Lungu today most popular politician in Zambia, not Hichilema – Lusambo
By Kombe Chimpinde Mataka
TODAY the most popular politician in this country is not even Hakainde Hichilema, it is Edgar Lungu, says Bowman Lusambo.
The former Lusaka Province minister says he expects to be cleared of corruption charges after the ACC cleared information ministry director Thabo Kawana of the same.
Meanwhile, Lusambo, who also served as Copperbelt minister in Edgar Lungu’s administration, says the UPND should not consider Vedanta to take over KCM again because its “chief executive officer is a crook”.
Featuring on Oxygen of Democracy programme on Prime TV on Monday, Lusambo said the UPND’s fight against corruption was selective.
“In UPND we know the single sourcing of Alpha Commodities [in fertiliser supply]. The 50 million dollars. That is 100 per cent corruption. We expected Anti-Corruption Commission to move in and report. It’s not me to report. Some of these issues, who reported me? The ACC, that’s their job. They are supposed to move in. You know I was investigated through DEC (Drug Enforcement Commission) when I was a minister for Lusaka Province. I went to DEC. The DEC wanted to find out something from me and I told them. No one reported me, DEC wanted me to be investigated. President Lungu cleared that. President Lungu was fighting corruption,” he said. “Edgar Lungu is my father but he told DEC to investigate me and I was investigated by DEC. That’s the thing we want to see, a fight against corruption that is genuine. Lungu was fighting corruption genuinely. Remember ministers were facing charges at Anti-Corruption Commission, DEC. Serving ministers! That’s the way a president is supposed to fight corruption. Not ‘these are mine don’t touch them’.”
Lusambo said for the UPND, fighting corruption was painting other people black.
“Even me I want President Hakainde [Hichilema] to succeed in this crusade. At the briefing I said I want to help the President win this crusade. Working with government does not mean being in UPND,” he said.
“Today the most popular politician in this country it is not even Hakainde Hichilema. It is Edgar Lungu. Popularity, they have said you were good.”
Lusambo said in an event that the country went to the polls, Lungu would win the elections.
He said the belief that the PF was corrupt was just a percpetion.
“It was political. Corruption must be fought in UPND, in the PF and all sectors,” he said.
“I am happy that my brother Thabo Kawana has been cleared by the Anti-Corruption Commission. That is the thing which we want to see. We want the ACC to come, ‘Bowman we made a mistake’. We are waiting, yes. We are waiting for ACC to say ‘Bowman it was just a mistake. We were just playing politics. There is nothing that you did’. If Kawana was cleared and Anti-Corruption said he went to a financial institution and he borrowed that money to buy a car, things which we were expecting to be told is that ‘actually Bowman has nothing to do with government money’.”
He noted that none of the PF leaders has been convicted.
“All what we are seeing is perception. It is just allegations, allegations,” Lusambo said.
And Lusambo said the government should not consider Vedanta for KCM.
“The UPND should not even think of [Anil] Agarwal (KCM) coming back.. Agarwal told us with the deputy governor that when he was then deputy secretary to the Cabinet and the entire team, the ministry of mines…Agarwal told us that he is coming to pump in money in KCM. We came to the president and said Agarwal has said this. True to his word he came to Zambia and he told the president what he told us. That he was pumping in alot of money and he said, ‘I want to revamp sports and all recreation facilities. The clinics and these other things. I just want us to concentrate mining in Chingola and Chililabombwe’. Today that money is not here. So Agarwal is not a solution for KCM,” said Lusambo