sustaining our state of backward poverty and extreme cultural impoverishment.
It is the sad realisation that the government has normalised abnormality. We have reached a point where to have no electricity, to go to a public hospital and find no medicine, to be paid salaries months after payday, to witness party cadres terrorising innocent citizens in the presence of the police, to be blocked from and arrested by the police for exercising our constitutional liberties, to have university lecturers who have been blackmailed or terrorised into silence even when they are not paid on time because they are afraid of losing their jobs, and to have treasonable levels of unemployment amidst our young population, has become normal. No new forms of consciousness can rise out of these conditions.
As an individual, I have made up my mind that one must refuse to be reduced to the subhuman status our current situation confines all of us to. We must rebel against this status. Then, in our many millions of personal activities, we must transmit this rebellion to others. So far, the main platform for criticism of our lives is in the media, and largely confined to the deplorable social and economic conditions we now suffer. It need not be confined to this terrain. Ethically, morally, spiritually, intellectually, culturally, and yes, ultimately, philosophically, we must also wage a war against influences in these spheres that define and confine us to subhuman existence. To be who we are is a reflection of inferior qualities in us of all the human essences I have listed. With this background, is it not understandable that there is nothing to cheer me?
Sunday Chanda again: “U’ushitasha mwana wa ndoshi nangu endoshi ine”, the Bembas say!”
Comment: Here, Chanda is implying that I am a child of a witch (ndoshi), and therefore I am also a witch. Now, the real indoshi is the one who causes people to die from unemployment and starvation, who impoverishes and kills through tolerance for corruption, lack of medicines in hospitals, delayed payment of the worker’s salary, who condemns citizens to day-long hours of load shedding, who can hold only one press conference in three years because he is afraid of meeting people and incapable of explaining why citizens are suffering. That is witchcraft.
Chanda may wish to know that I went to university, thanks to the generosity of others, and learnt that there is another life outside ndoshism – a life of confronting truth, of questioning everything and everyone, fearlessly, especially if they are leading us or making claims to want to lead us. In short, I have rebelled, turned against ndoshism, and found a calling in nurturing the underdeveloped talent and endowment of genius that each person has by the sheer fact of birth, in afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted, in refusing to comply with repression, asking the hard questions, proposing ways forward and, from any position or none, acting as an agent or catalyst of positive action in dealing with the issues that matter most.
Simply put, I have found a calling in demanding, with sincerity and in good faith, honest responses to the five questions that the late British politician Anthony Benn liked asking whenever he met anybody with power: ‘What power have you got?’ ‘Who gave it to you?’ ‘In whose interest do you exercise it?’ ‘To whom are you accountable?’ ‘How can we get rid of you?’
We all do not have to be politicians. We can each make a contribution to the remaking of Zambia from whatever stations, provided those we have entrusted with power learn to listen to the views of others.
The biggest problem here is sishungwa has convinced himself that Zambia is in a crisis and everything in the country has broken down. Sunday had a huge point in his article, so big it has forced sishungwa to respond. Sishungwa has simply compounded the “gloomy” drivel he wants to convince the masses with but problem is he is a coward who has failed to state his real affiliation: sishungwa is a upnd cadre who kisses the ground hh walks on.
mmmmm….Learn to read my brother have you finished the whole article…? you moron have emotional and personal issues with everyone.
Sishuwa, whatever you call him, at one time worked for HH’s pension company
I have told myself to focus on positive matters. I just browsed through and I knew it’s the same negativity and gloom these people are spreading around. Negative energy dampens the spirit. I cannot bring myself to your level. Our nation has challenges but it’s not all PFs fault. To call it a crisis every time one holds a pen shows sishungwa is a troubled soul as Sunday correctly described him!!
Can we wake up to a cool 2nd day of the year?
No! Sishuwa has sleepingless nights.
Appetiteless dining. S3xless life. Reliefless toilet sessions. Restless lectures. Meaningless livelihood e.t.c. After being done rubbing shoulders with Unza management, he wants to rub shoulders with politicians.
There is too much word here.
Sishuwa is trying too much to sound right here. If you put up so much word, it means that you have it up to somewhere.
Just quit your regular income generating civil service role and join politics.
That way you can reach alot of people to buy into your narrative. I think you’re a sadist too.
Sishuwa is extremely childish because at this point I questioning if he is really learned. Like really.
Ba Zambian Citizen
You are an example of how useless PF cadres think.Go back and read your own response.You even argue that there is no crisis.You have a power shortage not because of climate change,but because we are broke as a country.Do you realise what effect lack of power will have on the treasury?The money was looted now you cant deal with this crisis.You cant supply agro inputs for the same reason,you are broke,we have a leadership crisis…
Reading your articles nowadays is a waste of time because you have stopped being objective. The political lenses you were made to wear are distorting your view hence you can not see anything good done by the government.
@Tondo, you are lying. I know Dr Sishuwa. He was my work colleague at UNZA until recently when l retired. He has only worked for the University and has never worked for anybody else. I know this because I taught him as an undergraduate student before he immediately left for his masters and PhD studies in the UK. After he completed his studies, he returned to Zambia and immediately joined UNZA. Why malign the young man so cheaply? Criticise his ideas, as he says, without resorting to spreading falsehoods about him.
Look at the caders thorn and citizen
Can you argue point by point with what the writer has said instead of bringing your cader du.llness for everyone to see
Well articulated coupled with facts. I feel like giving the author a hug.
Thank you.
As usual, dumb response because someone just rushed to comment. Your ka Media Director for HH affairs Sunday has been undressed by this brilliant article and he would have to borrow all PF brains to respond to just one rebuttal raised therein. Twit.
#Tondo, so what? HH as a person, and his companies have no connection to the article.
This article has “Separated boys from men”.
Well done Sishuwa!
Heartbreaking piece. I feel like moving my whole clan out of Zambia. Sishuwa stay neutral and detach yourself from any political bias. You are the voice of reason needed on both sides of the political divide. We the rational shall act upon substance not political conspiracy theories from Sunday Chanda’s pen. Very sad to see young men like Sunday throw away their lives and talent for a few nickels. Habour no hatred comrade, you are a class act. They know.
Why do you cadres think that pointing at the wrongs of government means you automatically belong to a certain opposition party.
Is your thinking so politically influenced such that you don’t believe one can be neutral and still demand a better world.
A proper government doesn’t even need a private media house to defend it cause it’s actions would be enough to speak for themselves.
How can you convince patients who are constantly given prescriptions at public health centres to buy there own medicines cause these no medicines in these hospitals that everything is fine.
Not so long ago you the same people were staunch supporters and defenders of MMD cause you decided to see no wrong or corruption but here we are again in the same situation where you think PF is a gift from God and yet…
Little boy Hashushushu
Sishuwa!
Here is advise to you.
If you believe in your article is the truth – you don’t respond to critics.
The fact that it’s eating you, its means you are not truthful and your intentions are not well.
Its not what everyone says or thinks about you that will kill you. Its your own internal conflict or self talk that will finish or derail you.
@Sishuwa
Excellent article, well-argued with points. Unfortunately, despite your responding point by point arguing against the tr.ash from Sunday Chanda, you still find here the majority of these PF minions attacking you.
This article has shown clearly, why Chanda is below your level, and I doubt he is doing any good for PF as a Media Director. You have exposed his weakness and how the majority of PF cadres try to misinterpret any comment that goes against them.
Well, written article and well done !!
Responding to Chanda is baseless because chanda is brainless…
The truth hurts….
Thanks, that makes sishuwa childish and tompweless even.
If you have any brains can challenge, point by point what he is saying imwe ba koswe
Spaka PF brains are only designed to handle one item per day so asking them to respond point by point is not practical for them, twalachita overheat utuma brain tupoleke.
Article of the century!!! Please take time and read this article objectively and without any political lenses. It really highlights reasons why we are where we are today. Crisisses in all sectors of our lives, talk of Power and energy, Health, Agriculture, Economy, Forex and foreign policy, Education, Pension schemes, Corruption, Rule of law and Leadership… and the list goes on!!!
Truth is, Chanda Ni Mbuzi
We are now waiting for an article by Shishuwa where he criticises HH
Exactly. That’s our biggest problem in Zambia. We fail to scrutinise our leaders at party level and when they get into GRZ, we want to disparage them daily. Hh, like Nawakwi, have broken their party constitutions yet there’s a horde of people supporting them. How will such characters uphold democracy in the country???
Anyone who has followed Mr Shishuwa’s writings from the pre-2011 elections will agree that he is an objective political analyst. He has been consistent. I have been a keen follower of Shishuwa’s writings from the time he was critical of some of the things done by RB’s govt. At the time, l thought he was PF. But when Sata won, he continued criticising Sata and the PF. Mr Shishuwa has also previously written many articles criticising HH. I recall reading some here on Lusaka Times. Just google “He is not Lungu. But what else does Hichilema offer voters” or “Is HH the lapdog of mining companies?” and see how he tore him to threads. Maybe Mr SHishuwa has an agenda, but l really doubt it. Strikes me as a concerned Zambian.
@Mutombo: tell us then, are you happy with-
1. Hh and Nawakwi abrogating their party constitutions??
2. Kambwili forming a party with no manifesto while he faces fraud and corruption charges that had him fired as minister??
Why criticize someone who is not in charge of the country’s resources? Are you dull?
@dudeid!ot: was ECL in charge of the country’s resources in 2008?? That’s my whole point, you have to scrutinise these politicians at party level because they are GRZ-in-waiting!! Ulebomfya ubongo, wechi puba we!!
@Zambian Citizen,
You are saying “we fail to scrutinize our leaders…..”, but that is no different from you supporting current incompetent leaders. That sentence would have made sense if you were able to criticize what is not working well now with this government and help promote ways the masses can vent their future leaders. Alas!, you only jump into discussions, that condemns opposition. You want the opposition to be in love with current government, then what will be the purpose of the opposition? The opposition is there to criticize, and GRZ should defend with facts, but we are not seeing that.
I wish all you readers here could interact with the numerous issues in the article and avoid the person of the author! Is it difficult? There is so much substance to engage with yet most of you duck away and hang on straw arguments with no bearing on the intellect of the article before us!
shishuwa are you homosexual because you do not talk about real issues instead you waste time writing about articles that can not value to the running of this nation.Honestly what is wrong in cuting salary of these Govt officials and CEO’s?do you know how much they take home?if for example a mine official is parting away every month with k650,000 minus other allowances is that right shishuwa? crictize with sense.
What immaturity!
He is doing politics in the wrong place and doing it wrongly. Let him form a civil liberty organization.
If he is a lecturer, I fear for the students. In my school days, I met several sadists like him spewing hogwash in lecturer rooms and classes.
Please ECL quit giving jobs to characters like sishuwa as advisors. The kid may be puffing on lye.
ndugusakuwa
You just don’t change a persons terms of employment as an afterthought…..people signed contracts when they started work …. that is why PF are lawless , pleas try following the law.
@ndugusakuwa,
That is what Sichuwa is saying, Chanda would have done better, by providing the numbers how much will this savings bring, and who will benefit and how will that be done.
All we got from ECL is a vague statement, and unlawful for that matter.
So you are cooking the numbers just for the sake of you and PF to prove that you are right?
That is a goodwill gesture, which will not solve any problem. Please, don’t let yourself to be blinded by these politicians, its just a 2020 gimmick, that’s it.
will the cut salary benefit us in any way? what we want is an affordable cost of living
@Ndungusakuwa you must be such a dummy !!
Your own sense is absent here, please find it!
There are cadres on this blog who are just insane to say the least. They think this is the way a country functions when there is no power during the productive periods, when unemployment is skyrocketing, abuse of funds is institutionalized, hatred, tribalism and selfishness has become the norm in the political arena.
Frankly we have bandits and *****s in government who do not mean well are are looking only for on interests. Those who depend on these vices for survival are the *****s in support of this thuggery.
Simmer down.
Have you payed your children’s school fees or have your parents paid yours?
Begin engaging in civil and meaningful life.
You’re commenting on a nigga with insomnia. He says he has sleepingless nights.
Did you have a good night nigga?
Who uses a word nigga in this day and age?
Emotional responses lead to long unending articles disguised as academic arguments besides it’s difficult to identify the pig in a mad fight. Leo once posed as an academic critic of mmd but later revealed his political inclination do come out SS
If you think the response was emotional just means your tiny brain did not read it. He has quoted the law and dismantled Sunday’s article point by point. Grow a brain, learn to read, twit.
@Soul you are a nitwit. SS’ article is a brilliant write up. Learn to read. He has school the PF lakkie, Sunday, on how to write!!!
@Soul you are a nitwit. SS’ article is a brilliant write up. Learn to read. He has schooled the PF lakkie, Sunday, on how to write!!!
I fear he is wasting his time. The people heb is responding to cannot read. The live in theft and corruption.
Bo Sishuwa,please spare us with your episodes,and the way you write its like there is no hope for Zambia.I refuse to dumpen my spirit with your negativity,there is hope for Zambia i believe.
There is only hope for Zambia once PF leave. As long as they are still around things will only get worse. That’s a fact.
your article is too long.
Zambians we dont like reading
That is why you are suffering-poverty and ignorance go together
That is precisely why you are made to believe Bill 10 is good for you, you will have more money in your pockets, the economy is booming right now, and numerous other propaganda yet you cannot afford mealie meal, school fees, fuel, electricity, clean water the list is endless! Wake up and r.e.a.d.
This article is pregnant with meaning, loaded with serious empirical evidence that can not attacked coz you may end up to be a total *****.
Realistically let things end here. There is no argument Sunday Chanda can bring out that will fight this article, the writer may have spent a night perfecting his well intellectually written article tho I see emotions and may steer unnecessary confrontation if not handled properly.
Sishuwa is a good example that even educated people can be stupid. Sad to see a man of his stature being reduced to a mere upnd cadre and mouth piece. If you want to face us in the political ring, then come out and stop hiding behind educational institutions. We are ready to face you on the ground. Kz
You are allergic to criticism. Politics is a fractional aspect of the bigger output of educational system.
Iwe the best you can do is shurrup. Democracy entails diverse opinions but sensible opinions not chainamanomics . Do you even know that Bank of Zambia governor has been complaining that you are making his work very difficult. We know you did not receive any dismissal letter, but a favour which Zambians want is that you keep quiet. If you had added value to this country yourself, Zambians could have been enjoying a prosperous life and also would have had civil liberties. I am a strong PF supporter and I don’t like UPND but I will never succumb to jokes, deceit and plunder. You have made our party look very bad to the ordinary Zambians
But he was quoting the law. You never even read the article did you? Of course not, you are not known for being very clever.
Sishua is a sadist.
Ususha?
@ Iwe KZ,
Why do you want to draw him into your dirty politics, when he is responding as a private citizen? If you have anything that you don’t agree with in his article just answer him straight forward and stop attacking him.
Just yesterday, you were busy saying how you want to instil civilized debates, hours after, you are sliding back, to your cadre view of things. You calling him a UPND cadre is another form of intimidation, and this is what we have experienced on this forum, whoever, says anything against PF, s/he is termed a UPND cadre.
Kaizer Sulu, just go play with the Lungu’s militia (ZP). They will not take you to jail when you crash vehicles.
Ha Ha Ha he’s too smart for your kind. He won’t stoop down to your level.
You fail to debate the issues raised and resort to intimidation because that’s were your strength is.
A better Zambia is one without your kind.
You have a serious problem, do you know ad hominems? Google it and read the article afresh! You seem not to have understood it on many fronts!
I read both Chanda’s & Sishuwa’s write ups.I honestly find Sishuwa’s more substantive with his positions based on evidence adduced.Mr Chanda’s arguments are a reflection of what is truly negative about about hate.You can see that Chanda wasted time constructing phrases to express his deep rooted hate.what both writers didn’t say tho is that wastage in public service is rooted in deep corruption and politicisation.Ghost workers are cadres who can’t be touched but are causing massive losses.The reality is that this civil service has been made a monster that if the president can’t solve.Its beyond him in it’s size.The citizens hold the key
Dr Sishuwa your articles are a voice of reason. I don’t doubt a bit infact so much the reason you were the chosen one by President Sata to document and profile his life history.
I love this monk and all the monks who came before and after me, and we could debate governance in those days in those monk squares of the RUINS and Social Club! No Dr Sishuwa, Zambians are not passive neither are we insensitive to uncalled for calamitous times but rev0lution is response function of what builds in our hearts. Continuous fomentation to hunger, poverty and misery is swelling our hearts at an exponential rate to the limit we can’t swell anymore but burst into rev0lt. And there is no one stopping it!
Calamity
@Abena-Ng’umbo you went to school when it mattered. You’re one person I would defer to if you told me I’m wrong because you’re believable. Most folks who have criticized Sishuwa have evidently not read what I personally believe to be one of the best confutations to have been published here. It remains to be read how Sunday intends to wither this blistering rebuttal.
Thanks@Warlord. I hope more intellectually characterized voices similar to yours and that of Dr Sishuwa can now rise and put politics of the gutter into abyss and shut the lid!
@Warlord. Let’s hope more intellectually characterized voices similar to yours and that of Dr Sishuwa can now rise and put politics of the gutter into abyss and shut the lid!
Shuwa shuwa and chanda are both same.
Mulozi na Mubemba …. Northern and western provinces will
never be same.
History can’t change.
I am shocked that PF cadres can still talk. Third worst performing currency in the world, inflation is double digit, we even have borehole tax now, some ministers are being denied VISAs to travel to the US, the reserves are gone gone gone, Fuel prices among the highest even compared to other landlocked countries, the mining industry disturbed by policies that are not helping. Infact we hear their leader has tried to surrender but the jackals here who are eating have kept on telling him to stick by “as all is well”, and this proved by their posting here. THE VERY WORST GOVERNMENT SINCE 1964. All economic indicators are DOWN(Evidence). So what is their to celebrate
The current crises in Zambia are a testimony to how little Zambian citizens expect and demand from public leaders, from life – AND consequently for ourselves as Africans. Until such time, when we start holding public ‘leaders’ accountable, when we wake up from slumber, Africa will continue to suffer lack of development, deplorable state of living conditions, etc.
Africans will continue trekking to Europe, America and other better managed countries – as long as we allow the likes of Lungu, Sunday, etc to continue stealing public resources without consequences
… And allowing a leader who has abrogated the upnd constitution, allowing Nawakwi to hold on to power, allowing Kambwili to form a party without a manifesto is what is letting Zambia down. Stealing public resources you say?? Why can’t the accusers avail Zambians with evidence so that these “thieves” are arrested?? Why are you so selfish to keep it to yourself??
Is it UPND of NDF who responsible for the worst performing currency ? Or a double digit inflation or a GDP drop from 7 to a miserable 2 % ?
Ati bring evidence ? FIC report provided evidence of illicit money flows into misters accounts and other PEPS , but lungu was screaming Mfwiti mfwiti instead of instituting investigations
You see, Spaka, responding to you is like teaching a grade 4 kid simultaneous equations. You keep on repeating the same thing over and over. The pound took a beating in November, isn’t it something that hasn’t been fixed??? Like your druid of doom, Sishungwa, you id!ots are running around aimlessly like chicken little crying “the sky is falling” and your rhetoric is becoming quite boring…
That 7% growth was copper based, what did Levy export that raised the gdp so much??? Problem you think the common man can’t see this, that’s why you lose elections!!
Citizen
It is you just pontering with out giving counter argument ,
Ati that 7% was copper based , but you have copper now with an excellent road network which PLM did not have , yet is beating you on all performance on accounts.
Actually PLW presided over austerity to get the debt wiped out , you on the other hand are presiding over a grz that has had billions to play with yet all we are getting is excuse after excuse
Id!ot…what was the price then and now?? Close to $3,000 difference. As I have put it, you have no substance…..Twit!!!!
Citizen You are a Moroon , who is so dumb.
You can blame the price of copper all day but Zambians know you have had billions of dollars and did not have any debt to put things right…….
THE CURIOUS CASE OF SUNDAY CHANDA:
We are born ignorant,
but one must work hard to remain stupid.
~ Benjamin Franklin.
Can all these dildos in the PF pleaseargue substance and content? How hard is it to do that?
Kaizer, Thorn and some of you die hard PF cadres please isolate some elements of the debate and discuss it?
Quit labeling the Dr. as hateful, even if he was, please discuss CONTENT!
#Please Argue#
That is what we are saying , even provide bullet points in your counter arguments pleas imwe …….ahhhhh
How hard is that to do , especially i you mr KZ , don’t just rant about wining elections which were marred in intimidation and violence
The other caders thorn and citizen we know can’t argue anything
They do not possess the intellect for any coherent argument. Their only hope is Sunday Chanda who also happens to be as dull as them with the only difference being he has studied the dictionary.
Hehehehe
Ati Sunday studied the dictionary
Hehehe….
And KZ studied the idi amin constitution
I actually graduated from the school of Michael sata. I have won elections. What have you achieved?
Mr KZ ,
I don’t think the school of M .Sata tought violence and disruption at the level you, KZ find your self in the press.
……you may have won elections but your displays of immaturity and disrupt disregard for the law cancels out any positives of wining any elections.
You need to repent and ask the Zambian people for forgiveness……as they say, every dog has its day.
” What have you achieved?…”
I have achieved a guranteed prosperous future for my self and my family……
As a second class citizen in a foreign land where they will throw bananas at your children???? Achievements recognised and enough respect Zambian KZ!!!!??
Dear Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa,
Thank you for articulating your issues in a very constructive manner backed by suststantive examples from both Law and History. This is as it should be.
I find your writings deeply grounded in terms of intellectual discourse. For a lecturer of history I commend you sir. Please do not give up being that light you are from UNZA, the institution from which we expect even more lights in every sector of development.
Please continue taking our leaders to task and helping them to start thinking properly.
As fopr Sunday Chanda, you have done well to break your own rules of engangement in order to educate him a little further than the tip of his nose and the perimeter bounded by his fellow stomach oriented political cadres. There is a world bigger than self,…
Lol insults don’t help show your hand and get into the arena
Having read both gent’s write ups, it’s clear to see that while Mr. Sishwashwa points out the irks and mismanagement by the current government , Mr. Chanda simply goes into character assassination mode. One would expect the latter to argue objectively.
On my recent visit to Zambia, I was privileged to visit Western, Southern and Lusaka provinces. Yes, infrastructure wise there’s been a lot transformation, however prioritizing key road projects hasn’t been done well. I could site the Mongu- Lusaka road and Mazabuka- Kafue road which have been in deplorable state for years. These are key roads leading to neighboring countries that should be given serious attention.
Load shedding is another area that requires urgent attention as it is not normal to be without electricity for 15 hours…
Wow! What a masterpiece of writing. Sober; objective; articulate; balanced; intelligent… it really is! I’m impressed and I’m totally sold out and I’m a big fan.
It really amazes me that we have few Zambians of this calibre and yet they are not given the opportunity to run our affairs in some capacity (OK I know he is a university lecturer but he could do more).
Forget Sunday Chanda and the PF propaganda machine, those will defend the grand corruption turf to their death. Just sit down and admire a Zambian writing and articulating issues this good. I wish we had even a million Sishuwas in our country… I reckon we would have freed ourselves from this failed project called the PF. Why are Zambians this passive, I don’t get it.
But I have hope that we still have few men and…
….But I have hope that we still have few men and women in the likes of Sishuwa… they come and go! I have seen over the years people like this man (back then they used The Post to express themselves. There’s still hope people and hope is a good thing.
My hat off to you Sishuwa… you are really a national treasure!
In Namwanga land (Isoka), they say there is a certain type of beans, yes beans, no matter how much you cook it, it will never get cooked, and that is how it is. Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa has given intelligent reasons to defend himself backed by irrefutable evidence. This young man, Sishuwa, from Western Province reminds me of a certian teacher who was returning to UK after expiry of his contract in the 80’s. His was asked what he thought of Western Province, he said if you want to find the most stupid person in Zambia, go to Western Province and if you are looking for the most intelligent Zambian, go to Western Province. In my opnion Sishuwa has outwitted Sunday in every way.
Homosexual news has become fake
News….do not even give it a thought. Meanwhile the same PF cadres are busy flocking to gay countries around the world. Just how many Zambians are living in nearby South Africa where homosexuality is legal but are unconcerned and unaffected bu such… they continue living their lives as per normal so this kind of accusations/allegations is retrogressive and simply dead. Zambia can concentrate on better things that will benefit the masses in our country than stupid rhetoric gathering dust day by day. Dr. Sishuwa has really hit the nail on its head and has shown the way forward to good governance and democracy and what we need to do as citizenry. USA is great because people can talk and talk freely to contribute to how the country must be run. Sunday Chanda…
cont’d
Sunday Chanda is a failure only relevant to PF. Dr. Sishuwa has won the debate plain and simple. Chanda asanga abaume….inshimbi wasokwa ka chi color.
This Sishuwa boy is just another tribal bigot like the likes of chipenzi and other Akainde’s useful idio.ts.
What is your response to the ideas Sishuwa raises, his person aside? Thanks.
Sunda Chanda’s intellectual capacity is so emmanciated that he can only discuss hominems with a sele-leque ndoshism.
Sishuwa’s comment when he stated that : ‘Lungu should cut his term of office, not the salaries of public officers’, was a calculated motive to provoke unrest among senior Civil Servants. Sishuwa’s intellectual capacities are very low. Political trends of Fred Mmembe are well known. Chanda Kasolo should have known that South Africa’s NUMSA Secretary General was hired by Mmembe to threaten Zambia on trade sanctions in defense of Mmembe’s non-payment of Tax by The Post to ZRA. Of late, Mmembe used Kasolo to publish his subversive anti-Govt statements in the MAST. Both Kasolo and Sishuwa are weird.
Makes sense now why Kasolo was fired. Fred is getting a real beating from this one president. He dominated from LPM to Sata. Apa pena nabamukwanisha.
Please relate your postings to the issues in article so we follow your ideas?!
YOU HAVE SPOKEN TRUTHS AND FACTS CONCERNING SUNDAY CHANDA. IT’S JUST THAT HE HAS TO REMAIN RELEVANT TO THE PF AND DRAW A WAGE.
BUT SISHUWA BE CAREFUL BECAUSE BA PF MOVE IN THE NIGHT TO POACH PEOPLE LIKE YOU INTO THEIR RANKS. CHRIS ZIMBA WAS LIKE YOU, WHERE IS HE TODAY? CAN YOU RESIST MORE MONEY IN YOUR POCKET IF OFFERED? IF YOU JOIN THEM THEN ALL THE GOOD FACTS IN YOUR ARTICLE WILL BE DEEMED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN OUT OF SOUR GRAPES AS THE CASE IS NOW WITH ZIMBA. THE SWEETNESS IN YOUR ARTICLE IS AN OASIS IN THE ZAMBIAN WILDERNESS OF JOURNALISTIC MENDACITY. KEEP IT UP. TELL THEM!!!
Come on Dr Sishuwa, let’s not kill a mosquito with a sledge hammer.
You are all missing the wood for the trees.
The young man is probably in a small pond but carrying on as a big fish.
He is really an intellectual giant doing the work of an opposition party.
NAREP, NDC, ADD, UPND, etc are bereft of effective leadership. He would serve Zambia better as leader of one of these currently offline and ineffective opposition parties.
Well spotted, mbuya KZ
Dr. Sishuwa talked about “ad hominem”. That’s exactly what you do, Mwansa Kabinga. It is a pity that you lack critical thinking skills. It is not late to go back to school.
Kwena muli bapuba sana sana fye….you who are supporters of a corrupt regime never seen before in our young democracy. Here we are all patriotic Zambians wanting the best for our country and then we have PF Muppets trying so hard to diffuse the current economic situation as punctuated very well by Dr. Sishuwa. Come 2021 kuyabebele ba PF, rigging or not you will be found out by big legit ballot. The people of Zambia are not stupid or blind anymore.
I have followed shishuwa on WhatsApp unfortunately, he has removed me from whichever group he made, it’s not that my behavior was beyond controllable rather the fact that I wouldn’t agree with most if not all his beliefs. His idea of of leadership is believing in what he believes or you are not worthy of shishuwaship of the group. Sunday would not be more honest by saying shishupu is a UPND cadre…I’m Josh, I’m breaker I’m transcendent and I approve this message
Ba Sunday has eaten a humble pie.
A brilliant article that clearly states where this country is and mostly how the politicians in power have ra.ped it. The sad thing is, one of the reasons this state of affairs continues, is because of the likes of ‘Zambian citizen’ and ‘thorn in the whatever’. These are the perennial ostriches that have buried their heads in the sand after feeding from ECL’s trough – the intellectually bankrupt that are also lazy to read and respond analytically.
The other most unfortunate thing is that by the time Zambians are awoken to act decisively, the damage done will be irretrievable for decades to come.
Very mature response there by the Unza Don, we need 10 more of such fearless academicians like Sishuwa and 10 more of Savior Chishimba type and make team to liberate Zambia from the current mediocre leadership. Also Sunday Chanda should consider the nickname “Ad Hominem”, it suits his calibre.
@Mwansa Kabinga@29. You are the weird one! How does Fred Membe come into Sishuwa’s discussion? Address the points that Sishuwa has raised point by point. Iam sure you have nothing to say on that point, hence your detour to gibberish.
Mcgyver I greet you.
The contents of your commendations about Sishuwa Sishuwa are spot on and very correct. However your inherent use of classifying intellect/intellegence based on ethnicity or tribe is off side. Are you insinuatinig that just because the *****ic Sunday Chanda (a Bemba going by his name) was whitewashed by Sishuwa (A Lozi man) then Bembas are dull? Please Mcgyver we intellegent enough to read betwee your lines. Do not destroy your very good comments by bringing in tribalistic sentiments. Let us promote the philosophy of One Zambia One NAtion.
Learn to summerise your articles
This is a well-written article in defence of his earlier article which was trashes by Sunday Chanda. To sum it up, he has simply nailed it, point by point. Sunday Chanda’s counter-arguments are neither here nor their and mostly an embodiment of cadre mentality in the likeness of “Chemical Ali” or Tariq Azziz in Iraq before the US overran Iraq. He is passionate, like most of us, about Zambia and where we stand economically, socially and politically. I wish we can all decipher what he really desires from the leaders of this country through what he has highlighted and has even quoted the law to back his claims, in sharp contrast to Chanda whose response has been seen for what it is – a PF vuvuzela at his master’s service. i don’t think Chanda can muster the nerve to respond again…
This is the type of articles that must pass your editorial panel ba Lusaka times. Don’t you have ways of sieving meaningless articles and comments resting on ad hominems? Well done on this one!