By Merlyn Mwanza
Hakainde Hichilema’s relatives begged me to help him win the the 2021 general elections, says Zambia Must Prosper (ZMP) interim leader Kelvin Bwalya Fube.
And a caller said the phenomenon of men dressing up like women and being celebrated in certain quarters is being used to tacitly indoctrinate and finally introduce the vile homosexual lifestyle in the country, saying Zambians must stand up and reject the move in the protection of the country’s Christian moral values.
Featuring on Radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk programme, Fube questioned what he described as the unpreparedness in the manner President Hakainde Hichilema was going about handling matters as if he had not spent 15 years in the opposition, which period he said should have prepared him to do things efficiently.
Fube was asked by the interviewer Luchi if he would have formed a party and talking in the same manner he was doing, if he had received a job from the President, but Fube said he was motivated to campaign against the PF as he viewed the candidature of Edgar Lungu as seeking a third term of office.
He said while that was his motivation, he was not sure what the motivation was for President Hichilema.
Fube said any political party leader who was serving as a minister in the UPND administration was lying to say they were not part of the ruling party, saying he never joined the UPND and never even asked for a job from the President as it was the President who actually needed help from him.
“Friends and relatives of the current President came to beg me to help him…as a patriot I had my motivations and I said if this is the only way to stop Edgar Lungu so be it,” Fube said during a radio programme monitored by Daily Revelation Media.
He said in his interactions with President Hichilema, they agreed to unify the country, restore the rule of law and good governance and allow Zambians move in their professional rights, and that at no point did he say that he did not want to lead this country one day.
But Fube said as opposed to what was agreed upon, he could only give President Hichilema a three out of 10 in terms of uniting the country, as the country was now more divided, saying government was supposed to be about continuity but President Hichilema has set about scattering everyone including those who were doing a professional job and did not steal just because they served in the previous PF administration.
He said the people who have been dismissed and shunted to junior positions are being replaced by people coming from “a certain section”, arguing that President Hichilema was engaging in the same very things he condemned during his opposition times.
He said the fired permanent secretaries and directors for instance were being replaced by fellow cadres from the UPND who do not even have institutional memory in how to run public affairs.
“On that score my good friend has failed and he’s still failing,” Fube said.
On the issue of human rights, Fube said he did not understand to what extent President Hichilema understood human rights as it was more than removing visible cadres from markets and bus stations, saying even then the cadres were still there in public places and charging minibus drivers K80, more than the K40 which was being charged by the notoriously violent and unruly PF cadres.
Fube argued that while President Hichilema kept saying that he had been arrested 15 times, yet he was doing the very things against his political opponents, which he said was disappointing for someone who had such terrible experiences with 15 years of opposition experience.
“They have no idea on how to do anything,” he said, saying the President was calling directors and mayors and lecturing to them instead of coming up with effective policy on how to manage the increased CDF for instance, and that things like bridges, hospitals and bursaries were supposed to be handled by the central government. “We don’t have a leader creating policy…they are following what they were castigating when in opposition.”
On the call by the UPND administration that those who stole should return their loot to be forgiven, Fube said he felt more should have been done by actually coming up with something like a truth and reconciliation commission, and not expecting people to line up at Community House to have their sins forgiven.
“Is he a god?” Fube asked, saying there should be a way of handling political crimes so as not to create more disunity.
Fube said for instance if someone illicitly managed to acquire 48 houses and were told to return 40 of those, the thief would not have lost out on only the 48 houses but more damningly a conviction.
He said in 2026 they will fix the fixer by fixing the “mistake we made”, and that “you don’t expect HH to be moving at the speed he is moving having been in opposition for 15 years.”
Responding to a caller Tembo, who called asking on the phenomena where men wearing women clothes and appearing like women was being celebrated and if that was part of IMF conditionalities, Fube wondered whether they should referred to as “men in green or not men in black”, and that he does not support anything that goes against the country’s values.
On the alleged K800,000 campaign funds during the campaigns, Fube said he accounted for all the funds but he was not happy the manner he was summoned like a boy to account for the money even when the money came from well wishers and not from the UPND coffers, saying “mwilabepa ubufi, muletasha (you must stop lying and be thankful).”
He wondered what Southern Province minister Cornelius Mweetwa had done for the people who supported him in Choma, referring to big Moze.
“E problem nasanga muli iyi Party UPND. Akaso!! And they have taken the same into government (This is the problem I have found in this party UPND. Stinginess!! And they have taken the same into government),” Fube said.
And Fube said he was at pains to see how Finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane struggled to explain the $1.3 billion IMF package as sweet, saying what he anticipated was that fuel and electricity prices will eventually go up.
He said late President Levy Mwanawasa refused some of the conditionalities, and that the problem of lack of jobs in the country started with the privatizations at the hands of the same people who are in government today, and adding that while there has been talk of increased copper production, he wondered how that will benefit the country when the mining companies are on a tax holiday right now yet they are digging the nation’s resources.
He said he was aware of how the procurement of fertilizer was being handled within this short period the UPND has been in office, and shuddering what will happen in the next five years.
Fube said Dr Musokotwane could not have said it, but it was clear that some companies will be privatized, urging Zambians that while they were celebrating th IMF deal now, they should do so temporarily while tightening their belt because “ubuchushi bwalaisa (suffering is coming).”
He said the country should not be running to the west always as there more partners who would have brought in funds by guaranteeing them the country’s huge gold deposits.
“This $1.3 billion looks big, but what are the conditions?” asked Fube, saying Dr Musokotwane kept saying that he had to choose by employing teachers, health professionals and others, even when those were employed jobs about filling in vacancies and not job creation per see.
