LUBINDA GIVES M´MEMBE LOVE OVER LOSER HH
“you cant trust someone who has lost five times says M´membe”
Lusaka, June 4, 2021
Given Lubinda, a long serving parliamentarian and former Cabinet Minister has hailed opposition leader Fred M´membe for calling out the bluff of Hakainde Hichilema, the president of opposition UPND.
Mr Lubinda said M´membe a harsh critic of the Patriotic Front (PF) was “on point” when he warned Zambians to not waste their vote on a “five-time loser” in the name of Hichilema.
“HH and UPND have lost elections five times,” M´membe said in a live radio programme taped for Hot FM, “he has lost more times than MMD and PF put together in an election.”
M´membe asked Zambians to not think that he was taking a “personal hate swipe” at Hichilema saying, “He (HH) has lost elections five times, not intermittently but consecutively which means he is just a loser that cannot be trusted…not even MMD or PF in opposition lost that many times.”
M´membe who was speaking a paid for programme on Hot FM, a widely followed programme said Hichilema is disillusioned to think that he would win the 12th of August poll given his stellar record of loss.
M´membe, a former newspaper editor and owner of the defunct Post newspaper that crumbled under the weight of a more than K200 million (almost $10 million) government debt in taxes said given a choice on whom to align with between President Edgar Lungu and Hichilema, he would be on Edgar Lungu´s side because he has a history with him.
“I know President Edgar Lungu because we attended UNZA (University of Zambia) about the same time but I don’t know Hichilema,” M´membe said.
The former newspaper publisher who passes himself as Socialist or Communist Politician, however, said he did not sympathise with either Mr Hichilema or President Lungu despite his soft spot for Mr Lungu over Mr Hichilema.
In the forthcoming 12th August poll, Mr M´membe, a tax defaulter who owes the government about $10 million has showed no love for Hichilenma.
“We are not in alliance for me to support or love Mr Hichilema,” M´membe said.
Mr M´membe warned Zambians not to back the Hichilema ticket saying the majority of Zambians are young and poor and must not support rich and selfish politicians in an apparent reference to Mr Hichilema.
Mr M´membe is a controversial political figure in Zambia whom analysts have described as a Capitalist that masquerades as a socialist or communist.
At the peak of his journalism career when he was an influential political player in Zambia, M´membe refused to honour government obligations such as paying Pay as You Earn (PAYE) for his 400 strong employee force, Value Added Tax (VAT) to the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and Income Tax totalling to more than $10 million.
M´membe refused to honour taxes that led to almost 400 workers get to hang in the dry after ZRA finally found its teeth to shit shut him down, a case he fought all the way to the Constitution Court against prominent Lusaka lawyer Lewis Mosho and still lost with costs of about K15 million.
The 400 workers M´membe collected money from purporting to pay the government are now jobless and many have either been evicted from homes and their children from school while M´membe splashes millions of Kwachas on political billboards.
Apart from the more than $10 million M´membe owes ZRA in taxes, he also owes money to banks such as Investrust, Zanaco and Investrust running in millions of kwachas.
Lawyer Lewis Mosho who was appointed Liquidator for The Post has since recovered assets M´membe hid locally and abroad and is holding title to the house M´membe lives in on Nangwenya Rd in Lusaka and a house in Chinsali whose construction in deemed suspicious and currently occupied by Zambia police.
Mr Lubinda, however, said whatever weaknesses M´membe, Zambia´s richest communist has, he has been right on one thing—spelling out to the Zambians that HH is a five-time loser that must most be entertained by Zambian voters on 12th August.
“Fred M´membe must be given credit for one thing by all Zambians as we approach the polls…for exposing Hichilema as a fraud,” said Mr Lubinda.
Several local and international analysts have constantly wondered what kind of good the more than K200 million M´membe owes the government would have done to ease the strain on medicine in hospitals or paying teachers and other public workers.
Mr Lubinda cautioned that, “Mr M´membe´ s mantra has been accountability, yet he has never wanted to be accountable to anyone. There´s a thin line between M´membe the man and his friend Hichilema. Zambians must take note of these Siamese twins.”