AGRO-FUEL SCANDAL: THE BACK STOPS AT HICHILEMA
Usually, we follow Winston Churchill’s advice: “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” But these dogs seem to have rabies and must be put out.
The Zambian Watchdog, an online guerrilla media outfit, ran by the State House press office, has been trying to throw innuendos at me over the Agro-Fuel scandal.
For starters, it’s shocking that the Zambian Watchdog should maliciously be drawing or targeting us in their internal fight over this scandal. We find it shocking because the questions they’re asking us could be better answered by their boss, Mr Hakainde Hichilema. Let them ask Mr Hichilema where the money they made from superprofits for fuel has gone. It’s his government, after all, that gave Agro-Fuel the contract, not us.
This government has made millions of Zambians suffer because of this highly corrupt, reckless, and selfish deal. Many people today are failing to feed their families because the cost of living is too high. The prices of food have escalated from the time the fuel prices went up. Their greed has increased the cost of living. They deliberately increased the price of fuel through this deal so that they can reap off the country, and now that they have made their monies, they have collected more than enough they want to reduce the price of fuel for election purposes.
They had planned to reap off the country and then reduce the fuel prices in an election year, which they’ll increase after the elections should they be re-elected, and start the cycle of reaping off the country again. They’re shameless crooks!
We were telling them about this dubious deal, and they were calling us names. Today, after they have collected enough, they want to include us in their dirty deeds. Abalile isabi nibambi bese bashile ifwe uluche? Iyo nakalya, tafyabombe! They’re thieves, and they know it themselves.
I have never spoken to or met Shashi Patel, the owner of Agro-Fuel, not even through a proxy. They can ask him. We don’t collect kickbacks like them. We are decent revolutionaries with sufficient honour and integrity. If they know people who have gotten money from Shashi, why don’t they arrest them? Why do they want to smear us with their filth when they know the truth?
The problem here is not even Shashi Patel and Agro-Fuel. It’s themselves. They gave him the contract. Agro-Fuel didn’t give themselves that contract. They did. So, why do they want to involve us? If Shashi has done anything wrong, why are they not arresting him? They can’t because they are part of this scandal.
Further, why is Mr Hichilema and his government quiet over this scandal? Why is there no explanation from him? Since we raised the red flag on this deal, nobody has been arrested. No Minister of Energy has been fired. When the issue got hot, Mr Peter Kapala was simply transferred to another ministry. No permanent secretary of energy has been fired, and no director at the Ministry of Energy has been fired, too.
So, what is the Zambian Watchdog on about? The back stops at Mr Hichilema. Let them ask him questions about this deal. Let them take their nonsense to him.
This is their internal fight since there is no honour amongst thieves, and they must keep us out of it.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party