the headline in yesterday’s Post newspaper ‘Never trust greedy Lungu …he has developed a pot belly like a frog because he’s eating alone – HH’ cannot go without comment since we feel Fred M’membe, the editor of the leftist tabloid has reached a provocative stage to qualify him into the Guinness book of records for being the most irresponsible, unprofessional and vulgar editor in this century.
The cantankerous, who is a qualified accountant, hijacked the journalism profession to advance his crusade of getting at his enemies – both real and imagined.
After failing to pay the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) its dues, ‘King’ Fred wanted to drag the whole nation to help him come out of his self-imposed quagmire.
When this failed, he turned to his friends regionally and internationally to raise hell on his behalf.
When this strategy failed, he aligned himself with the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, who is an equally desperate politician whom he shares several characteristics with.
They both share dangerously inflated egos, pride, aloofness and disregard for other people’s opinions.
Note that till recently, King Fred never covered the opposition leader until circumstances forced him to enter into a marriage of convenience with HH.
The language of both gentlemen is vitriolic and vulgar since they both have to save their faces from the impending doom – for the former Bwinjimfumu man to salvage himself from failing to pay tax and for HH to prepare himself from the imminent loss that will end his political career.
This explains yesterday’s headline that President Lungu has developed a pot belly like a frog because he is eating alone while Zambians are starving.
We feel this is ironical since it is a known fact that both M’membe and HH are millionaires who cannot speak for the poor as they are deafening our ears now by claiming to ‘speak for the voiceless Zambians’.
As a media which has covered them, we can track the rise and rise of both gentlemen who have now joined the Zambian moneyed clique divorced from the poor they hypocritically claim to represent.
Zambians should be made to understand that the UPND has vowed never to accept the defeat which is looming, thus the penchant by its members to insult anybody standing in the way to achieve its goal and that of their hallowed and self-righteous leader monsieur HH.
It is easy to understand the desperation of UPND members who have lined up several strategies, all of them anarchical, to achieve their goals of catapulting their leader to Plot One.
These strategies include the nonsensical ‘Operation Watermelon’, for countrywide disturbances during and after the election results, summoning the international community to declare the elections null and void and to strive for formation of a coalition government.
At the Choma rally where Mr Hichilema insulted President Lungu, the UPND leader said he wondered why Zambians had to vote for President Lungu even when the latter openly told them that he had no vision.
We feel such rantings are not only silly, but idiotic since Zambians, including HH’s supporters, have seen what President Lungu has done in the short period he has been in power.
To back his accusation, HH, who has now started quoting the Bible on his billboards and campaigns, stated that the Bible says ‘where there is no vision, people perish’.
We can remind Mr Hichilema that the same Bible is full of verses about hypocrites with one verse from Matthew 23:27 stating that: “Woe to you hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.”
Mr Hichilema ended his campaign with his favourite message that the UPND’s desire was to develop the country and restore the dignity of Zambians who were wallowing in abject poverty.
According to HH, he is the only political and economic messiah Zambia has been waiting for to take it to the elusive political Canaan.