I SEE NO REASON WHY HH SHOULD NOT BE ALLIANCE’S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
…if indications are showing UPND is more popular, says Kambwili
By Patson Chilemba
I see no reason why Hakainde Hichilema should not be the presidential candidate of the alliance if indications are showing that UPND is the most popular opposition party, says National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader Chishimba Kambwili.
According to Daily Revelation, Kambwili says he saw no need why opposition UPND leader Hichilema should not lead the opposition alliance if indications were clear that his party was the biggest opposition organization.
He said he hoped the irresponsibility which led to the breakup of the pact in 2011 between the PF of Michael Sata and UPND, would not repeat itself.
Kambwili explains that there should not be issues such as those in 2011 about which party was a bigger ahead of the 2021 elections.
He said in 2011 Sata and Hichilema argued that they were both better positioned to lead the pact, but that if Hichilema had agreed to be vice-president then, he would be Republican President right now.
“And I advise that that should not happen, as long as it is an alliance based on truthfulness,” Kambwili said. “If the indications are that UPND is the biggest party, I see no reason why HH should not lead the alliance.”
Kambwili said in a genuine election there was no way the PF could defeat his party on the Copperbelt, Luapula, Northern and Muchinga provinces, just as they could not defeat the UPND in the other areas, saying uniting the opposition vote would concretise their gains.
He said those who were saying they would go it alone, were cheating themselves and were being sponsored by the ruling party.
Kambwili said the recent losses suffered by the opposition in ward by-elections were cosmetic, as the ruling PF was using hunger and starvation to bribe the electorates with mealie meal and other stuff.
He called out People for Economic Progress (Pep) president Sean Tembo for cheating himself, claiming he could not even garner four people to attend his rally if he called one on the Copperbelt.
“You know mu opposition mwaliba confidence yabupemfu (some people in the opposition can have the confidence, stubbornness like that of cockroaches),” Kambwili said.
Kambwili said there was an urgent need to change government as the country had now gone to the dogs, where even cadres were now crying wolf, wolf, “ba Bowman uyu (traffic police officer) alelanda ati ba President tabakapite (this one is saying the President won’t win) and the officer gets transferred to Western Province in an instant without even hearing his side of the story.”
He said Zambians were docile in that wrongs were being committed right before their eyes but they were quiet, and when people like himself who were being prosecuted for talking spoke out, citizens could not come in to help them.
Kambwili questioned the absurdity of Presidential Affairs minister Freedom Sikazwe’s claim that the cost for constructing a toilet had been exaggerated in Mpulungu, something which moved the President to say people were just raising corruption issues with his ministers. He said instead of doing something about it, President Lungu seemed excited with what Sikazwe was saying.
He further said a minister, like Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo, who was just a pauper yesterday had now gotten filthy rich, and making huge donations all over and yet the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was ndwii, quiet.
Kambwili also said people must take certain matters into account before accusing those in the opposition of sleeping, citing the recent example where a prosecutor for country’s prime investigations agency (ACC) cleared Health minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya over the corruption charges he is facing before the courts of law.
“They tell us the man has been suspended. If indeed he has been suspended what action has government taken? It simply means the man committed perjury,” he said.