Antonio Mwanza sets ZESCO on fire…over blackouts, calls President Hichilema a ´liar´
By a Correspondent
15.12.22
“Recently President Hichilema claimed credit for building the Kazungulu bridge that connects Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia and yet it was built under the administration of predecessor President Edgar Lungu.” Antonio Mwanza.
Antonio Mwanza, the Media Director of the main opposition Patriotic Front (PF) has challenged ZESCO management and President Hichilema to come clean on the pending country wide power blackouts that shall affect all Zambians.
Mwanza said the truth is that President Hichilema and his government including ZESCO have failed on their promises to deliver Zambians out of poverty and end inefficient delivery of power.
“The reality is that we will experience load shedding because ba gulisa (they ´Hichilema´ and team are selling power abroad) ma light ku Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Congo,” said Mwanza.
Mwanza said, “I challenge ZESCO boss Victor Mapani and his board chair Victor Ncube to deny that they are on record saying ZESCO or Zambia has an excess of 1200MW of power and that peak time demand is about 2000 MW while the total if 3,456 MW.”
Mwanza says if the case is that ZESCO has excess power thanks to the massive investment in the energy sector of almost US$4 billion under the previous administration of President Edgar Lungu, why then should Zambians be subjected to load shedding?
The opposition spokesman said the problem was not water levels at the Kariba Dam but the “problem is President “Sammy” Hichilema is a liar as you can tell from the fact that when he assumed office, he claimed he had finished load shedding within a year which is a lie yet again. He even lied that he built the Kazungula Bridge when he did not. Lies is the biggest problem President Sammy Hichilema has and now his lies are catching up with him.”
Recently President Hichilema claimed credit for building the Kazungulu bridge that connects Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia and yet it was built under the administration of predecessor Edgar Lungu, said Mwanza, a university graduate and former lecturer before joining politics as well as former university student leader.
President Hichilema also claimed that he alone had stopped chronic power supplies in Zambia within a year of assuming office which is also factually false because the almost US$ 4 billion invested in the energy between 2011-2021 was done by the previous PF government.
Some other issues Mwanza raised was the lack of drugs in all hospitals in Zambia, the expensive cost of food and fuel and agro inputs, the late delivery of agro inputs and the rise in graft in the new dawn ruling party.
Mwanza also lamented the fact that President Hichilema ´favoured´ foreign business as opposed to local business going by the fact that local business owed almost K6 billion by government, remain unpaid their cheques because Mr Hichilema suspects that they belong to the previous ruling party led by President Edgar Lungu.
Mr Mwanza however warned President Hichilema that it’s not the opposition that will shorten his stay in office but the millions of hungry Zambians that can’t have one square meal a day.
The people that shall suffer more over the power cuts are ordinary people Zambians that work in barber shops, salons and market restaurants according to Mr Mwanza since they cant afford diesel generators or solar alternatives.
The full interview is available on 5FM radio Facebook page.
Source: 5FM Radio.