HOSTING DR. MWABA KASESE-BOTA

WE HOST FORMER ZAMBIA'S AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS AND CITIZEN FIRST DEPUTY SECRETARY GENERAL, AMB. DR. MWABA KASESE-BOTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 2:08

Justice for I mean big bucket white big thing. I used it. But you said I don't have to play a few. I've been a chip. I've got to get a lot of water. I'm like, I'm not going to get the ballot.

SPEAKER_03 5:05

Zambia to a sale one that is not the mother zambia that I think we are. My ancestors, our forefathers who forks of heart.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

They force more to put this country on the map.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

To put this country where it is today. No man will destroy this country because we believe in unity. Mamma and Iman Jamapunga one Zambia. One nation.

SPEAKER_04 5:36

And we shall together we will change. And we are going to change this government.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

My name is Blaze Zambia.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

An auspicious day that the Lord has made. And today we'll be hosting Dr. Mwa Kassese Bota, former UN Ambassador, Zambia's ambassador to the United Nations, and she's currently uh citizen first deputy secretary general. You are all aware this is uh month of uh women and youths, and yesterday our women celebrated uh uh Women's Day and uh the theme you know International Women's Day Rights Justice Action for all women and girls. Before we go into uh the details of today's program, uh just a few in our announcements. We'd like to uh congratulate uh John Sangwa, who has reached the one million mark. He says he's now transforming the movement for national renewal, MNR, into uh uh into a political party. We wish him well and we hope that he won't have the frustrations that many political parties face at the register of societies. We also have a movement you know that was pioneered by the Council of Elders. They brought together a motley of political parties that elected engineer Kapembo Asimbao as uh their presidential candidate and flag bearer, and also the uh the FDD have just had a conference today and have elected uh uh former vice president of the party, Dr. Chafumu Banda as his as its president. So FDD have elected Chafum Banda as president of the FDD. Uh there have been talks about uh the UPND holding its general conference and senior members demanding that the the party you know allows the elections chairperson to continue with the party conferences that they were holding in the provinces to culminate into a general conference. Um let me welcome my special guest today, um my dear sister Ambassador uh Mwava Kasese Botta, Dr. Mwava Kasese Botta. Ambassador, I hope we can hear you clear and clear. Welcome to today's broadcast and happy women's day.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

Thank you, Ambassador. Good evening, viewers and uh happy international women's day to you all out there.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

We are very excited to host you today. We are hosting a number of uh women to commemorate Women's Day and to celebrate you, women, and you are one of those distinguished women in Zambia that we thought uh we could start with, and we are very grateful. We don't take it for granted that you accepted our invitation. Doc, just tell us about yourself. Many people may not know who you are. You are high level, you've you've represented Zambia very well across the world, but Zambians may not know who Dr. Muaba Kasese Bota is. Just walk us through.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

Thank you very much. Indeed, uh today is a good day. It's a good day that the Lord has made as we celebrate the beauty of uh women, and I'm proud that I'm a Zambian woman. It's good to be Zambian, it's just so inherently beautiful that you know we value our culture, we value our tradition, and uh we value our common heritage. God made us to be Zambians, and a Zambian is a Zambian wherever you go, a Zambian is a Zambian wherever you find him, and a Zambian is a sister, a Zambian is a brother. And I'm happy to uh discuss uh today uh on uh EMV to discuss various issues affecting uh our country. So as uh uh my name is uh Sesipota, as the ambassador has already said, um I don't want to say I'm from this region and this region I am a Zambian because I am deliberately trying to start building a generation that gets to do away with the divisions and the divide that we are seeing in terms of one, where one is coming from. But I am a proud Zambian, and uh of course uh my parents are from uh different uh places. My father is from Chitru, was from Chirubi Island. My mother is the current uh Chiturika in Impika, you know, and uh I've got the chiefs from both the Bemba and uh the Pisa um uh lineage lines. So I am a proud uh daughter of Zambia and also a proud daughter of the Bemba land and a proud daughter of the Pisa land. I think I'm also a proud in-law or daughter-in-law or daughter-in-love of uh our cousins, the Dubucas. I'm married to uh Simon Botter, and uh we have uh a beautiful family of girls. Uh my education background started uh in Chambori, in Kitu, you know. I don't know where the name Chamburi comes from, but I remember my late brother telling me that uh Chambori used to hold uh Jambori festivals or something like that. And uh the witch and all these uh musicians of those days would actually have the festivals there. And I think that's where the jamburi uh came from. But uh being Zambian, we called it Chambori, you know, yeah. So that's where I started my uh primary education from atelo primary school. Then I also moved, we moved to Kabwe, and uh in Kabwe, I went to Nimtre and later went to Chibembi Girls Secondary School. Incidentally, Chibembi Girls was the first uh school for girls in Zambia. It opened in 1921. Although there was a time when they had a break and then it reopened finally in 1946. And uh this uh secondary school is still running. So I was I did the five years of my secondary school at HB Girls uh uh secondary school. Then I went to the University of Zambia and uh there I did first the Bachelor of Science degree and later on moved to medical school where I did uh medicine. Uh and uh I practiced for four years, then I practiced medicine and later on went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the United States, where I did uh public health majoring in uh epidemiology and uh HIV and AIDS research. Uh I've worked as a medical doctor in different hospitals under the Ministry of Health, and I later went to National AIDS Council, where we looked at ways and means of containing the HIV AIDS epidemic, which had been ravaging uh the country at that time. And this was before uh we had uh the HIV, I mean the antitrovirus had been discovered. So at that time the disease was quite rife, and uh I'm glad that uh we did have the support of our good partners, the United States government, who introduced us to the antritrovirus, you know. Although, of course, uh we need to have more measures in place to ensure that this disease is completely wiped out of the face. From National Health Council, I went to uh United Nations uh Children's Fund, UNICEF, where I worked until later I moved to US government here in Osaka, where I worked for United States Agency for International Development as HIV AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children and youth advisor. So my career in medicine more or less seemed to have done a 360 degrees thereafter. But I'm glad that uh there are some things that I did contribute to in terms of uh helping to manage and uh slow the progress and transmission of HIV AIDS. When I was at uh before I moved to National AIDS Council, with the my thesis that I'd done in the US, we actually started the program to test the feasibility of giving post-exposure prophylaxis to children who are sexually abused. So after child sexual abuse, can we give child uh the anteritrovirus to ensure that the children do not get to have uh the HIV virus passed on to them? So that was the first thing that we did. I remember I was working with Dr. Chomba, and uh this culminated into also having uh the first um guidelines we had for managing child sexual abuse and as well as uh linking it to the multidisciplinary faculties that were needed at that time because uh we hypothesized that uh the sexual abuse in children was rampant because the other disciplinarians were not in place or they were segmented. So we wanted to have uh all the elements brought under one roof so that we make it easy for the victim to access the health services, but also have a successful prosecutorial done for the offenders. So uh my program was instrumental in uh introducing the one-stop center that is now at the University Teaching Hospital. And uh when I moved to UNICEF, I continued now under the umbrella of the United Nations to support uh the establishment of the one-stop center for managing uh child uh children who are sexually abused. And this was the model that was later used to create um the one-stop centers for the women who are raped, because there is a difference between uh a child and uh women. So for a child to be sexually abused, the child has to be under the age of 16. But if the one child is over the age of 16, we would call it rape. So there was that uh distinction that was made. So under the under UNICEF, um I was part of the team that did the first ever um manuals or guidelines introducing a treatment for prevention of mother-to-child HIV disease. So here the women would be given the treatment so that they don't pass the disease to the children. And under that, this is where we now advocated that children and women do not live in isolation. They are not an island by themselves, there is always a father, and there is always other children. So we need a treatment for everyone in the family. And uh we are where we are today, where we now have universal treatment of uh HIV AIDS. Of course, we know that uh treatment is for life until we are able to find uh a trigger. I mean, unless we're able to find something that can completely wipe out uh the virus from the blood. But for now, where we are, we have to have uh uh this treatment taken every month. But of course, their science is very diverse and uh it's also dynamic. There are a lot of uh efforts that are being made to see how we can actually get to contain uh this disease. So that this is the part of me that I did before I was then appointed to the United Nations as Zambia's ambassador under President May Gotyasata me. So rest in peace. So at the UN uh I did uh quite a bit in terms of uh uh the efforts of representing Zambia and representing other countries. Maybe because of my background and the work I've done here in Zambia, I found myself um running a number of UN commissions and also being on the board of uh UNICEF and being vice president of the General Assembly at the UN. I was at the United Nations for five years. I was the interlocutor during the Sustainable Development Agenda Program when we were defining the 2030 Development Goals for Sustainable Development, transitioning from the Millennium Development Goals. And uh one issue that stood out during that transition was the issue of quality standards. The standard dimensions have been lacking in the Millennium Development Goals. We had said we wanted all children to be in school, and uh we did not look at uh ensuring that we keep these children in school. We did not look at ensuring that although they are returned in school, they are actually learning because there's a difference between being in school and being in being schooled while in school. So those standards were heavily uh discussed, and we made sure that uh in the for the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, we actually put sufficient safeguards to ensure that the children are learning or learners are actually learning. It is for this reason, although I'm moving now to other things, that when I look at the free education program that our colleagues have put up under the UPND government, it is actually taking us back to the Millennium Development Agenda, which lacked the quality dimension. We are now again having 150 children.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Sorry, Your Excellency. Sorry, Your Excellency. Indeed, the UPND hold free education as their flagship, and they've now even added the feeding program where they are saying, look, this is the best program, and the opposition have no alternative. You've just said you were crafting rules and regulations at the United Nations for free education to ensure that children are not just in school but they also can learn. What are the inadequacies before we leave we come to the political But we can just dwell on this matter quickly, and you can enlighten us what you adopted and what is being implemented and where the gaps and inadequacies are.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Thank you. Actually, the school feeding programs are there even during MMG days, except being done by donor finances. The program that I managed under the United States Agency for International Development actually had that component. Of the 10% congressional earmark that I managed from the United States finance portfolio, there was the school feeding program. But the school feeding program can only be sustainable when you get all the fundamentals well established. The cost of living in Zambia is way too high. The CDF is not working as we would have hoped it was going to work. And in places where there are school feeding programs, they have sufficient decentralization where local government is able to generate resources by itself and is responsible to provide the school feeding programs for all the children that are in school. At the same time, I know at the UN we said we needed to have free education from grade one all the way to tertiary. However, these things needed to have certain fundamentals in place, including having sufficient infrastructures for the children to go to school with. I mean to go to learn from. And they mentioned the fact that they are having 150 children in one classroom. And in the morning, when they report, the children are very okay. But also when the first there's not enough room to accommodate the 150 children in one class. And while the UPND has bought a number of desks, you cannot put 75 in those classrooms. Those classrooms can only accommodate a certain number of desks, maybe 30, 40 desks where they sit to two and all. And they have to leave some space where they put the tenga materials for the pupils to sit on the floor. Not to be no desks, but because there's no room to put the desks to accommodate those desk which you sit under. And after the children sit on the ten years or on some materials, they leave a small space for the teacher to walk, just to walk through, get to the bold order writing. And these teachers do not have enough time to see that each and every child is actually schooled because we have pledged that we will not leave any child behind. Each and every child is intelligent in his own way, and it's up to the teachers to identify the competences of each and every child so that they help the children to excel in the areas where they are gifted. But the teachers are failing to do that because they have 150 pupils in class. They don't homework anymore because they are not able to mark the homework. Even in class, they ask the pupils to exchange books and then they start marking each other. And that is it. So this kind of education is actually leaving more children behind than the ones we even had before during the Millennium Declaration period. Yes, they are in class. And the parents, right now, we had our friends celebrating, but the parents, the poverty of the parents has now reduced because they are not paying for the school fees. But what we have done is exactly what our colleagues in the UPND are celebrating. They are celebrating debt deferment. They are also celebrating deferment of poverty for these children. These children right now, the parents can give them food in their homes because they are not paying for this, they are not paying school fees. But these children are going to be more poor in future because they are not learning as they should learn. And these are the things that are there. So there's infrastructure. There's also the issue of reducing the pupil-teacher ratio. It's way too high. You can't have one teacher teaching 150 children. So those are some of the things that are there. Then so at the UN, I think I talked about the Sustainable Development Agenda. I also chaired the group of landlocked developing countries. These are the countries that do not have access to the sea, so they have that geographical impediment. But this geographical impediment results in trade, certain trade barriers, because 90% of the trade actually occurs along the sea lines. It takes place on the sea. And because we do not have that access, we are disadvantaged. So I within the development agenda, we put in certain lines that needed to expand, deliberately expand the trading potential of the countries that are like ours here in Zambia. I was at the UN for five years and I came back in 2017. Then thereafter, I went to Harvard, where I was an advanced leadership fellow at Harvard, working on programs to see how we can create jobs for the Zambian youth, leveraging the energy of the Zambian youth, leveraging the intelligence, the highly educated group of the youth that we have, and also the innovation potential. I think a youth of today, in particular a Zambian youth, has no limit when it comes to innovation. All they need is for us to hold their hands, for the government to provide an enabling environment for them to exploit their best potential of innovation and help them to grow their businesses so that they contribute to the growth of the too constricted private sector that we have as a country. So this is who I am. And yesterday, when we were celebrating the Women's Day, I was very happy that.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

But before we come to that decision you made, let's look at the state of our country. What is a state of our country? Having your exposure locally and internationally, and having worked both in you know diplomatic spaces, in academic spaces, and then living, like you are saying, even from rural areas. What is the state of our country?

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Thank you. Um yes, I decided to join politics, and uh I am part of the larger group of the opposition uh uh political parties or political leaders that are part of the opposition. And um, from what I have observed in Zambia, it's like the government of the day or the that we have seem to take the opposition party leaders as uh enemies, as uh critical competitors that just want to destroy their record or that just want to oppose whatever they are doing. But that should not be the case. I think when a woman decides to join politics, it's because she wants to make a difference. When a woman gets up to say, I am joining politics because things are not okay, I want to influence policies. It is because, yes, indeed, things are definitely not okay. A lot of women shy away from politics because there are these perceptions that politics is a dead game, and women in politics are labeled, they call us names and all that. But when you see us getting up, it's because we are convinced that we must be there and we must be part of the decision-making process so that we can influence policies that favor our children, that favor ourselves, that favor our families, that favor our communities, and which favor each and every Zambian, whatever those people are. As a woman in politics, I have joined a party because first President Harikalawa was a foreign affairs minister when I was ambassador to the UN. And uh I saw his humility, you know. Just the first interaction with him, I saw his humility, so much of his humility. And as I interrogated more and more about him, I got to learn a lot from him. I mean, and also about him, you know. Uh, President Harikalava is truly a leader. And uh the leadership that I saw in him is unparalleled. You know, I saw something that he, as a leader, he is willing to listen to everybody. And that attracted me to politics. Just say, you know, I know I'm an ambassador, and as an ambassador, you are not really a politician. And it's true, I wasn't a politician before, although I was supporting uh the PF at that time. But uh, I was also a civil servant. You know, but when I saw President Harikal carrying on his work as foreign minister and the way he was interacting with the civil servants and myself, later on I said, you know, we need to have a group of people that have a common interest for developing Zambia, and that vehicle is the vehicle of President Hari Kalaba. Um the President Hari Kalaba once told me, and uh this is the word that he used, that you know, uh when people are in leadership, they think that the resources are for them to use as they please. However, these resources are only entrusted to you as leaders. So we have to be mindful of how we are using these resources. And this resonated with what president uh the late president uh Michael Sata was taught uh once had told me about. You know, I was advising you about a number of programs. And uh, you know, being ambassador, you also don't want to stress your pro your president too much. So you want to make sure that the program that you have set up for your president is sufficient for him to attend the most important and the priority functions, but he also has time to go to his room, relax a bit, and uh start doing other ways. And uh when I was uh telling President uh Michael Sat, I said, Mr. President, this program is too packed. We need to remove, to remove some. And he tells me the people of Zambia are paying me to do these things. So I must do these things. Even if it means I sleep for two hours, then I must do that. And so President Hari Kalaba, when he talked about the resources, he said, okay, this is something that I've seen with these two leaders, where they they value their supporters, the people that have supported them to the highest office. They know that the resources are really for the people of Zambia. So that is why for me I picked President Harikalava and I said, I am joining him and I'm going to work with him so that those resources that he talks about. I am part of the group that holds these resources and trust and make decisions that will always favor the common man in Shanghombo, the poor person in Impulungu, that person who doesn't have medicines in Chihobi Island, and all the people of Zambia must have a share of this uh common heritage that we have through the natural resources and the financial resources that accrue to Zambia.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Thank you very much. I I see you've jumped already, but you've answered my question perfectly. You've explained why you joined Citizen First. But let's go back. What is the state of the country? In your lenses, in your view, what is the state of our country?

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Our country is not doing well at all. Our country seems to, we seem to move forward five steps, then we move back ten steps. And uh this is not how it should be. I think the first indicator of how well our country is doing is just looking at the cost of living. The monthly breadbasket is now at 12,000 kwacha. It's at 11,800 and something, meaning we can round it off to 11,900 or 12,000 quacha per month. The civil servant average salary is 5,000 quacha. So, how who is going to meet this difference, this gap of 7,000 kwacha if the civil servants can hardly afford to meet the monthly breadbasket? So the cost of living is way too high. Are we failing to realize sufficient resources so that we can bring down the inflation and the cost of food? It's also very ionic. I'm not an economist, but it's not making sense that the inflation is going down while the cost of food is increasing. Where are we missing it? Is there a point of massaging figures? We really need the economists to explain to us. Because for me and the common man, the economy that we understand is the economy of food on the table. Where is the food that we are going to eat going to come from? If the monthly breadbasket is 12,000 quacha, the people who do not work, where will they get the money to put food on the table from? The second aspect, this is very worrying, especially for women and for me as a woman, it's the issue of the increasing divide and the inequalities that are creeping up. You know, we seem to have this divide between those in the ruling party and those that are not. We have the divide across the political parties, we have the divide about the government and the church, we also have the divide across the regions in this country. And it is very sad, especially for me as a woman and also a woman in politics, that we are seeing this divide being perpetuated by the people in leadership. This is very sad. People must learn that when they are in leadership, they should not only see me as a political opponent, they should also see me as a critical stakeholder sufficient to push them to deliver to the needs of the Zambian people. When I speak as an opposition leader, I'm not just opposing them. It's because I want them to do better. So they should listen to us. But they're not listening to us. All they are doing is perpetuating these divisions. And the saddest division is the division of the regions, you know, which is very, very unfortunate. That we can, 64 years after independence, we have the leadership that is still talking about the hatred across the division, across the regional lines. We need, I think Mamwamba, NIPA needs to start functioning. You know, you are a very seasoned civil servant. In the old days, starting from the Kaunda days, every leader went through NIPA to be sensitized about his position or her position. Is Nipa still doing the same? Because you wonder whether our leaders are really going through this level of sensitization about what it means to be in leadership. Leadership is about enhancing, promoting good governance. A leader is a peacemaker. Even if a leader suffered before, the minute that leader is given the platform of leadership, he forgives and forgets about the suffering that he or she went through. A leader brings about reconciliation. A leader promotes civility of dialogue. But we are failing all these things. This now brings me to the other point of failure to dialogue in this country. You know, we have really reached our lowest egg in terms of dialogue and diplomacy. Right now, the late president Edgar Chavalungo has done nine months without being buried. This is beyond the imagination of any Zambian. This, I think the issue of the burial of the late president is no longer about who is wrong and who is right. It is about wisdom, the inherent wisdom of a Zambian. And these points have always made me proud. One point is that of celebration of success. We have always celebrated individual successes collectively as a country. When we see somebody has been promoted to some level, we all get together and we applaud. When the other point is when there is a death. President Akainde Ichleema and the late president Michael Satter, we thought they were fierce and fierce competitors and enemies. But when the late president Sata died, we all Saw how the current president, who was in opposition then, President Akainde Ishlema, he went, humbled himself, and knelt, knelt before uh the first lady, Madam Uh Dr. Christine Kasevasata, and uh expressed condolences, commiserated with her and mourned with her. Death has always united us as a people. The third point is that of soccer or sport, where we celebrate the sports men and women of Sunday. So, why have we failed this time to unite in the case of the late president? The president wrong. We must value the president wrong. It's no longer about who is right and who is wrong. And the leadership must stop giving these catch answers again. Don't look at me. It's not me, it's not me. It's so anxious. We are one. We are only divided by the ideologies, the political ideologies that we have. But inherently, we are really one and the same people. We are brothers and we are sisters. So let's let's visit that humanity that has been that is in each one of us. And that just because you say, Let me do this, does not mean we are wrong. Sometimes you can allow a wrong thing to be done in order to promote peace and in order to promote a degree of good governance. So this is something that I thought we really need to know about. When you say I'm sorry to somebody does not mean you are wrong, it just means that you are the bigger person. And we expect leadership to be the bigger people in this scenario.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

Wonderful. Thank you. And that's a correct description of our country. A lot of people think and feel that we are hanging by threadbare our unity, really, our unity and its fabric are stretched to an extent that it may break. And I love the reference to you know NIPA and others. Dr. Kaunda had taken the project of uh uniting Zambia as a national project. He took it and implemented it through policies like NIPA and other institutions. Um before we open any phone lines and to you know beg before we begin to go to the end, I was going to speak about your candidate. First, the EMV poll held a candidate and uh um held a poll and honorable harikarawa is among the top three candidates. I saw many people now are trying to run opinion polls. Let me just defend my poll. Our poll received um 800,000 views. 800,000 views. Uh let me just speak to the audience here. So our poll, the EMV poll, received 800,000 views. It received an unprecedented 60,000 votes, uh, over 3,000 live calls, and over 42,000 online voters, separate from the other 60,000 voters that voted on uh Facebook. This is the largest sample size you can have. And I'm glad that uh as a podcast, you know, we've just been honored as top uh podcast in Zambia in matters of politics, in matters of news and news analysis, and we are also a source of credible news among the top five alongside uh ZMBC, Zanis, Mwebantu, and ourselves, and that we are also a source of credible news for those regions that were sampled Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana. We are among the top five media institutions. So when we carried that poll, that is why it could be quoted in Namibia, in Malawi, in Zimbabwe, and in Kenya. And your candidate, your president, Honorable Hari Kalaba, did very well on the phone calls and he came number one on the online and online and phone call combination. He came number two to Makebizulu. You seem to have a strong candidate. You are Deputy Secretary General of the Party. I saw that today you've uh released a notice that you want to invite candidates to participate as parliamentarians, mayors, council chairperson, and ward councillor. Just speak to that in your capacity now of the party as Deputy Secretary General of the Party.

SPEAKER_02 49:06

Thank you very much, and congratulations, Ambassador Mwamba, on uh being recognized regionally and uh internationally as the best uh podcast uh program in Zambia. Uh it's very entertaining for us, but we also get to have real news from you, and uh we appreciate you and uh we celebrate you and uh the work that we are doing with your staff. Thank you very much for that. Um yes, we are remaining with uh I think three months. Actually, next month we start the processes of uh the nominations or for elections. We start with the clearance of the presidential uh support, the 1000 support teams, but also think the payment of uh the money that we are supposed to pay for nomination for the presidents that starts uh next month. So we really don't have the luxury of time because the elections are just around uh the corner. It's a pity we have not been allowed to campaign because uh our friends in government are already campaigning, but we are not being allowed to campaign so that we can have that level field. But we are waiting for the 15th of May when they are going, Parliament dissolves and uh the campaign period is going to open up. So we have been worried, of course, with uh the elector bill and the certain pronouncements that have been coming from uh the Electoral Commission of Zambia. First, we have been worried about the voter registration, where we have seen the increase in registration is on the in the strongholds of uh UPND. We have seen the increase in voter registration in central province, which is about, I think, 30-30% increase. There's an increase in voter registration in new voters in uh southern province, which is uh at 36%. Uh Western province is at 40%, Northwestern province. I may they may not have the facts, but I think it's also about 36%. So these four have actually uh increased. They are the ones that are leading in uh voter registration with the highest increase in uh Western province. Uh the other regions are lagging behind, Lusaka province is at 19%, together with Muchinga and Ruapula province, uh, northern province and eastern provinces are about uh probably about 22, with the copper belt being at 25%. So these statistics uh cause for worry, and uh we are hoping that uh the Electoral Commission is going to look uh to interrogate this data and ensure that we actually get the rather competing uh statistics from all the from all the provinces, because at the end of the day, each province must participate equitably and equally in the uh uh the in the voting. The other thing that is making us worry is the issue of uh the electoral bill. You know, yes, we have uh Bill 7, where we are celebrating that there will be more women in parliament. For me, I'm not really celebrating about more women in parliament because as I the way I have seen it, so far we have got 20 seats out of the 270 that are assured for the women. But from the the youth and the disabled category where we have 20 also, we are assured of 10 seats only. That gives us 30 seats in parliament. Then we are also assured of the, I think it's the second uh deputy whip, uh, who has to be a woman. That one is prescribed. It has to be a woman. So I think that is uh 31, 31 seats. Yes, I thought it was 28. But it's actually 31 seats that are guaranteed for women out of 270. Now, looking at where we are currently, I think we are less than 15% representation of women uh in parliament. And uh in cabinet, out of the 25, we have four who are women in cabinet. And uh I want to say that uh, you know, we really didn't need Bill 7 for us to minimally increase female representation by 11%. Even would have made sense if we are increasing, if the guaranteed seats for women were going to be at 30%, then it would have made sense. Because for the other seats, the women that are in parliament, we never had any legislation that detailed that they may be 90% in parliament or 90% in cabinet. It is up to the appointing authority. Those are the ones that decide whether they value women or they do not value women. So this issue of using Bill 7 to say we are increasing the women's representation is not even making sense. I think legislature must be done in a genuine manner. When you are implementing new laws, let it be transparent. Let it entail exactly what you want it to be and not to mask it. 11% women, and we are celebrating that we have more women. You know, it doesn't even make sense. We let us cage, at least we say 30% is the minimum. And this is us as citizens first, with the call that has come out, we are inviting the women and the youth and all eligible members to apply for positions of member of parliament, counselor, and mayors. For us as citizens first, we have said 30% of the seats for the three categories are reserved for women. So those 30%, we have already blocked them, they are for the women. The 70% are the ones where we are now going to jostle between them, I mean, amongst the men, the youth, and the women. So women will also be in that 70%. Unless the women do not apply. But really, we are inviting the women to take interest and ensure that they apply. 30% is not a small number that was already been reserved for them. So this is where we are as citizens first, and uh the president wants the same to happen even when it comes to cabinet. We have 30% representation as a specific protocol so that we have that gender parity of at least a minimum of percent. And this is what I had expected Bill 7 to have been if since it was writing on the agenda of enhancing female participation in parliament. So please apply. You don't have to be a CF member, you can apply from wherever you are, just apply, and we are going to scrutinize. We have a very competent team of uh um uh committees that are in the committee that are going to look at the application. And uh, you'll be given a fair chance to be head, and you will tell us, and uh we will, I'm sure we'll pick most of the people that are going to apply. The citizens first is very ready to participate in this election. We had uh the citizens first actually has had two conventions since 2021. Ambassador Mwamba, two conventions. The first convention hosted in Indola uh was rejected by the Registrar of Societies. So we had to have another convention which we held on the 20 on the 7th December 2024. And uh from the 7th of December 2024, it was back and forth between us and the police, us and the inspector, us and the director general uh of uh Office of the Band, and us and the Registrar of Societies. We were only given a certificate, clearance certificate on the 25th of September 2025. So it took us nine and a half months to have the clearance certificate given. We are ready to participate in uh this uh the upcoming elections because we have that uh the clean bill that has been given to us from very strong societies.

SPEAKER_00 59:04

Sometimes I have a feeling that the opposition, you know, is in disarray. And of course, we know in some cases is sponsored, literally what I would call sponsored terrorism from the state, where the state has gone to destabilize the opposition. And uh as we go towards elections, this scares me. But you appear to put your house together. As you stated, the calendar is out next month. Each political or presidential candidate must find 1,000 members across the provinces, 200 each province, to submit to ECZ and to have those cleared before the nominations are to take place in May. Are you ready for these coming elections? And uh uh uh what are you doing to ensure that you consolidate because you have up to 12,150 polling stations that you may have to uh you know uh monitor. You have uh uh hundred and now the the the seats have been increased to 226 electable seats from 156, then you'll have of course 116 districts and 10 provinces. I am asking you because you are DSG, you must be part of you know the group that is making preparations for this.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:29

Thank you. Um the Citizens Fest has been preparing. I think from the last election, our president and the team has not rested. Straight from the 2021 election, the citizens first went into preparatory and planning and mobilization phase. So we have been doing these activities concurrently. We are in all the districts of Zambia. We continue to mobilize, and uh we also want to unite as an opposition. So we continue to have meetings with uh various uh uh opposition parties with the hope that uh we can get together and uh field uh one candidate. Uh yes, it's true that uh when we had our convention, we unanimously voted for President Hari Calava as the presidential candidate. And uh we are moving forward to that because we're remaining with uh one month. But as you've noted, the CF has put its house in order. So for the citizens' first party, we are ready to heed the campaign period from day one, knowing with our even our eyes closed, we'll be having water, we'll be drinking, we can have a cup of tea where we are, knowing very well that there is nothing that the government is going to find and fought uh our candidates with because the paperwork for us is complete. They themselves have given us a clear certificate and we are happy to go. So we are inviting, we are talking with our other political parties, we are not looking down on them, but uh we we are discussing that these are the circumstances that are on the ground, these are the scenarios that are on the ground. Let's get to work together, let's have some MOUs signed so that we work together for the common position of having the elections that are competed, uh competed for fairly. And also when you have a united opposition, I think it increases our uh chance of ensuring that we have victory in the first round. We don't want to go to the second round because we have a fragmented opposition, but we are happy to work together and have one common purpose and a common vehicle and a common president. We did engage with uh, we had been invited by the Council of Elders to participate and see if we can work uh with what was happening. Uh with uh of course some uh concerns there, and uh we asked them to provide some information. I think in particular, we thought that uh I think uh when you are working as a team, it's better you start from the scratch together as a team, put up the blueprint of the models of parandi, and also they decide you decide together on the electoral college. We had been invited when they had already done the electoral college, and uh we didn't know how the electoral college was. So we wrote to them, but I think in the process of communicating, time was lost, and they went ahead and had that election. So, as citizens first, we are truly happy to work with uh like-minded political parties, the political parties that have a heart for the people of Zambia, the political parties that want to make a difference in the lives of a Zambian, and the political parties that will always put a Zambian first, because for us as citizens first, a Zambian takes precedence. The life of each and every Zambian takes precedence. Even uh Ambassador Mamba, it's like uh when you're an ambassador, the opposition will come to you. They are your people, you welcome them. It's the same as being a president. The opposition comes to you, they are still your people. You must have their interest, their interest. So, for us as citizens, first, that is what it is. And we also want to tell our friends in government that they should not even worry about us because when we take over, we'll still consider them as Zambians and we'll teach them how to treat former leaders. We will show them that former leaders are not enemies. Former leaders is a source, they are a resource that you can actually utilize to build on the strength that they had, but also on their weaknesses. You don't throw away the baby with the bath water and say, When you already have the former leaders that are there, they are they are a resource that we should treasure. So, for us as citizens, first, this is what we stand. On. We want Zambia to unify and we want Zambia to be peaceful. Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:08

Um dear viewers, we are hosting Dr. Mwawa Kassese Bota, you know, a distinguished diplomat, and now she's joined in the fray of politics. She's currently Deputy Secretary General at Citizen Fest, the party that is led by Honorable Hari Kalawa. Um Honorable Hari Kalawa just won the opinion polls that we we conducted. He won one of the three opinion polls that we conducted and is readying himself for elections. Um I would invite you to ask, we'll take about three, four, five calls if you can. If you have any questions to Dr. Kasese Botta, if you have any questions, this is a time for you to call before we let aha go. This week is women's week, and we thought that we could pick women that have succeeded in our country that can be mentors even to our young girls that are growing up through the successes that they've scored. And Dr. Kasesibota demonstrates how from a humble background she rose to those prominent, prominent positions in the country, even went to Harvard University. She's been our ambassador at the United Nations in New York. If you have any questions for her, this is uh Women's Week. It yesterday our women were celebrating International Women's Day um with um the theme rights, justice, action for all women and girls.

unknown 1:07:48

Dr.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:48

Kasesaporta, I found while I was asking about yesterday's women's day celebrations that there were concerns at the event uh occurred on Sunday. Did you have those feelings? Did you have those concerns?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:05

You know, um International Women's Day is a very important function. It's a very important day. It's a day that has been celebrated since the Beijing, it was uh enacted through the Beijing conference. Uh it's just like Independence Day, you know, which is celebrated. It's just like Leper Day, which any other day that is or that we commemorate. From the time I was able to observe these uh days, uh important or national holidays, I have never seen a situation where people are forced to celebrate on a Sunday. And remember, Zambia is a Christian nation. In a Christian nation, you ask people to forgo Christian activities. You know. In Zambia, I think uh over, we can safely say that uh over 70% of uh the Christians in Zambia actually worship on Sunday, you know. And this has been the tradition from the days of President Kawunda. And it's not only in Zambia. I've also noticed even in other countries that uh when a holiday falls on a Sunday, you do not get to commemorate on a Sunday. You commemorate it the following day, the next waking day, which is a Monday. And this is how it has been. So today, Women's Day is so important. It's a day to unify. It's a day when you see the pastors, female pastors, female reverends, the Christians getting together to mix with our leaders in government, our leaders in the opposition, get together and show the attitude and the beauty of a woman. Yesterday, that unity was divided, deliberately divided, you know, because people opted to go to church and they celebrated in churches, in their individual churches. Others, yes, they got out and managed, went to match with their leadership. But is that how it should be? I think our leadership needs to have a bit of sensitivity to the cultural and the social demands of certain decisions that are being made. Yesterday, for me, is a violation of the Christian nation line, where we say Zambia is a Christian nation. And in a Christian nation, you just this leadership just decided today we are we are going to match. How did this even happen? What is it that they needed to do today that they could not bring the holiday to today? Yes, the holiday was still brought to today. If the IPs were not going to be available, they should learn to delegate. Leadership positions are transitory. You delegate if you are not available. Let your deputy go and officiate. You don't hold the nation to ransom and say, today we must have this celebration done today. I think this one, our friends have really got it wrong. And I know that the Zambian Christians are not happy about it. The church is not happy about it. They should have done what we have always done. We celebrate and march today so that we are together with the pastors, we are together with the female reverence, we are together with the female clergy and the religious institution uh organizations. Instead of having everyone is at their own church and that's where they are commemorating Women's Day. Why? It has never happened.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:29

Indeed, indeed. Yeah, thank you. I've got a team that is that is out there at Dr. Kasese Botas will be allowing it to transition. Um before we come to your conclusion, to your concluding remarks, just encourage that girl that could be in difficult circumstances, circumstances, and they are telling her that they will not succeed. Encourage that young lady that is in you know starting a career and things appear very difficult to be successful where you are. People think it's just easy, like you just walked into a path of an ambassador, into a path of a medical doctor, into a path, you know, to Harvard, and now you know you are comfortable in the citizen first. Encourage that young girl that aspired to be successful in our country, despite the very difficult challenges that face both girls and women in our country.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:35

Thank you. Um, I think it's very true as you've uh observed. When people see you, they think that your life has been all rosy. But uh it wasn't. For me, as I have said, I started Shambori. My father was a miner. But people used to sing that shonko no, you know. Yeah. So this is and we used to enjoy the gampompo that our dads used to bring from there. And actually, for us, I think the times were also the extended family was so much that uh you would not even sleep in your bed. I think every day, I mean you give them bed, bed, bed. This is where we started from also. You know, we started just like you, where you are. For me, my parents also divorced when uh I was quite young, and uh I actually faced the the world of uh the two worlds, the world of poverty with my mother, where she was. You know, and uh I also remember how when I was at my mom's place, Takuna sugar, you know, and you climb a mango tree and get a leaf, and you start eating the porridge with that leaf, you know. So this is the life that I have led. Yes, I had on the other side where my dad was, I was very comfortable. But on my mother's side, every time I visited her, I wasn't, but she was still my mother, and I still opted my nature. And I only can I was even getting fat, I could then weather would be slim, where I was eating well and I was kept well. But this is how life is, and I persevered, you know. I went, of course, uh through all those things. So even you, my dear young lady, a woman who is out there, education has no limit, it has no end. Just keep improving yourself, and one day you can you you are going to get it right. Uh, of course, it's important that you concentrate on school and uh also ensure that uh Zambia is a Christian nation and uh uh Christianity also helps us. It more helps to mold us, and uh you will you will get it right. You will get it right. Just be focused, you know what to be, and that should be your goal. Don't be sidetracked, look at your friends are doing well here and there. Even you want to be like them, you'll never reach your destination. Be focused on what you want to be, and that should be your goal, and that is where your eyes should be.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:44

Oh, powerful, powerful. No, I you know, I I I I always um love the saying about a bee, Ulushimu. You know, Ulushimu, scientifically, that bee cannot fly. It's too big, the body is too big, the wings are too small, you know, to map too, no, no. But the bee flies. So it doesn't matter what the challenges are, you can fly. Even when they tell you that you can't fly, read about the story of the bumblebee. All science says it shouldn't fly, but it flies and flies very well. Um, give us your last remarks, um, Doc, and your aspirations uh for the Citizen First. Have you picked a constituency yourself? Where are you? And uh give us your closing remarks. Oh, by the way, I love your comments about unity of the opposition. This is what we've been striving that the opposition should unite. It's a pity that things don't come together. Because even in unity they remain fragmented. Because, for example, you have uh Dr. Fred Membe with um you know uh uh uh the the grouping uh the People's Pact, you have what happened yesterday with the Council of Elders, another small grouping, you know, today FDD has been uh elected as president. Even in attempts to come to be united, we seem divided. Uh, and I'm glad that you you've you've stated that for Citizen First, the door remains open, that you as a leadership are still willing, even in this late hour, to work and collaborate with others. Those were powerful remarks about Unity. But give us your last remarks.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:32

Thank you. Um thank you so much for hosting me. I am really honored, Ambassador Mamba. I never thought I could ever feature on uh your podcast. It's a very prestigious podcast, and uh thank you. I really appreciate it. Uh, as Citizens Fest, we are very happy to work with you to promote the interest of each and every Zambian. That is why the name is Citizens Fest. You matter wherever you are, even if you are in UPND, when it comes to Citizens Fest, you matter. So I would encourage everyone out there, first they should do their voter verification so that they can participate in the election on the 13th of August. We need to work together. We invite, we also invite you to join Citizens First Party. Citizens First Party is your party. So come and work with us. We are a listening party, we are a very flexible party, and we have a president who is a Zambian, a president who is a Christian, a president who is a proud Catholic, a president who is a proud former seminarian. You know, he did six years of priesthood, huh? Yes, I see him.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:06

I was privileged when I hosted him on um the conversation podcast. That's when I learned that it was a seminarian, almost did almost seven years.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:17

Yes, yes. So this is the uh a president who is he he loves Zambia, and the president who has this is something else that also identifies him. He is intolerance to corruption, you know. So Zambia, we are seeing a lot of corruption. Corruption seems to be increasing, especially at the moment. We are seeing um deals that are being done by those walking the corridors of power. But we know that when President Hari Kalaba comes in, all that will stop. President Kalaba wants you and I to have equal access to the nation's resources. Those of you who will not be in cabinet and in government to participate on a level footing with your competitive commodities for government contracts and services. And he is on record to say that any contract that is uh worth 20 million and under those who be for Zambians, they will not be given to foreigners. So we have somebody and his team that is ready to make Zambians millionaires and billionaires. We have a president who will say that come, we work together and change the fortunes of this country for the betterment of the citizens of Zambia today and the generations to come in the future. So please come and join us under President Ari Kalama. Our symbol is uh a tree, a tree of life, a tree where you can get everything. It gives you the shade, but it also gives you the fruits and the wisdom that you can uh get also from the Bible. So we are very happy to work with each and every Zambian, whatever you are, to promote the interest of a Zambian, to eradicate uh the so-called illegal miners, because we believe that a Zambian can never be an illegal minor when the mine, the minerals are for the every Zambian. We want to eradicate the overcrowding in uh schools that we are currently seeing, and we want to create jobs. So uh I'll give you my number so that uh if you are interested, I can send you our manifesto. Our manifesto is very forward-looking and uh it's also uh very focused on uh uh job creation and uh the uh job creation, most especially for the youth and the women folk. It's looking at uh innovating with Zambia, it's looking at reducing the cost of doing business for a Zambian and the cost of productivity for a common man, especially those that are in agriculture. So I'm happy to give you my number if you allow me, Ambassador Mamba.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:36

Yes, yes, please, you can say, you can say it, but before you give your last number, let me, there's something you had said in passing which was very important, that um the late president, Zambia sixth president, uh honorable, I mean President, His Excellency, President Edgar Chagualungu, remains unburied to date. His motto remains, they've not been put to rest. And you said it's a shame for a country to be attared. I think being Women's Day, Women's Week, and feeling for the widow, I don't know. I think you can just expand your thoughts in closing. They're not the end of the your your thoughts, and you can give uh the uh uh you know people that wish us to reach you as as a part, you give them your number.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:20

Thank you. Uh uh, you know, um cherryo kufina kufina wunfu say I think this is a saying that we have, you know. I think by the way we have reached, we all know the burden of losing your beloved one. You know, we have all tested the uh the burden of somebody close to us dying. But we I cannot claim that I've tested the burden of losing your husband in the manner that Madame Esther is. It is, it must be worse. It must be worse, you know. And I think we need to revisit the humanity that has always defined us as Zambians. I think I did talk about the fact that Zambians have always celebrated the sharing of uh success and the sharing of grief. I also talked about how I saw President Akainde Ichleema going to kneel, humbling himself before the uh uh Madam uh former First Lady Madam Christine Kasaba when she lost her beloved husband, her President uh Michael Chushia Sata. This is the Zambia that we want to see. So please, President Edgar Chakolungu deserves to be buried. He deserves to be buried. The family needs to have rest. I did say that this issue is no longer about who is right and who is wrong. This issue is indicting the leadership of Zambia. This issue has put an indictment on you and I. And the only people who can actually free us from this indictment is the government. The government must allow President Edgar Chagwalungu to be buried in any way the family decides they want to bury. We are not saying the family is right to bury him the way they want. We are not saying the government is wrong to allow the family to bury him the way they want. What we are saying is it is the only humane and right thing to do. Let us bury President Ed Gachwalungu. No one is going to be wrong, and no one is going to be right in this matter. This matter is about getting Zambia to where we were, where we respected the dead. The Zambia that is rich in its social and cultural understanding of issues and the respect of our cultural diversity, but also just the rich traditions that we have always had and celebrated. No Zambian has been kept in the fridge for nine months, except maybe for the royal leader leadership, because for them that is what is done. But even there, they are not kept in the fridge. There is a way where they do certain traditions that are done. That truth is kept in the family. The family is relieving the laws every morning. And again, I'm not saying the family is right or the family is wrong. All I am saying is let us bury the president. Endica both. In the way the family wants him buried. So that they can have closure. The Zambian people can have closure. The Zambian government can also have closure. It's not the issue of right and wrong. It is the right thing to do to bury him. That is the only thing that is right. It is about him being buried. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:28:50

Thank you, Doc. You can give the party's number where people can reach you, then we close the broadcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:57

Okay. My number is 0977-804211. 0977-804211.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:11

Thank you, Doc, and thank you for your time and thank you for inviting my team in your house. Thank you for the tea and the carpent and the Shima. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:23

Thank you, Ambassador. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:25

Thank you. God bless you. Indeed, dear viewers, thank you very much. We have a power-packed week. We have lined up women. I think one or two have uh honored the invitation. Uh uh, this is women's week, and also we might celebrate it with some youth leaders because you know, women's week follows youth leaders. And then we have some uh powerful uh uh uh uh guests, special guests that we are hosting this week. Today we're hosting uh Dr. Muaba Kasese Bota, an epidemiologist, very you know, very distinguished medical doctor in our field up to Harvard University, and she was Zambia's top diplomat. She was at the United Nations for a period of over five years, where she served as Zambia's ambassador to the United Nations, and you know, there were various roles that she she played. And it's women's week. She's from Citizen First, she took time to speak about uh the candidates and the preparations uh of uh both uh President Harikalawa and her party as we go to elections. My warning to the opposition: there is no time just in the next few days, 30 days, you have the presidential candidate has to submit 1,000 supporters just in the next 30 days. Then in May, they have to go for nominations, and within a period of five days, the ECZ will demonstrate which uh candidates are valid. It becomes a crucial time. There's no time to play. Uh I began with congratulating John Sangwa, who has reached the one million milestone of collecting signatures and his movement for national renewal is uh says they will participate in national elections in the coming presidential and uh and general elections. And I was praying that as a transition to a political party, I hope that they have enough time to beat the ECZ calendar that has been issued. Engineer Ape Bo Simba was elected by an initiative being promoted by a council of elders. Uh we we have FDD president Chfung Banda, who was vice president, has just held um a conference today, and FDD elected him as FDD president. And their calls on the UPND, they stopped the provincial conferences before next month they are supposed to have held the general conference. This is a fundamental requirement. It's a national requirement of our Republican constitution that you must have held an intra-party conference before you participate in the general election. The UPND have not held one, and we are seeing senior leaders in the party begin to whisper because President Naga in HLM halted the process to pick uh you know, first they're supposed to have provincial conferences, district, provincial, and then they have the national conference. And to date, a few days before we start the electoral process for 2026, nothing has been done. Many of you are saying I'm over PF Mufkakui. If I should have a PF, I'll leave it to Celestine Mukandel. I'm trying to host him. He comes and tells you where they are with all these challenges. So God bless you. We have a number of guests this week, and we hope that you will join us.

SPEAKER_05 1:33:27

We want change, we want change, we want change, we want the change Gala money, yeah, but this sounds a mission one. Why did you tell the book that you want to pay up with me? What did you do about the boy? I've got the money, I don't mind about it on the battery, that's what's the bottom, but my little pick up, you put out the chat, but it's a big way, too, the baby, no baby, but if we're gonna be bought, melee la mano, la bouteille d'abanda, pourquoi tu as dit, coupé, coupéba, y'a pas beau, c'est pour la booker, allez coup de pizza, but it's a baby, I'm not gonna be able to do it, but I went up to the baby.