The King Cobra & The Crocodile

Once upon a time, a King Cobra, called ba Mike, wanted to cross the river. Most King Cobras can swim, but ba Mike had missed the swimming lessons at Basic school. A Crocodile, called Fred was surfing along the river bank looking for something to do. ba Mike called to Fred and said, "Hey, Freddie, give me a lift across the river there are some tasty snacks in those trees that I will share with you !" "No way, ba Mike!" replied the weary Croc! "Why?" asked ba Mike.

"Well, everybody knows, King Cobras bite, and it is poisonous!" responded Freddie "Oh, no! No!" said ba Mike, who was anxious to cross the river. "Everybody knows that I am afraid of water, and cannot swim and we will drown!" replied ba Mike, "Why would I do such a stupid thing!".

Fred thought for a while, and realized it was true! "He will die, if he bites me! And I can’t wait to taste those juicy snacks up in the trees!" He thought! So he asked ba Mike to hop on his back. Half-way across the river, the Crocodile felt the deadly painful bite from the King Cobra.

His last words, "Hey, ba Mike, why did you do that?" "Sorry, I just couldn't help it, I am a King Cobra!" replied ba Mike as they both drown in the water.

Moral of the story: Zambia do not get bitten!

Bye Bye By-Election - Can Sata Face The Raw Truth Of Kanchibiya?

In today’s edition of that PF mouthpiece ‘The Post’ it is reported that the MMD were trounced in the recent by-election in Kanchibiya in Northern Province, with PF getting an incredible 70% of the vote. What a great headline for Sata and his supporters. But as usual with all Post stories the truth rarely matches the headline. Closer inspection of the figures reveals that it is Sata who may be crying on 30th October.

Turn out for the by-election was a poor 33% and the reality is that it was PF people who could not be bothered to vote for their man. The fact is that the PF candidate received 2195 votes less than their 2006 candidate. The MMD candidate was down by only 492 votes. In terms of percent of votes lost PF is down 30% and the MMD only 23% when compared with the 2006 elections. After you do the maths one discovers that the MMD closed the gap on PF by 7%.

Alarmingly for Sata this by-lection took place in Northern Province, which after Lusaka and the Copper Belt is one of his strongest regions. If his vote is down 7% in this region then he is going to be in big trouble nationally. If the Kanchibiya result is replicated across Zambia on 30th October then it will be bad news for the King Cobra

Further analysis of other results show even more bad news for Mr Sata and the PF, proving that the Kanchibiya result is not a one-off either. Earlier this year in the Kanyama (Lusaka urban) by-election the PF crashed in support again. Votes won were PF 30.5% vs 40.7% in 2006, so down 10.2%; UPND 22.3% vs 33.1% in 2006, up 10.8%, and MMD 27% vs 22% in 2006, up 5%.

For some reason Sata’s people are staying at home. Is it because he is not attracting them this time around? Has he lost his sparkle? Is it because his negative campaigning is annoying even his own supporters? Are his policy u-turns driving people away? And more worryingly why is he being hammered in both the rural and urban areas? Who knows, and quite and frankly who cares, but I’ll bet a few kwacha that Sata is a very worried man; the people are rejecting him.

Michael SATA Collapses Again.

MICHAEL SATA COLLAPSES AGAIN!

AILING and fragile looking Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Chilufya Sata on Wednesday collapsed after filing in of his presidential nomination papers resulting in his failure to appear before the News markers' Forum of the Post Newspapers.

Sata who filed in his nominations on Wednesday was on the same evening
scheduled to make a presentation to the forum on his manifesto and the vision for Zambia. “He felt very bad and had a cardiac problem, which led to his collapse. He was resuscitated within few minutes,” said a medical doctor who attended to him.

The opposition leader has earlier this year suffered a heart attack which resulted in late president Levy Patrick Mwanawasa making a prompt evacuation for specialists' treatment in South Africa. Sata was due to travel to South Africa for review but he refused saying he will only do after going through the campaign period.

According to medical experts, heart complications are never completely cured and it is clear that Sata is not and will never be the same. Since the heart problem, Sata has not been in the same state of health and even his campaigns have not been as impressive as in the 2006 polls when he was in usual former self.

The once chain smoker has been made to stop his smoking habits and in place of cigarettes has preferred to be a regular bulb gum chewer. The move by Sata has also been emulated by his party's spokesperson Given Lubinda who has followed the foot steps of his master and he too has quit smoking.
On Tuesday, a day before he could file in his nominations, Kasama Central MP Savior Chishimba had filed an injunction restraining his president to file in his nomination papers. Sata is said to have been angered by Chishimba and worse still insulted the Lawyers representing the Kasama Central MP. He is said to have called the Lawyers sons of a beach-whatever that means Sata himself knows. Owing to pressure from Chishimba that Sata collapsed and failed to make it for the Newsmakers' Forum. Sata, who feels nobody can challenge him in his party, has accused the United Party for National Development (UPND) of sponsoring Chishimba. But one thing that should be realized for sure is that Chishimba's decision to file an injunction against his President has had a negative impact on the popularity of Sata.

When Sata suffered a heart problem early this year, late President Mwanawasa facilitated his speedy evacuation for specialist treatment in South Africa. Sata was in hospital for close to a month and on his return, he intended to reconcile with Mwanawasa who was his long time number one enemy.
On May 14 this year, the two leaders meet at State House and since then Sata has been preaching about his reconciliation with Dr Mwanawasa. He has tried to hide his sickness by asking Dr Joseph Katema, the Member of Parliament for Chingola to state that he has fully recovered and therefore capable of contesting the October 30 elections. Dr Katema, at a Press briefing recently claimed that Sata was in sound health and therefore capable of contesting the elections. Dr Katema is surely contradicting himself because not too long ago, in Parliament, while referring to late Mwanawasa's illness said that heart and stroke were difficult ailments to completely heal.

One wonders why Dr Katema has this time around failed to advise his President not to contest the presidency as it was a strenuous undertaking which required people who are in sound health.
It is clear that like all members of the PF, with the exception of Chishimba and others called rebels fear Sata-who is simply the beginning and the end of the party, Biblically referred to as Alfa and Omega.

Sata is not the right man to rule Zambia because he has failed to manage the party as some members, despite his dictatorial tendencies rebelled against him. Despite reconciling with Mwanawasa, Sata, a staunch Catholic as he claims has failed to reconcile with members of this party who have followed the constitutional requirements to participate in the National Constitutional Conference (NCC).
What should not be forgotten is the role that he played in the Chawama Saga where he macheted defenseless Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) after Geoffrey Samukonga won the area parliamentary seat. As though that was not enough, Sata went ahead and expelled 22 members from the MMD who were against Chiluba third term bid. He used extreme force to ensure that the 22 were not anywhere near the Mulungushi Rock of Authority, the venue for the MMD convention.
It was at the said convention that Chiluba was dubiously voted as the party president when in fact his political career had ended.