Mr Miles Sampa never ceases to amuse us. If there is one politician who knows how to blunder, surely, this man deserves a medal for his consistent self-inflicted humiliation.
At this stage, we are not sure if His Worship the Mayor is wallowing in political naivety or this is a manifestation of a man who has failed to find his lost identity. We are wondering if Mr Sampa knows what he stands for in life any more. What we are certain of is that he has traded his dignity for, God knows what. We can sense a loss of social intelligence around him.
What are we talking about? On Tuesday, our Mayor of Lusaka went to attend to complaints from women in Matero Township who sought his intervention in a displacement wrangle. After inspecting the area, he found that indeed, the poor women had been displaced from their trading space by senior PF cadres; and he went ahead to halt construction works.
On his way back to the office, a mob of “hired PF cadres” waylaid him in an ambush and held him hostage while threatening to kill him if he ever tried again to tamper with their activities in the Constituency.
After the incident, a portion of Mr Sampa’s brain told him that what the PF thugs had done to him was criminal and unacceptable. So he took two courses of action. First he decided to narrate the ordeal to international and local media and also chose to posture with a gun on social media in order to scare off the unruly cadres.
“I was kidnapped and held hostage for close to one hour by thugs who were about 20 or so. The thugs came out drunk and threatened violence on me, pushing me and said ‘we’ll kill you, we voted for you [and] what you are doing now is unacceptable.’ They were claiming that they were representing those who had interest in that land that I went to inspect,” said Mr Sampa
“In the morning, I realised that they could have killed me over nothing, I am only trying to do my job. But I have bought a gun, it’s not the only one, I have other guns as well for my protection when my life is in danger. I am even going to join the gym now and start lifting weights and I will start boxing”
We are going to be very helpful to the Mayor of Lusaka by telling him what his close relatives and friends may be uncomfortable to say to his face. Mr Mayor sir, you have succeeded to convert yourself into a city clown, and you must not blame people for laughing at you because you chose this path.
Listen Mr Mayor, you cannot say the PF thugs would have killed you for nothing, unless you are really ignorant about the position that you have found yourself in today. They would have killed you for attempting to reintroduce law and order which the PF discarded a long time ago.
Did you really think that in your absence the PF had magically transformed itself to be a law-abiding party? You thought you could just return and become the hero of the city by giving civic orders to those thugs?
This is why we were laughing at all your campaign promises, because you were tabulating them as if someone promised you super powers. You said you were going to chase away the cadres from the bus stations; let’s see you do it. You said the council would regain control of the markets, they are waiting for you. You promised that there would be no more land grabbing in the Capital City; well, Matero has given you a warning shot.
This is the PF bwana. If you don’t agree with their ways of doing things, get out of that seat before they kill you because those threats are not empty. Don’t even dare incite them by posturing with that gun because you will cause another by-election if you are playing.
And by the way, the cadres should be the least of your problems because you have people within the party hierarchy who are deeply unhappy with your return. Your election as Mayor only added salt to their injury and your struggle has only just begun.
You lost this battle when you decided to lose sight of your principles. The day you decided to satisfy personal interests is the day that karma started following you.
Look at the humiliation you are subjecting yourself to from your bootlicking rival called Bowman Lusambo. How can you apologise for being abducted? You say the thugs held you hostage while physically abusing you for an hour, but you are ordered to say sorry to your aggressors. How can that be normal in any society? Anyway, you prepared the bed Mr Mayor, it’s now time to lie in it.