By Oliver Chisenga
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema should concentrate on uniting the country, says Kennedy Kamba.
Commenting on last week’s arrest of senior Patriotic Front leaders by law enforcement agencies, Kamba, who was chairman of the dissolved Lusaka Province PF committee, said the UPND government has started doing exactly what it complained about under the former ruling party.
He said the UPND should instead focus on delivering on its campaign promises.
“Our colleagues should concentrate on the various issues already affecting the Zambian people. Today we are talking about the issues regarding Indeni [oil refinery]. Why are they selling Indeni back to the whites? Why are they selling the mines? Why are they selling back the mines to Anglo-American? The Zambian people started managing it well, the mine suppliers were being paid, people were not losing employment at KCM,” Kamba charged. “So why should we give them back Mopani and Konkola Copper Mines? What now are they telling the Zambian people? What’s the justification?”
He said the arrest of senior PF officials was meant to instill fear in the former ruling party.
Last Tuesday, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) jointly charged and arrested former foreign affairs minister Joseph Malanji and former secretary to the treasury Fredson Yamba for failure to comply with the law whilst they served in public office. Malanji was also charged with possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime. He was released on bail on Friday.
Also last week, police arrested former home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo for allegedly “endangering the safety of civil aircraft in flight or service with its passengers on board”.
Kampyongo, who is also Shiwang’andu PF member of parliament, was formally charged with six others for the offence which is alleged to have been committed at Kalalantekwe School ground in Shiwang’andu district in January 2015. Kampyongo was granted K50,000 bail after being in police custody since Wednesday.
Kamba however claimed that the charges were trumped-up and politically motivated.
“Those cases are not going anywhere. They [government] are just politicking and instilling fear in the Zambian people especially those who are perceived to be pro-PF, the senior members of the party,” Kamba said. “Those charges are not going anywhere. What is there is to instill fear and if they concentrate on that, how are they going to govern? How are they going to deliver on what they promised the Zambian people?”
Kamba further urged the UPND government to invest enough money in Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia so that farmers can have cheaper fertiliser.
“… those are the issues which are very important. I can foresee that by next June there will be a shortage of mealie-meal. There will be shortage of electricity as most Zambians will be buying it at a very high price owing to the high tariffs, and there will be a shortage of fuel. People are not going to manage to buy a litre of fuel due to the high price, especially if they [government] remove the subsidies. Those are the critical issues to deal with not this persecution,” he said.
Reminded that the PF in government routinely persecuted and jailed UPND members and other political opponents, Kamba said, “two wrongs can never make a right.”
“Let President Hakainde Hichilema unite the country. We don’t want to be led as if there are two types of citizens in this country, those for PF and those for UPND. That’s not the country we want to see,” Kamba said. “We want to see a united country now regardless of which political party they belong to. Let each and everyone be treated equally. These are politics, let them sober up and unite the country.”
Two weeks ago, acting PF secretary general Nickson Chilangwa dissolved the party’s Lusaka Province executive, citing alleged “indiscipline”. Kamba subsequently claimed that the Patriotic Front was engulfed in hatred and division.
“… there is a lot of bitterness and no forgiveness in the party,” said Kamba. “If president Michael Sata had this kind of bitterness, we would have not formed government in 2011.”-The Mast