PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH LATE PRESIDENT SATA

BY JAMES MUYANWA

DEFINITELY, the current crop of politicians especially the opposition has a lot to learn from late President Michael Sata in terms of handling public gatherings.  

Mr Sata knew how to handle the media – both the hostile and friendly ones – and made sure he got the best in terms of attention out of any public appearance.

He did not allow anyone to subdue his political clout and as a result his speech always had a keen audience.
 

At public debates while in opposition, he made sure he identified himself with the audience, sometimes at the extent of taking on the moderator.

As a moderator you always had difficulties to stay in charge of the meeting where he is featuring.

He had his own way of answering the questions, especially the complicated and sensitive ones. 

I was privileged to host Mr Sata who - while in the opposition - in 2004 appeared during the hardest public discussion I have ever chaired.

Somewhere in May 2004, during my five-year posting in the hub of the Copperbelt, Kitwe, I was elected Kitwe Press Club president.

The mandates for the position included chairing public fora on which we invited dignitaries from the various backgrounds especially politicians.

The fora were both a fundraising tool, as we charged some entry fee for the audience, and a professional platform to bring the leaders and the led together to discuss various issues of national importance.

Our executive committee was like a child born running, as, upon our inauguration, we started planning for these meetings mainly targeting political and labour movement officials.

Between May and August 2004, we had invited the likes of the late United Party for National Development president Anderson Mazoka, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions president Leonard Hikaumba and officials from the two then warring trade unions in the mining sector.

LATE MAZOKA

While Mr Sata’s political esteem in most parts of the country was, by this time, not any better than exemplified by the results of the 2001 general elections when he managed a paltry 3.3 per cent of the total votes cast, on the Copperbelt it was soaring in leaps and bounds. 

That we - as organisers of the discussion – would learn the hard way on the day of the meeting!

My colleagues in the executive committee got in touch with the officials then surrounding the Patriotic Front (PF) president who showed interest in convincing him to turn up for the event.

Throughout the week we kept in touch with them but a day or two before the actual event Mr Sata offered to talk me as “a fellow president,” on phone.

“Mr President how many people are you expecting as members of the audience?” he inquired on phone, catching me napping as we did not even know the capacity of Edinburg Hotel hall.



HIKAUMBA

I vaguely answered before he went on to inquire on specifics like starting time, who would chair and the duration of the meeting.

After assuring himself of our preparedness he told me we would meet on the day of the meeting at 18:00 hours, 30 minutes before the commencement of the discussion.

By 17:00 hours on that actual day, it had dawned on us that we had a challenge ahead of us because the venue was almost full.

By 17:30 hours the place was full with some people sitting right under the high table.

At 18:00 hours, true to his word, he was outside the hotel and called us.

When we went downstairs we found him with a horde of officials who surrounded him with cadres chanting slogans.

He mockingly asked us how the attendance was so far but before we could answer, he started loudly laughing at us saying we had thought he would not attract a big audience.

We had arranged for a room with the hotel management where he could go and fresh up waiting for 18:30 hours but he refused saying, “if the people are already there why should we wait?”

We had troubles to access the high table because there was nowhere to pass as a sea of people had filled up the entire hall including the doorway.

After struggling, we managed to reach for our seats and caught our breaths.

For me, at this point, work had just started because I had to control the crowd which was still swelling with those still outside demanding that a bigger venue should be quickly found because they could not manage to miss the discussion.

Further pressure emanated from my guest who was busy exchanging pleasantries with the members of the audience even before the meeting could start.

After delivering his unwritten statement for about 15 to 30 minutes we went into question-and-answer session, which proved even more challenging.

More challenging in the sense that I would be picking  a set of questioners on one side while Mr Sata would also be busy on other side saying:

“Iwe mwandi njipusha, ninshi tabalekusontela?” (You, I ask me! Why are you being sidelined?)

The bombshell for us, however, was yet to come.

As a way of enhancing our operations as a club we had designed pledge forms on which members of the audience would fill in indicating their support in cash or in kind.

For some reasons, when I was approached by one of my fellow leaders, I advised that on that day we should not pass the forms round but being a democrat they carried the day since I was the only one who objected and had no convincing reasons. 



I don’t know how the pledge form caught Mr Sata’s eyes.

“What is that form for? Pledges?” he rhetorically inquired and without waiting for the answer, he publicly directed Mr Charles Chimumbwa who was, I think, party national treasurer or secretary at the time, to contribute K2 million (now K2, 000).

LATE SATA

Mr Chimumbwa publicly announced that he would hand over the money the following week on Monday and one of us should travel to Chingola where he was based.

That stirred hullabaloo against us by fellow professional, then ruling MMD officials and other people who accused us of having been bought by the PF.

Before we could address the accusations we had to deal with the immediate issue of whether we should go and collect the money and after a heated debate we resolved to get it since it was publicly offered to the club and there was no strings attached to it.

For Mr Sata the meeting was an opportunity well utilised to effectively sell himself and his party by convincingly answering all the questions posed to him amid some public relations chores.

For the club, however, somebody had to pay the price of organising such a successful meeting, featuring an opposition leader and I think I paid a full price, which is, however, not the subject of this article.