And Dr Kaseba says if the PF is willing to listen, she will be able to give them advice at an appropriate time because doing so now will be like “pulling in the other direction” as there are so many people advising the ruling party.
In an interview, following revelations that she was evicted from 8 Reedbuck Lodge after the government stopped paying rentals for her, Michael Sata’s widow, who has since shifted to her mother’s house in Libala, said she had always known that “nothing is permanent”.
“I have been here for almost a month now. I just said ‘Aah!… he wrote me on his own, Clive (the landlord). I just said I am not going to sign it, I am not the tenant. I just decided to move, I did not want to stay. It’s okay, I am fine, I am getting love. I am being taken care of and have no hard feelings over whatever happened. It is life, such things happen,” Dr Kaseba said.
“I keep saying these jobs, one day somebody is there, the next person will be there as well. Nothing is permanent. For the time being, I will be here. Some people have come to compel me to move, but I will be here until such a time when I am ready to start looking for a house.” She went on to narrate how she was evicted from 8 Reedbuck Lodge.
“I told the driver to go and hand over the keys. When he (the landlord) wrote the letter, I enquired from Cabinet Office, and they told me that the landlord had apologised. But I said he hasn’t withdrawn the letter. He wrote to me, and not to you (the government), which he should have done because you are the tenant. So if he has apologised, he hasn’t apologised to me. I take it that his letter still stands,” Dr Kaseba narrated.
“They (Cabinet Office) had gotten the letter earlier than me, but the letter was addressed to me and copied to them (government). So when I got the letter, I rang them (Cabinet Office), and they said, ‘Let’s see what we can do, we will get back to you’. But they never got back to me. And that time I was travelling, and I didn’t want to find ninshi nabafumya ifipe, nabaposa panse (they have removed my belongings and thrown them outside). And I think they actually realised that I was moving out.”
And Dr Kaseba narrated how late president Sata decided to form the Patriotic Front at her mother’s house in Libala. “The idea of PF was mooted under a tree outside, right here. When he resigned from MMD, I was here. So he rings and says, ‘Where are you?’ And I said I am at mum’s place. So he came and said okay, the next thing, I saw him coming and gave me a letter. Nomba I started thinking, I go through the same things we went through when he resigned from UNIP. I just said awe, with what we went through, nakabili tutampe ukulapitanamo. Why didn’t you talk to me before you resigned? And he said, ‘I have already made up my mind’,” she narrated.
And they started chatting here, you know. Dad advised him to form a party. And even the names of the party, they started discussing, outside.” Dr Kaseba said she was happy to be “back to the roots”.
“So I keep saying I have come back to the roots where the party was formed. I am at peace. Many people don’t even know where the party was formed. The idea was mooted here. Dad encouraged him, dad even blessed him, you know, and said go ahead,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dr Kaseba said she would be available to offer advice to the PF if they will be willing to listen.
“For the time being, this period of quietness has been good on my part. And I guess when the time is ripe and when people are ready to listen, if they want to listen, we will advise them. This time, it will be like you are pulling the other direction, this one this way, the other one the other way,” Dr Kaseba said.
“Sometimes you’ve got to sit back to actually see where the problem is. And then once you identify where the problem is, then you can intervene. But maybe then, people will be ready to listen. Kaili ino nshita there are so many people advising, too many people talking about the party. Each person has their own input on how they see the party going and it’s good to give somebody space to carve out their own identity and see where the party is going. If these people are willing, if they want to know more about the PF, I will be able to tell them about what the old man’s (Michael Sata) thoughts were about PF, what he saw and the way the party should be run.”
She said she was still hopeful that the PF would deliver if it followed the agenda enshrined in the manifesto.
She said she was still hopeful that the PF would deliver if it followed the agenda enshrined in the manifesto. “The PF manifesto is like a 10-year development plan. I know people were laughing saying, ‘the way it is written, it is such a simplistic manifesto’. But this is what he wanted; something which will be simple for people to understand, instead of writing a manifesto in that legal language. It is very easy to understand, and if only they could even just apply it. If somebody just looks at it, it is like a 10-year development plan. But I have hope that the PF will deliver according to the manifesto,” said Dr Kaseba.