By Merlyn Mwanza
PF presidential aspirant Chishimba Kambwili has challenged the Ministry of Finance to tell Zambians how much taxpayer’s money has been used on President Hakainde Hichilema on the 30 international trips he has undertaken in just one year and five months of being in office.
Kambwili also demanded that the UPND administration tell Zambians how many people have died in hospitals on account of the crippling 8-hour daily load shedding crisis citizens are enduring on account of continued energy exports to foreign countries, and that Zambians must be told on the exact megawatts being exported.
In a video posted to his Facebook Page, Kambwili said Zambians will lose confidence in politicians if they were not consistent and lead to apathy during election time.
He said on September 23, 2019 at 05.29 pm, President Hichilema while in the opposition tweeted that the office of the President must cut out foreign trips as the economy was in distress and that the rise in fuel prices was one of the reasons why the austerity measures must be seriously implemented to keep the economy under control.
“My dear brother, President Hakainde Hichilema, what has changed?” Kambwili asked, and that the factors then were still the ones obtaining now.
He said the price of fuel which Hichilema talked about in the tweet was still high even today and therefore the more reason why austerity measures must be observed even today.
“Mr President you have taken 30 international trips in one year seven months … In the last two weeks you would have taken three trips together with the pending trip to Senegal at the expense of the taxpayers,” he said, adding that the same President called his predecessor Edgar Lungu as “kamwendo munjila” for taking so many international trips.
He said President Hichilema did not just condemn president Lungu but also the late former president Rupiah Banda that the foreign trips were unnecessary to a certain extent, something he said was true.
Kambwili said he served as the first Foreign Affairs minister under late president Michael Sata and that the head of state then did not take a foreign trip outside the country in the seven months after assuming office, arguing that there was a lot to do in the country and that if Kambwili insisted on having him travel outside he would have rather have found another Foreign Affairs minister as some trips could be undertaken by the minister and Vice-President or even ambassadors.
He said Sata was consistent over what he promised voters since he too condemned president Banda for travelling too much.
“Our President I think this is now becoming embarrassing. No matter how much Foreign Affairs want to sugarcoat the importance of these meetings, country men and women I have been to most of those meetings, in fact more often than not heads of states are represented by prime ministers and vice-presidents most of the time,” Kambwili said, and urged UPND members to advise the President quickly. “So ba Presient nasheniko ukwenda. Abantu balechula (Mr President please reduce on your foreign travels, people are suffering).”
Kambwili said when a President travels it is at high cost to the tax payer as compared to when the Vice-President and ministers travel, saying when ministers travel they use ambassadors vehicles but with the Presidents there must be proper transport arrangements.
“So ba President be consistent. Live up to your promises,” he said, and that it was embarrassing that President Hichilema was engaging in the same activities he condemned. “Secondly you must also look at your health. You can’t always be away from home all the time. You need to be home with your children and your family.”
He said President Hichilema was attempting to please the IMF and the west by wanting to appear at every conference to speak so that he could appear to be the most intelligent President, but he has been doing a disservice to the people of Zambia.
“You see Zambians are very patient, elo bakamimina one day tamwakabekate ama Zambians,” Kambwili said, saying right now Zambians were going through a crippling load shedding of 8-hours daily but Hichilema has simply insisted that exports to foreign countries must continue, and that this issue the President had brought up of load shedding citizens twice daily was stressing Zambians.
He said it was laughable for the President to suggest that exports could not be stopped in order to protect future exports, saying the President could do better than that.
Kambwili further urged President Hichilema to be careful in his dealings with the United States of America as they will use him and by the time he will realize it would be too late.
He urged President Hichilema to fire those people who were telling him that things were well in the nation.
