Hichilema's previous known political association with Chamisa creates unwholesome perceptions

Reverend Dr. Nevers Sikwila Mumba. Who is this man? People who don't know him were caught completely by surprise by his pronouncements as Head of SEOM (SADC Electoral Observation Mission), purportedly on behalf of the SADC team. So unilateral, wayward, unprecedented, and unheard of, blatantly biased, uncouth, unSADC-like, unashamedly reading from a pro-CCC script, outdoing the sanctions-imposing countries in his condemnation of Zimbabwe and governance systems. Personally, I was the least surprised. I berate myself for lacking the courage to publicly object to Mumba's appointment as Head of SEOM. I felt then that it was not prudent to cause unnecessary controversy that would mar the smooth management of our Harmonised Elections. I decided to take the path that would not rock the boat.

What I should have said then, which I will say now about Reverend Dr. Nevers Sikwila Mumba, is that he is the Leader of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy Party (MMD - Late Mwanawasa's Party) and is a man on an ungodly evangelical mission to effect regime change in Zimbabwe. In doing so, he is following in the footsteps of the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa. Mumba served as Vice President under Mwanawasa, albeit for a brief period from 2003-2004, and in 2012, he took over the mantle of leadership of MMD.

For those who don't know the late Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, let me fill you in about him. During his tenure of office as Zambian President, he became the darling of Western countries and, cheered on by these sanctions-imposing countries, became very hostile towards Zimbabwe and ZANUPF. He went further than mere rhetoric and, working in cahoots with Tony Blair, had agreed to a Tony Blair proposal to use Zambia as a base for British Military Forces to launch a military offensive against Zimbabwe with a view to reversing the land redistribution program and effecting regime change.

Zimbabwe picked up the intelligence about the hostile intentions of Blair and Mwanawasa. As SADC Chairman in 2008, Mwanawasa convened an Emergency SADC Summit on Zimbabwe in Lusaka with the intent to rally other SADC leaders to the view that a military intervention in Zimbabwe to remove ZANUPF from power was inevitable. Mwanawasa invited Tsvangirai to the Summit. As Zimbabwe, we objected to the attendance of an opposition leader at a Summit of Heads of State. Our objection fell on deaf ears. President Mugabe decided to boycott the Summit and instead dispatched a four Minister delegation to the SADC Lusaka Heads of States Summit to engage Mwanawasa and dissuade him from the path to plunge Zimbabwe and the region into an Armageddon. I led the delegation to the Lusaka Summit.

To beef up and bolster the strength of the delegation, President Mugabe sent President ED Mnangagwa (then Speaker of the National Assembly) to join the delegation. The Emergency Summit started around 3 pm on Saturday, 12 April 2008, and went on nonstop into and throughout the night until it adjourned on Sunday, 13 July 2008, around 6 am. Cde Mnangagwa's inclusion in the delegation was a masterstroke. It saved the day solely because he was personally known to Mwanawasa. I assumed then (which I have not verified) that Cde Mnangagwa and Mwanawasa were either classmates or contemporaries at the Law School at the University of Zambia. Mwanawasa's venom and hostility were evident and palpable, but in the early hours of Sunday, while not yielding his ground, Mwanawasa was purely out of respect for Cde Mnangagwa, beginning to treat the delegation with a modicum of civility.

The Lusaka Emergency SADC summit was inconclusive, and Mwanawasa made it known that he was taking the matter to the AU Summit to be held at Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. Mwanawasa suffered a stroke, and that put an end to the regime change agenda as a SADC-initiated project at the behest of Tony Blair. Rev. Nevers Mumba is making a spirited attempt to take the regime change agenda from where Mwanawasa left it. Like Mwanawasa before him, he will not succeed in his evil intent. He does not know what mettle Zimbabweans are made of.

Mumba is a complete disgrace and an embarrassment to the region and the African Continent as a whole. It was very unwise and unpolitic for President Hichilema as Head of SADC Organ on Politics, Defence, and Security to appoint Mumba, a lackey of imperialism and neocolonialism with a known regime change background (against ZANUPF), to come and observe Zimbabwe's Harmonised Elections. President Hichilema did, wittingly or unwittingly through Mumba's appointment, stoke the fires of Western-inspired regime change in Zimbabwe and will live to regret it. President Hichilema's previous known political association with Chamisa creates unwholesome perceptions about his intentions towards Zimbabwe and ZANUPF.

Those who have eyes, let them "eye," and those who have ears, let them "ear." Nokuti hatigoni kurega kutaura zvatakaona nezvotakanzwa.