“Apostle Danny Pule has inherited an orphanage”

AN Indian great writer in his book titled: “The 48 Laws of Power” warns that an emotional response to a situation is the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your feelings. Otherwise you may jump from a hot pan into the open fire.

My brother Apostle Dr Danny Pule’s announcement on 23rd June, 2005 at a Press conference at Chrisma Hotel that he was quitting the Party for Unity, Democracy and Development (PUDD) to join the Zambia Democratic Conference (ZADECO) is a welcome response to a situation since in our democracy everybody has the birth right to belong to a party he deems will make him achieve his egoistic appetite for power.

ZADECO just lost its charismatic leader, the late Dean Mung’omba (M.H.S.R.I.P.). The demise of this principled and gallant son of Zambia left ZADECO in disarray and indeed orphaned.

As a man of the white collar, Apostle Dr Danny Pule felt sympathetic and jumped on the bandwagon to inherit the late Mung’omba and take over the helpless ZADECO. The orphans quickly received this newly found Papa without even asking for his credentials.

The reasons adduced by Apostle Dr Pule for leaving PUDD the party that he brought from the cradle to glory are suspect and ZADECO should have been very careful. But as orphans and without anyone in their midst to wear Dean’s shoes, they had no choice but to accept any politician to lead them.

Apostle Dr Pule took leave from his Angelic work at Dunamis Centre to pursue the political career. He suspended the work of God to follow politics. He spent much money to ferry provincial leaders from Northern, Luapula, Copperbelt and Western Provinces to come and attend the National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings in Lusaka.

He paid for their upkeep while in Lusaka. Pastor Wamunyima who crossed camps with him was one of those leaders who benefited from Apostle Dr Pule’s good and kind hand if only such kindness was not corruption.

He invested heavily in PUDD for him to abandon the ship on flimsy and unfounded allegations.

Apostle Dr Pule referred to a NEC meeting on April 20, 2005, which he said refused to make any leadership changes.

Unfortunately he did not reveal how many clandestine and dark corner meetings he held with some NEC members to entice them to oppose any changes. He also failed to refer to a next meeting held on July 4, 2005 to undo the previous resolution. He boycotted that meeting which effected changes by a resolution.

Apostle Dr Pule, as a man of God is expected to be truthful even at night. Engaging in dark corner meetings and to bribe people to love you is unchristian.

Leaders who do not want to be led are just as dangerous as drivers who do not want to be driven.

And those leaders who wish to be presidents for their own comfort and prestige at State House without the vision or capacity to rescue Zambia from its predicaments should not be given chance even to step at the gates of State House.

It is my prayer that PUDD will overcome the shock if any of Apostle Dr Pule’s departure and wish him success in his new party. And PUDD must pull up its socks to kill the myth that Apostle Dr Pule was the PUDD’s god father.

PUDD under the interim leadership of veteran trade unionist and politician, Hon Chitalu Sampa should go flat out to organise the party and should not be shy to seek consultation with any member of the public who has vast experience in politics and good governance.

I wish Apostle Dr Pule better settlement in his newly found orphanage. He should not regret his hasty resolution in the near future.

J.C. Chishala

PUDD Chairman for Elections.

Gender Insight Women now seek to honour themselves?

CLAD in her black and white Church uniform, an old woman entered the Church carrying a bag as she struggled through to find herself a seat. I sat and watched this woman take her seat and I could not help likening her struggled walk to the many struggles she has had to encounter as a woman.

Yes, her bended back told a story – a story of a life of many struggles, struggles that up to now do not have solutions even for today’s woman.

There seems to be no gap, except that of age between women of the last century and this one because they seem to endure the same kind of struggles. The reasons are simple – women have been waiting to be honoured by others! Now this grandmother joins her daughters and granddaughters to celebrate life as a woman, not because there is anything worth celebrating about the life of many women in Zambia, but because suddenly it has dawned on our women that they owe it to themselves to recognize and respect their achievements.

Imagine how many years have been lost for our mothers and their mothers that could have easily brought honour to the name of a woman.

I met this grandmother at a conference dubbed ‘Celebrating Women’ organized by the three Church mother bodies.

At long last Christian women have come to the duty and responsibility lies within them to bring about change and a whole new meaning to a word that has so much been abused to satisfy man’s ego – submission (or is it the joy of being a woman?).

What is most gratifying about this is the fact that after tradition, religion reigns high on the list factors that have been cited as retrogressive for the development of women.

So now that women, Christian or not, have finally decided to honour themselves because no one seems to be doing it for them – not their children, not their husbands and least of all not even their nation - the adage, “If you can’t beat them, join them”, should be making a lot of sense for our women.

And it’s about time too. Our women need to realize that they hold their dignity and self belief in their own hands and that they owe it to themselves and the next generation of women to bring dignity to womanhood.

Unity being of central position in this whole issue, women need to be more aware of their common grounds than their differences - they need to stop defining themselves by status, education, occupation, race, age or religion because the experiences are but the same everywhere.

So the common ground here should be that the experience of being a woman is the same at anytime everywhere and that it gives no respect to education, age, occupation, race or creed.

How we define ourselves largely shapes our life’s parameters. And what we get out of life also largely depends on self-belief and our attitudes towards others. This is one of the greatest opportunities and advantages that can be used to bring about a common unity among women, beginning with the individuals first, just as Christian women have realised. It is only after one appreciates herself that it becomes important for them to appreciate other people.

Many things that happen to women are allowed by women themselves.

That is why it is very important that they learn first to love, respect and dignify themselves, only then can it make sense for them to demand respect and honour from others.

Sometimes, knowingly and unknowingly, women create for themselves a frame of reference that does not accommodate development and opportunities and end up getting only those things which are apathetic expectations, and this is largely due to how women think of themselves.

Even though this has been designed by society, there is no excuse about the fact that we still have the power to change the status quo, with so many opportunities presenting themselves.

When one is searching for inspiration to live life with courage, one needs not look further than themselves because within ourselves lies creativity, innovation and a wealth of talent that has been hidden for so long.

Elevation, self-esteem, honour, respect, whatever you may call it, must begin from within and no age, race, religion or status should be an impediment to the attainment of any of these!

mpsangi@yahoo.com

Letter to Chileshe If I were a Baptist...

I AM not a Baptist. But I have enough friends among the Baptists to be concerned about their lack of enthusiasm for their own centenary celebrations. I have talked with some of their pastors about the fact that this year Baptist work will have been in Zambia one hundred years and I might as well have been telling them that Prince Charles had just married Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Chileshe, this bothers me. If we do not care about our history, we will neither know where we are coming from nor where we are going. We do not know the price that was paid by our pioneers and the convictions that made them endure lions and mosquitoes to establish the Church we are in, we will produce weak-kneed Christians who seem to think that Christianity owes them a living while they gaze at their navels. We need to know our history!

I wonder how many Baptists in Zambia know that the first Baptist outpost in this country was set up in 1905 in Kafulafuta by William Philips and Henry Master and that by 1912 the mission was to be shutdown. However, a new lease of life came in when Clement Doke was sent up as a missionary by the Baptist Mission of South Africa in 1913.One year earlier, when he was only 20 years old, he had come on a fact-finding mission with his father, Joseph Doke, but as they were returning to South Africa his father fell ill and died.

However,Clement managed to persuade the Baptists at their next General Assembly that despite the death of his father the mission to Zambia was a success and that they should send him as their first missionary. This is the kind of commitment and sacrifice that saw the first mission station set up in Zambia. Baptists ought to know about this and thank God for it! Perhaps the reason why they are failing to commemorate their onehundred years of existence as a denomination in Zambia is because of the way they govern themselves. Each church does its own thing.

They call it “congregationalism”. They have no national leadership and headquarters. It must be like trying to celebrate Zambia’s Independence when you have no national government.

The ReformedChurch in Zambia (RCZ) commemorated its one hundredth anniversary a few years ago because its national synod, under their moderatorJaphet Ndhlovu, organised the events.

But who will do it for the Baptists? Whatever the reason for the lack of enthusiasm, it will be very sad if no “stone of remembrance” is laid in recognition of what God has done through the Baptists in Zambia. Chileshe, if I were a Baptist I would kick and scream until my church leaders put aside their ”congregationalism” to raise an Ebenezer for God, saying, “Thus far has the Lord led us”.

Reflection Poor labour laws

TO say that Zambian workers are least considered by both the private and public sector employers cannot be seen as an exaggeration. This is evident from the poor conditions of service offered to indigenous citizens in both the formal and informal sectors.

The deplorable situation of a worker in Zambia has been made worse because of the negative tendency by government and the private sector regarding collective bargaining.

The plight of the Zambian worker has worsened in the last decade of the privatization environment , which has regarded formalized employment as a cost to employers and business houses.

It is really heartbreaking that a worker who has tirelessly rendered 20 years of service to Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB) can be rewarded a pitiful separation package of less than K1.3 million.

It is against this background that we join Ex-Zambia National Commercial Bank (ZNCB) workers most of whom have had to wait for close to a decade before getting their separation packages, in seeking President Levy Mwanawasa’s expeditious intervention.

We believe that a lasting solution to violation of workers’ rights can only be guaranteed through effective monitoring of compliance to labour laws by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

It is against this backdrop that we share the plight of Ex-ZNCB employees by urging government to make a formal inquiry with management at the State-owned ZNCB through the ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

We feel that instituting an inquiry into the plight of Ex-ZNCB workers regarding the disregard of a collective agreement that was supposed to be used will curb further abuses in the Zambian employment sector.

And while we commend the workers for seeking presidential reprieve, it is our prayer that a fair hearing of their plight will be provided by President Mwanawasa.

Christian women counsel each other

By Precious Mwewa

AS the fight for the recognition of women continues, Christian women have realized that they too have a role to play, but only after they have learnt to appreciate themselves.

At a conference dubbed “Celebrating Women”, women from the three Church mother bodies, namely, the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ), the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), women gathered to share thoughts on how best they can begin to appreciate themselves with the help pf Zambia Woman of Honour, (ZWH) founder and president, Mrs Margaret Mambwe.

According to the women from various denominations, they had realized that their ministry of bringing people to God was being blocked by lack of unity among themselves.

ZWH president Mrs Mambwe explained that women in the Church had the duty to bring unity among themselves and harmonise God’s work.

Speaking in an interview shortly after she delivered her message title, ‘United we stand, united we win’, to the women at the conference, Mambwe noted that women had the ability to achieve a lot but that they lacked unity.

Recognizing that women hold the power to emancipate themselves from the shackles of tradition and culture, Mambwe implored women to begin using their God-given wisdom to overcome their difficulties instead of waiting for other people to free them from their daily struggles.

“When the world get’s tough we should also get tough, wisdom is wealth and as women we have suffered enough. Now is the time to realize that we have the power and that we live in a crucial world that requires us to apply crucial mechanisms to free ourselves. For long women have been labelled with bad names even after acting in the company of men, it is the woman’s name that is usually dented. Even in the times of our forefathers in the Bible, men have made laws and in most cases they have been the first to break the laws but the blame always finds its way to the woman.

“No one will honour us as women, not our children and not our husbands, so we have realized that we owe it to ourselves to bring honour and respect to ourselves through wisdom,” Mambwe explained of the decision by Christian women to celebrate women.

She added: “We have accepted enough of our tradition and culture to our own disadvantage. Now we need to come out of that inferior complex because it is also affecting our children. Submission does not mean you accept what is wrong but that you listen and reason. We are not fighting men as heads of our housegholds”.

And speaking in a separate interview, Emelda Makuta of the National Council for Catholic Women, said the conference was one of the interventions by the Church in Zambia seeking a way of recognizing what women were doing in society and build unity among them.

She noted that there has been a lot of shortfalls on the part of Christian women, one of them being that they have always been seeking for approval from their male counterparts.

She noted that even though the fight for gender equality was not about disregarding spouse counsel, now was the time for women to realize their self-worth and use it for the good of society.

“Gender does not mean that women totally remove themselves from the authority of their husbands, but it is about realizing the presence of women in all that is done so that she can be respected and honoured,” Makuta said.