Royality vs Loyality

Traditional leaders who allow themselves to be allies of certain politician parties do not understand their role in society.

Royality is an inborn right to reign over the subjects of a given chiefdom or kingdom.

The subjects have no choice as to who rules them. The royal establishment decides for them.

Traditional rulers, such as the current Litunga of Barotseland, who maintain their royal identity, should therefore be saluted.

Political loyality, on the other hand, is based on a personal preference for a party. This is shown by the support of the policies of that party.

In Zambia the unfortunate development is that political loyality is generally not based on principle. The "brown envelope" mentality has taken the centre stage of the political arena.

That's why we have witnessed a number of people drifting from one party to the other without shame.

A number of them have changed their political alliance to as many parties as the number of governments that have been in existence since independence.

Some critics refer to such people as political "prostitutes".
Subjects of traditional leaders have a right to belong to political parties of their own choice without external influence. This is in line with the multi-party system of the country.

If traditional leaders publicly show their support for any political party, they are unwittingly encouraging the following probems.

1) Their subjects will be divided between those who support their political alliance and those not supporting it.

At one time in the past, some traditional rulers accepted political posts such as Member of the Central Committee of a ruling party. This brought a lot of confusion in their areas.

2) They loose the respect of their subjects and hence undermine their birthright to reign over them.

It is therefore not befitting for any traditional leader to show solidarity with any political party.