By Masinga Khumalo
Anyone, especially people coming from outside Zambia, who have taken time to check the political debates going on here in Zambia especially on social media would think that the people of Nega Nega in Southern Province are murderers or they have caused some kind of political crime.
This is because our friends from PF who are mostly from the North ( Luapula, Northern, Muchinga) have made Nega Nega a tool for their own political propaganda.
They have shouted about it so hard that they have made the common mind believe that the voting pattern in Nega Nega was unique, unprecedented, and very tribal in nature, something which is not entirely true.
Many have not even taken time to check the figures of the election results from Nega Nega and many do not know that what is being referred to is a Poling centre and not a constituency.
Tribal politics and tribal voting patterns have been there for sometime not only in the south but everywhere.
But the worst kind of tribal voting was first witnessed in the Northern circuit during the 2011 general elections. The North turned up in huge numbers to vote for Michael Sata while Hakainde Hichilema was conspicuously rejected.
This is something PF cadres will never mention; you will never hear about the Malole formula even when the voting pattern in that constituency was typically very tribal.
Take for example in the 2011 general elections; HH got 1,350 votes from the who Luapula province and about 2, 211 votes from Northern province (then combined with Muchinga).
On the contrary Sata got 40,764 votes from Southern province. This was a shame and a serious show of tribalism by the people of the North.
But what makes it even more shameful is the hypocrisy of the same people who keep talking about the Nega Nega formula when their voting pattern was more than tribal themselves.
That is why I conclude that our brothers from the Northern circuit are politically mean. They are quick to point out other people’s tribalism leaving out their own.
Of course there is a growing number of brothers from the north who have come back to their senses and have come to accept the fact that after the demise of Sata, the only credible leader who can make meaningful development for the country is HH. The numbers keep growing but a lot of them are still in denial. Tribal stereotyping is still inherent in them.
Now and again, we hear the likes of Bowman Lusambo shouting hard about tribal voting in SP. Despite being in MMD, another opposition party, Lusambo is heard more criticising HH than Lungu.
Such is the level of tribal hate by some of these brothers. Actually, they just support Lungu for convenience; a tribal cousin to them is a lesser evil. Given an opportunity, they would have loved to have their own be at the helm.
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