By Merlyn Mwanza
President Hakainde Hichilema says if he were former president Edgar Lungu he would retire from active politics to allow others to work also.
Addressing journalists at ZAF base in Lusaka upon arrival from his eight-day tour of Europe, President Hichilema said: “If I were him (Lungu) I would retire, and I will retire when my time comes. Mark this conversation. I will retire and I will go and look after the goats. I really don’t need to Cramer for other things.”
President Hichilema said there was no harassment of Lungu, saying if the law says that the former president was entitled to three police officers, it should be so as opposed to him having 13 officers.
“He’s entitled to three policemen but he had how many? He had 13. The question is that how did he have 13 instead three? That was an abrogation of the law. So now how does that become harassment? Honestly, come on,” President Hichilema wondered, adding that civilised nations work according to the dictates of the law, warning otherwise that the same law “will come for you because you have overstepped your right … your liberty.”
“If the law says for a former president to enjoy emoluments of a former president they must not be in active politics and if they are in active politics what do you think should be done? You know the answer. You must stay in line with the law, isn’t it? Then we will have an organised society,” the President said.
He insisted that he did not see any harassment and that if police were harassing him that must be addressed, but that equally people must not sleep outside the gate as that is abrogation of the law.
“And I think police should do their job … Don’t sleep in the streets. They must go and sleep in their homes,” President Hichilema said, arguing that the protection of a former president was the job of the police and nobody else and that under his government there will be law and order.
Pointing to First Lady Mutinta, President Hichilema said as innocent as she looks, if she had any case to answer there was no way he would come in and say that she should not be answerable to the allegations against her, saying a complaint was made in the case of former first lady Esther by a citizen and police have an obligation to listen to the complaint.
He said if the complaint was not followed there would be complaints that nothing was being done to attend to the issue.
Asked on why he was not visiting China which was the country Zambia owed the most yet he had visited most western countries, President Hichilema the G20 framework under which Zambia’s debt and that of other countries was being attended to also included China, saying the opposition were out of context and lacked understanding, the more reason he was not responding to them on this matter.
He said his administration was in fact not the problem but the solution as these problems were created by the former PF administration whom he urged to sit in shame and work with government in addressing the problem.
President Hichilema also said president Lungu must get involved in finding a solution, saying a country facing the challenges that Zambia was facing needed to bond together.
He indicated that he would visit China before or after the debt solution and that both Zambian and Chinese officials were already working towards the same, highlighting that Zambia was in the queue for a meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping.
He said the meeting could either be a physical one or virtual .
“In future let’s not allow leaderships that are reckless, as reckless as those who brought us into this debt … We are where we are because of (reckless) leadership,” said President Hichilema.
