By Kombe Mataka
FORMER home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo has reminded the UPND that they were voted in office to “fix” the problems of citizens and not to fix citizens themselves.
He also disclosed that unlike the bragging UPND,
the IMF and PF failed to agree on the issues of price of fuel, electricity and the price of farming inputs.
“We didn’t fail. We were just resolved that what they wanted us to put in the deal, we could not agree because we had been on that route before. ‘Tighten your belts’, we had been there in MMD’s time,” Kampyongo said.
Speaking when he featured on Radio Mano FM in Kasama on Saturday, Kampyongo who is Shiwang’andu PF member of parliament accused the UPND of pleasing foreign investors at the expense of Zambians.
“There is no government which tells the people to sort their problems on their own. Yes, indeed the price of fuel on the international market has gone up. I think by now it is at [US $] 92.2 per barrel, which is an increment of two per cent but what resources do we also have? It is copper. The mineral we mine in this country. It is now at $11,000 per metric tonne. So we can’t say we don’t have where to look at all. These are ideas we are giving. We were in office,” he said.
“We can’t rejoice in the suffering of Zambians. Who can rejoice? Here where we all are when you woke up people are asking for help from the little that you have. Everyone is affected and it is not like we are rejoicing when the cost of living has become unbearable. There is no medicine in hospitals. No one is happy. The government must figure out how to help the citizens. We have a record high of copper prices on the international market so as we are buying fuel at a high price, why can’t we also sell copper at a high price? This can give us something to work with. Now it is like they want to please the mining investors. We told them to manage the mineral royalty tax well because it is where we also benefit from. That is what God gave us.”
Kampyongo urged President Hakainde Hichilema to think critically on possible solutions to the prevailing economic and social challenges.
“What we need is for them to think critically. President Hakainde was saying [former] president [Edgar] Lungu did not know what he was doing. He said ‘when I come into State House, in the morning the dollar will lose its power, by afternoon, the kwacha will appreciate and prices of fuel will go down’. So it is better he comes back and tell Zambians that ‘I didn’t deliver on my promise’. If we get a lot of money from minerals, we can subsidise fuel for our citizens,” he said.
“This is the fixing the government was promising Zambians. It is not to fix people. Like my colleague said about the mines, us (PF) we were resolved even this thing they were calling IMF, which they were bragging that we sealed the deal while we failed. We didn’t fail. We were just resolved that what they wanted us to put in the deal, we could not agree because we had been on that route before. ‘Tighten your belts!’ we had been there in MMD’s time. What was difficult over the IMF and PF failing to agree was the issue of the price of fuel and the price of farming inputs. What we call FISP programme and price of electricity. These three things are the ones we failed to agree on. We told them, us (PF) we have people that farm. Vulnerable farmers. We said fertiliser was expensive for our small-scale farmers. But our friends did it quickly. They signed and started celebrating.”
He said with an IMF deal fuel prices would continue to escalate.
“Now with that package, the price of fuel will never come down. Input distribution should go up to March in Kasama surely? Here people have even rejected the inputs and asked government to come and pick them up. You can get frustrated. Even the price of electricity will increase very soon. There is no medicine in hospital. Minister [Health Sylvia Masebo] you have worked in many regimes; we were telling you there was no medicine. Can sickness wait for medicine? It is today, I was hearing that medicines came in on Thursday, and it will be distributed in five districts. So we were not lying when we said there was no medicine,” said Kampyongo.
“We are not frustrated. Politics is like a game of football. This one passes on to another. Today one can be on top, the other day another…Tomorrow PF can come back. It is the people who will say. So government must pay attention.”