Kabimba should show political maturity – Luonde
By Staff Reporter
Wynter Kabimba should show maturity in the way he conducts his politics, says Socialist Party Spokesperson father Richard Luonde.
After the party was announced on Thursday, Kabimba, the Rainbow Party General Secretary, questioned its relevance and wondered if it would offer anything different from what his party was already offering.
But Fr. Luonde asked Kabimba to read the Socialist Party’s Justice, Equity and Peace programme which was one of the major factors distinguishing it from his party.
“Zambia has more than 50 political parties, the greatest majority of them capitalist. Mr. Kabimba has never questioned why there are so many of them! There is not a single capitalist country in this world with only one bourgeois party. Why then should we demand that Zambia needs to have only one socialist party?” he asked.
“Going by the [Justice, Equity and Peace] JEP programme of the new Socialist Party, it’s relatively different in approach from the Rainbow Party. It is apparent that Mr. Kabimba is reacting to a formation whose content he has not read or listened to. The language used to describe the Socialist Party is demeaning and emotional. It’s the usual rhetoric we have come to associate Zambian politicians with. Let there be maturity and rationale in the political discourse.”
Fr. Luonde reminded Kabimba that when he was in the ruling Patriotic Front party he failed to work with others because he was self-centred.
He questioned Kabimba’s socialist beliefs, saying there was nothing about him that was socialist.
“All those who know Dr. Cosmas Musumali will laugh at the insinuation that he wanted to hijack the Rainbow Party unconstitutionally. This reminds us of Mr. Kabimba’s controversial leadership in the PF. His inability to work with others is frightening,” said Fr. Luonde.
“The symbols of labour and the working class on the Socialist Party emblem are being ridiculed and associated to violence. If Mr. Kabimba is a socialist at all, he should know better. It was refreshing for most of us who listened to the press statement. It’s the revolutionary element Zambia was lacking. Welcome the Socialist Party, we are behind you!”
