THE JOB IS TOUGH FOR HH
…can’t sit in Lusaka, he’s busy hunting for summits to attend – Kalaba
By Fanny Kalonda
CITIZENS First president Harry Kalaba has accused President Hakainde Hichilema of not having time to deal with issues involving fertiliser supply, load shedding among others as he is busy hunting for summits to attend.
“We have given him the presidency, he has failed to sit in Lusaka. It is now every available flight, just getting on that plane, every available flight leaving because the job is tough, it needed someone with experience. What we see now is that every flight available, the President is on that plane, going to attend whatever. He’s basically hunting for the summits wherever he hears there is a summit he’s there…” Kalaba said. “The President was in the USA for the [UN] General Assembly. The first country he visited after he won elections was the USA. And the President has been in the USA very often and then when there is an opportunity for him to go, again he goes. When will the President deal with the issue of load shedding? When will he deal with the issue of fertiliser distribution? When will the President help us as a country to deal with the issue of youth unemployment? He doesn’t have the time to think through those issues. And for me to say this as a former foreign minister, is very regrettable.”
Kalaba said it’s disappointing that things are fast collapsing in the country.
“When you were getting in power, you kept on telling us stories. So when we question what you were telling us, what is wrong with that? Because our colleagues were not sincere, because I have never come across people who can lie like these ones we have in government. And they lie with a straight face,” he said.
“Look, the purpose of an election is to bring a system where government is going to make people move or progress. And that is the main reason why people have elections and if we have reached a point where every promise that was given to us was a fallacy, was a lie, then the only thing that the President should do is to call for fresh elections. Because he has not worked in government, service delivery is a problem. And we have a situation where it’s a one man show right now. If he has not agreed…so it is up to him to decide yes or no.”
Kalaba wondered on what basis President Hichilema was elected as best political leader on the African continent.
“…I have been saying when you look at the inflation spiral in our country vis-a-vis the prices of goods in this country, there is a disparity. The dichotomy which is existing is very interesting because what I know is that normally, when the kwacha is gaining against the dollar, normally mealie meal prices should collapse but in the country, it kept going up. [And the President is] voted best in Africa, on what basis?” he asked.
Kalaba said the UPND had failed to govern the country.
“The things are fast collapsing in this country. Things are not happening as they should be happening now. And that is a huge disappointment. The expectation, the belief was that the price of fertiliser was going to be costing K250. The belief was that the price of petrol was going to collapse to K6 per litre. The belief was that mealie meal was going to be costing K50. That has not happened because when we question, are you going to say, no but the PF was…Here in this country, the only way we can have a new government is to call for fresh elections,” he said. “And we are saying, what is wrong with our President saying mwebantu nafilwa (people, I have failed). We don’t have medicines in hospitals…Because of that, we are saying they can help us if they can be magnanimous and just say, maybe we should have fresh elections and allow those people who are serious with governance issues to take over.”
Kalaba said the UPND needs to realise that they told too many lies to the Zambian people.
“I think it is important for our colleagues in the UPND to realise that the lies they told were too much. A government cannot afford to be stiff-necked ati no twalisanga inkongole (that we found debt). These people knew please. These people knew that there was a debt to be dealt with. It is very sad and the problem is that they don’t have the humility to say here we have gone wrong. If they had the humility we would support them and say no they have said that we should work together, but no. They know it all and no one should tell them anything. And they believe they are on the right track. And when they are speaking, ‘things have changed, things have changed’,” noted Kalaba when he featured on Millennium TV on Monday. “In Zambia now there is poverty. In Zambia now people are suffering. In Zambia now it is all misery because of these same things people have been going through and it is so sad for the country. There is a period in which people expect some actions to be to be taken. We expected that within the last 16 months that they have been in government, certain policies should have been straightforward, things should have been done honestly. Me I was telling you people here, you were saying no, Kalaba is just power hungry. I used to tell you President Hakainde Hichilema with due respect has never been in government. That is why you have seen a duplicity of functions for CDF and the CEEC because you needed to understand that the Constituency Development Fund the way it works and the Citizens Empowerment the way it works, they have all got different portfolio functions. They needed to understand those functions. They went in wanting to impress and move fast, they increased from K1.6 million to K25.7 million and this year increased to K28 million without understanding how the trickle down effects will be. They did not know how government works. That is why for our President, he was so much against literally everything his colleagues were doing. ‘No we can do this, we will do this. We can remove middlemen in fuel’ [procurement]. Now our President with due respect, he is very successful as he says himself in business. We thank God for that. We are telling him to declare his assets. Why isn’t he declaring his assets up to now? Why is he not declaring his assets as is a requirement by the law. He has not declared his assets. That should tell you that even the fight against cooption is cosmetic. He is being very unfair to Zambian populace. He is being unfair to the public because they trusted him, he has betrayed their trust.”