By Staff Reporter
Opposition Economic Front (EF) leader Wynter Kabimba says the Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commander Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi is drawing from the example of President Hakainde Hichilema who is appointing his close affiliates to public positions.
And Kabimba said he agrees with FDD leader Edith Nawakwi’s urge to President Hichilema to call on former president Edgar Lungu and other political and national leaders to discuss the challenges facing the nation, but that obnoxious law like the cyber security act must be removed so that he is free to tell the President “What they forgot to edit in the Bible.”
Speaking with Daily Revelation on Zambia’s High Commissioner to Malawi Colonel Panji Kaunda’s defence of ZNS General Solochi who is said to have created the position of director procurement and appointed his brother in-law to the position, Kabimba told Colonel Panji to just “keep his job which he never expected to get as he is way, way above the retirement age,” than defending wrong stuff.
Kabimba said the problem people have in this country was being given a job when they did not think they deserve it, saying they become parrots of the establishment, something he described as a cancer which works against good governance.
He said the position of procurement in any organization was a very sensitive as it must show utmost transparency in its functioning, and that that transparency would be difficult to achieve if the head of that institution and the person occupying the position of director in the same institution are related.
Kabimba said without accusing the ZNS commander about any ill motives, that appointment compromises the transparency of that position and hopes that President Hichilema will be able to prevail on the ZNS commander that he could not have it that way.
“But it’s also probable that he is taking an example from the President who has been appointing his friends to position and because of that example that has been set by the President, the ZNS Commander sees nothing wrong with what he is doing, even as it is potentially wrong and potentially un-administrative,” Kabimba said. “And therefore my view is that Colonel Panji Kaunda let him keep his job and we respect him for that. He never expected to get that job because he’s way, way above retirement age. But he should not confuse the history of the country which he doesn’t even seem to understand very well. The reason why (his father, first president Dr Kenneth) Kaunda took that decision was because he was conscious of the very fact of this principle that making appointments of his children and those that were related to him in one way or the other compromises the administration of the establishment.”
And Kabimba said to the extent that Nawakwi’s appeal was correct, his view was that things must be looked at from the first things first, as there were laws that make it difficult for opposition parties to operate in the country, and as a result of those provisions, the opposition leaders and those with divergent views were being locked up all the time with the full knowledge of President Hichilema.
He said it was therefore his view that in order to take the step Nawakwi was appealing about, the government must create a conducive environment for such a platform by doing away with all the provisions of the law that are an obstacle to good governance, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, citing the existence of the cyber security law which is being used extensively following the repeal of the defamation of the President law from the penal code.
“And if we are going to meet President HH, the people that are meeting him speaking for myself, I must be free to tell him what he does not want to hear. I must be free to tell him what they forgot to edit in the Bible. I must be able to tell him that for example, you are being unreasonable in the way you are handling this matter without him feeling offended or feeling that he is being insulted,” said Kabimba, saying he agreed with Nawakwi but only to the extent that the administration repeal all the obnoxious pieces of legislation, otherwise he would not waste his time to attend such a meeting.
