By Ulande Nkomesha,
VICE-PRESIDENT Mutale Nalumango has advised former presidents to stay away from politics so that they are respected, further stating that Edgar Lungu needs to retire from active politics for him to be given his benefits.
And Vice-President Nalumango has justified the increase in fuel prices saying this will help stabilise the economy.
Responding to a question in Parliament from Bweengwa UPND MP Kasautu Michelo on whether Lungu would be given benefits for only one term in view of the ruling which was passed by the Constitutional Court, Vice-President Nalumango said if a former president wanted to continue in active politics, then they would not be entitled to their benefits.
“To start with, I may not qualify really to speak of the interpretation of the court, but what I know, I may not even know the conditions of service fully like which figures and so on, but anybody who has been a President and retires, the condition that I know is retire from active politics.
It is not about the term, that is what I understand, if I am wrong you will forgive me. It is not about how many years, how many terms, it is about being a former president who has retired from all active politics so that we start regarding them as statesmen,” she said.
“If they continue, this is government, I am not talking about just UPND, if any president chooses to continue in politics then they are not entitled to a retirement package because they have not retired. So I would just say for all, who are very few, unfortunately, retired presidents stay away from politics, be states people and then the entire world and government will respect and honour you.”
And Vice-President Nalumango said the increase in fuel prices was meant to stabilize the economy.
“UPND does not backtrack on anything. President Hakainde Hichilema is highly focused, there is no pretense, there is no nothing. I think even last week we did speak to that. The intention of this government is to stabilize the economy, when the economy is stable, that means benefits start being seen.
I do understand that the turbulence that comes with the removal of the subsidies in the short term can look like it is very bad, like when your boil is being squeezed. Everybody must know that the end result will be something good. This is the same money that government needs to take into other critical areas. It is true that some taxes will go up but we have to look at the overall effect,” she said.
“This you will agree with me, the level we have reached of indebtedness must be dealt with. This is exactly what we are doing. There will be this increase. The nation should bear with us, it is not for punishment, but as the economy grows people will feel the change.
Right now the change should be felt, the inflation is going down. If you have been in pain, you have been sick, even after an operation the feeling will not be felt there and then. We are in the process of healing. Let us squeeze the boil and make things better.”
She said government already had a strategy on how it would reduce fuel prices.
“I think it is true, I think this is undeniable that there is a lot of debt that we are unable to pay. If you over-borrow, even respect from your neighbours goes. We were starting to lose respect internationally because of the borrowing, people didn’t even want to discuss with us including the IMF.
We must feel sorry for ourselves, we don’t want to blame people but they were in the office and they had the responsibility to look after all of us,” Vice-President Nalumango said.
“All what we are doing is to try and find a way out now. It is not abrogating our promises. It is knowing your way out. This level of indebtedness is an embarrassment. Zambians just hold your peace and watch the space and see if two years from now, if we will still stand here, say this, a lot will have improved.
We will get respectability back as people, our children will no longer fail to go to school. We do understand the impact, it is not nice, but we must go through this period for a better tomorrow. Let us see 2026 here who will be talking, Zambia would have developed so much. We even have a secret of how we are going to reduce the fuel price but I will not say it today.”
Vice-President Nalumango said the UPND government had not backtracked on its campaign promises.
“We are giving them five years because then people will see that is [the] truth, we have plans. We have not changed at all, we intend to work, we intend to keep every coin for the Zambians if it is about the economy.
We have declared things we campaigned against, even today we are against for example cadreism. You have heard us say ‘arrest the cadres who are doing wrong’, we don’t want the police with the old culture of arresting only the opposition.
That is the culture we left and now we have to change the mindset that every Zambian is a Zambian. We are not there to protect anybody, justice must be followed. That is why we don’t instruct people to arrest others, the investigative wings must know what to do.
So we have not changed, we have just passed a rugged way, a very difficult path. Watch the space, you will see that our intentions shall be achieved, but we can’t avoid passing through this,” said Vice-President Nalumango.