By Staff Reporter
Economic Front (EF) leader Wynter Kabimba has charged that President Hakainde Hichilema has failed to travel to Russia for the Russia-Africa Summit because he was given a cold shoulder by President Vladimir Putin the last time out on account of the image he has established for himself as a puppet of the west.
But Ministry of Information media director Thabo Kawana questioned Kabimba’s sanity, saying that everybody saw how President Hichilema and the other leaders were well received in Ukraine and Russia when they travelled on a peace mission.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Kabimba praised the other African leaders who refused western pressure from attending the Russia-Africa Summit, saying they have shown that they are not stooges of anybody by actually participating in the event.
He said President Hichilema missing the Russia-Africa Summit has a background to the last visit he took to Russia in the company of other Presidents.
“I mean Putin gave him a cold shoulder. He gave him a cold shoulder and gave him a cold shoulder as a puppet of the west. So he has built his credentials very well that he is actually a puppet of the west. That’s what he has done,” Kabimba said. “That’s what he has done and so people have come to read him correctly. And he himself now is feeling ashamed to mix with others outside the territory of the west. The west as in terms of European Union and the United States. So the image that he has built is haunting him. It’s not even Putin, it’s his own image which is haunting him.”
During the ongoing summit, debt write offs in billions of dollars have been announced by Russia for several African countries including promises to provide thousands of tons of grain free of charge, among the other agreements Putin will sign with African leaders, including those bordering on technology, security and humanitarian efforts. Speaking to the same issues, Kabimba said Zambia would have greatly benefited by having representation at the highest level.
“I don’t think that HH is making a difference between his personal interests and the national interest. I don’t think that he has developed that capacity to distinguish the two,” Kabimba said, arguing that the United States for instance has several disagreements with China but they are still trying to find ways of how they can cooperate in the interests of the world. “They may not like the Chinese as individuals but they know that they can’t wish the Chinese away for the sake of the world. I don’t think that HH has that disposition to create a line between his emotions towards individuals and how he should suppress those emotions in the interest of the nation so that the nation keeps on engaging other people, even those that he doesn’t personally like in the interests of Zambia.”
Kabimba said some of the very biggest nations in Africa were being represented at presidential level at the summit.
“Even just locally, that’s what he does. Those that do not glorify him he doesn’t want them near him, even within his own party,” he said.
Kabimba said the Oppenheimer’s who are western inclined put President Hichilema in power, and therefore he was beholden to them including on which world leaders he should have relations with and which summits he should attend.
“I will not be surprised if they do not dictate to him whom he should meet and whom he should not meet. But he doesn’t realise that for the Oppenheimer’s this is about corporate interest and that corporate interest for the Oppenheimer’s can even run against the interests of Zambia. But he doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t seem to see about that,” he said.
On the recent statement by Agriculture permanent secretary Green Mbozi that the high prices Zambians are buying the meal meal at were the correct prices and feels the same prices will be sustained even with a high yield in the coming farming season on account of the pressure from other countries on Zambia’s grain. But Kabimba wondered how a permanent secretary could say that when his own boss promised Zambians cheap mealie meal at K50 for a 25kg bag.
He wondered who was driving the policy directive in the UPND administration as everybody seemed “to be talking as if they have just been discharged from Chainama Mental Hospital.”
He said it was the people who were enduring the high costs who must determine whether the price they were buying the commodity at was the right one.
“So if Zambians are saying the mealie meal price is high how can the PS of government without any sense of remorse respond to them that this is cheap for you?” Kabimba asked, saying not too long ago the same people were accusing millers of greed, and the other time they accused millers of working with PF to being down the UPND administration.
He said the millers were pricing the commodity in accordance with the price of maize that has been increased from K180 to K280 per 50 kg bag.
“UPND must put its house in order, if it has a house at all,” said Kabimba, saying Zambians were stuck with a government that doesn’t care about the people.
He urged Zambians to start looking for new leadership and kick out the UPND in 2026.
But Kawana responding to Kabimba’s assertions that President Hichilema was given a cold shoulder by Putin the last time he was in the delegation of other Presidents on a peace mission to Ukraine and Russia, as he has projected himself as a puppet of the west, said that was further from the truth as people saw the videos and pictures and the entire documentary of how President Hichilema with his other colleagues were received both in Russia and Ukraine.
He questioned the mental capacity of those who were suggesting that Hichilema was given a cold shoulder.
But asked if the President has given into the pressure from the western world which has been pressuring African leaders from attending such a big summit which has attracted heads of states and representation from other countries, including big African countries like South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia among others, Kawana said it was not all the gatherings and summits that the President will attend depending on circumstances.
He maintained that Zambia was non-aligned and has sound relations with countries around the world including China, Russia and the United States.
“For us we are not party to conflicts that countries may or may not have. Therefore the President attending or not attending of the summit is dependant on his availability,” Kawana.
However, others have argued that actions speak louder than words as going to Russia via Ukraine under the cover of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s leadership is different from a president attending a summit in his own substantive capacity in a country that is hated by the west.
But Kawana said President Hichilema’s actions speak to the same, saying he would have declined to be a party to the delegation to Russia if he were aligned to the west.
Kawana said President Hichilema boldly in the presence of United States Vice-President Kamala Harris emphasized that Zambia was non-aligned and was in good books with China.
“That is action,” said Kawana.
