Zambia, US ties not mutually beneficial – Chanda
By Bright Tembo
NEW Congress Party president Peter Chanda says the bilateral ties between Zambia and United States of America are not for mutual benefit with Zambia.
Addressing journalists in Lusaka on Sunday alongside Zambia Republic party leaders Wright Musoma, Chanda said the bilateral tie favour the US more than Zambia.
He said the only benefit Zambians are getting is high cost of living.
“The relationship between Zambia and America, the bilateral ties that exist are not for mutual benefit but to some extent they’re always bent on America to benefit more and Zambia gaining less. What Zambian people are benefiting is the high cost of living, we have electricity tariffs that are high,’’ he said. ‘’We have fuel at high cost. When the previous regime was associating more in terms of development cooperation with the BRICS; that is China, Russia, Brazil just like our friends in South Africa the cost of living for the Zambian people was better off than it is now. Bilateral relationship between government two governments should be of mutual benefit; even someone boasts that we are part of the champions league, there is nothing beneficial from the League of Nations.’’
He added that America will always give Zambia a raw deal.
“The Zambian people have the duty to see who is the better friend; you can see with the PF regime which was so close with the BRICKS you can see that the cost of living was lower, it was not as high as it is,’’ said Chanda. “Americans will always give us a raw deal, while China and other cooperating partners like Russia they always give us a real deal. In terms of infrastructure development we can say Zambia’s face has changed; is it owing to the bilateral ties with Americans? No?”
And Musoma has cautioned government against entertaining the US.
He said Zambia should not sell her integrity to America, expressing worry that this is what the new dawn government has done.
“We wish to caution the Zambian government and citizens against naively entertaining the charade by the US currently in display in Zambia and the rest of Africa. Our country must strongly defend its integrity and sovereignty from US interference. We must jealously protect our resources from the profit driven foreign firms that meekly come to our country in the name of international partnership,” said Musoma. “We want to state that American investors have no love for Zambia, apart from their own personal interests. We are saying this because we remember how Anglo-America told off our late president Levy Mwanawasa that their interest was profit and not the welfare of Zambians at the time they were pulling out of Zambia. We would like to state that close ties to US exploits abroad are promotion of American values that are contrasting to our own African values.’