KALABA INVITES ’EMBATTLED ’ PF MEMBERS TO JOIN CITIZEN FIRST PARTY

KALABA INVITES ’EMBATTLED ’ PF MEMBERS TO JOIN CF

CITIZENS First President Harry Kalaba has invited PF members to join his party, stressing that he will reach out to them in good faith and focus on removing President Hakainde Hichilema.

He has compared his political journey to that of Joseph in the Bible, saying that just as Joseph was sold by his brothers but later positioned by God to provide for them during famine, his own 2017 departure from the party has prepared him to now welcome the PF into Citizens First.

Appearing on 5FM, Monday, Kalaba said PF members facing challenges and moving from one ‘house’ to another are welcome to join Citizens First.

“You know I want to tell my colleagues in the former ruling party, those who might have challenges with what is going on now. They are welcome to the Citizens First, those who are having problems of [PF] is or not registered and they keep on [moving] from this house today. I think this is why when I left in 2017; I’m like Joseph in the Bible, I went ahead, remember Joseph? He went ahead, the brothers thought they had sold him off but God was preparing him so that during the time of famine, Joseph would look after his relatives and his own people. I find myself in a similar situation, they are welcome to the Citizens First and people should just admit that we in the CF we’ll reach out to them and we are doing this in good faith; to say please the common person we need to dethrone in August is Mr Hichilema. That’s the person we should be focusing on,” he said.

“Don’t worry, when I become president, dignity in the country returns, load shedding goes, farmers will be paid on time. When I become president, our students; not only will we maintain the student loans in universities that they are getting, we will even increase them looking at the economic hardships that they are going through. Not only are we going to look at those students, we are also going to look at the civil servants, where I was for a long time of my life. We want to correct things, so all those things we are going to look at them. So, I’m extending an olive branch to my colleagues, please not that I’m [fed up] with what Hichilema is doing, I am fed up and I’ve spoken about this matter for a very long time. But where we have reached, we are remaining with only four months before the nominations begin; where we have reached, I’m saying colleagues let’s think through this process. Let’s hold hands and deal with the problem we have”.

Commenting on opposition members defecting to UPND, Kalaba dismissed assertions that CF members had joined the ruling party.

“People in UPND are liars, if they can lie about paying farmers on the 10th and yet they haven’t been paid. If they can lie about reducing mealie meal prices when they get into office, what can stop them to lie that Citizens First have left their party to go to UPND? People are defecting from UPND because they know that UPND is going nowhere.

I was a minister and I stopped because I didn’t agree with what was happening that time, now what can UPND give people today? They told people lies. I left PF on my own because I’m a child of God and a child of God doesn’t get chased. That herbalist you brought here on radio didn’t know what he was talking about, because he was talking about HH is being endorsed by Chiefs and what not. Hakainde Hichilema will lose, I told the PF the same thing I’m saying here, I told Davies Mwila that PF will lose, they argued,” Kalaba said.

Kalaba said he had the experience to run government.

“[To] the herbalist, tell HH that he is losing [and] the one coming in 2026 is Harry Kalaba. We are here on radio and you’ve heard from the phone calls, so I left PF because I didn’t agree with what was happening.

PF won elections in 2016, one year later in December 2017 I left with four years remaining to be in government, I left. They even sent Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate me but they found that I’m a child of God, I don’t go into government to steal for people.

The problem we have is that as leaders we lie to people about promises, immediately you go into government you start doing your own things. I have experience on how to run a government and say things that I’ll do when I become president,” said Kalaba.

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