By Patson Chilemba
Hakainde Hichilema is going to be a better President the moment he stops thinking he knows it all, says PF presidential aspirant Chishimba Kambwili.
And Kambwili charged that the capitalists in the UPND are making money off the suffering Zambians by continually increasing prices, saying “that is why the closure of Indeni must be relooked at.”
Speaking with Daily Revelation over the almost K9 increment in the price of fuel in the eight months the UPND has been in office, with petrol now going for K26.50 from the K17.61 in August 2021, Kambwili said there was no excuse that the price of fuel had been increased because of the state of the economy President Hichilema inherited from the PF, and that price hikes had already been experienced way before the Ukraine-Russia conflict started.
He said the argument should hinge on being pro-poor and caring for the masses, saying one could not claim to be a good leader and claim to be fixing the economy by imposing stiff penalties on people, which will make them more poorer.
“You are not going to keep increasing the price of fuel without subsidising the poor, who are you proving leadership for? Leadership is there to improve the living standards of the people,” Kambwili said.
He dismissed Energy minister Peter Kapata’s statement to Daily Revelation that the IMF had nothing to do with the removal of subsidies as it was a government decision aimed at channeling resources to other areas, when the IMF themselves indicated on reaching the $1.4 billion staff level agreement with the Zambian government, that removing subsidies was a key ingredient to that agreement.
“On that component ya fuel, if you do the calculations right, you find that there is K9 on the price of fuel for which government can make adjustments and reduce the cost. There is K9 for which government has total control, that includes taxes, cost of freight, the middle men etc,” Kambwili said. “If they are saying it is the Ukraine war, the Ukraine war is an extraordinary situation and in an extraordinary situation you have to employ extraordinary measures. And the extraordinary measure is to subsidise in order for the poor to live. (Rwandan President Paul) Kagame has decided to subsidise, South Africa is subsidising, America is subsidising.”
Kambwili said the refusal to reintroduce subsidies here was because businessmen in UPND wanted to make money off the Zambian people at all cost.
“That is why the decision to close Indeni must be relooked at because if you are dealing in crude you can buy crude on a contract for one year…Our friends the problem that they have is they want to look at the balance sheet. They want to run the country on a profitability purpose. No! Government is not about profits. It’s about balancing between profit and the social needs of the people,” Kambwili said. “Insoni ebuntu. What the President needs is to apologise that countrymen and women the way I was looking at running the country is not the way it is when you are actually in government. You remember, I told people what President Hakainde Hichilema is promising is unworkable.
“Look at this for instance, you have this extraordinary situation where you need to subsidise fuel, you are busy saying we have sent Constituency Development Fund to the constituencies. That is not not looking at the priorities. CDF will only benefit a few people but fuel subsidies will benefit everybody…fuel affects the buying power of the people.”
He described President Hichilema’s performance so far as a total disaster, saying the President over promised and was grappling with trying to fulfill all his campaign promises.
“And I can only advise him that they will leave government faster than they came…So if they want to continue with arrogance they will face the wrath if the youths, they will face the wrath of the Zambians. They must balance the act, people are suffering. How can you buy fuel at K26 per liter. How much will be the bag of mealie meal, how much will be sugar, how much will be the production cost of all industry?” Kambwili asked. “And we only have a fraction in gainful employment. Even those who are employed how much salaries are they getting for you to continue increasing the price of commodities.”
Kambwili continued: “So my brother so far it has been a disaster, and I want to appeal to the Zambians, more especially UPND members who want to insult some of us when we say this is wrong. Tell them that they are also wasting their time because they are also suffering…the problem we have in Zambia we have cheer leaders.”
Kambwili said he would focus on providing checks and balances on President Hichilema’s policies and he did not endorse statements like those saying the President has a spirit of making others poor while becoming rich himself. But he, however, said he had very low expectations of that President Hichilema would improve things in the country.
“It’s going to be disastrous. It will never be well. Let me tell you one thing when prices go up they will never come down. That’s one thing you must not forget. There is no principle of saying let the prices go up and we are going to bring them down,” Kambwili said, but when asked if he has attempted to meet the President in person to share some of these concerns in person as a politician with ambitions to lead Zambians one day, Kambwili said African leaders hate being advised by those in the opposition.
He said he had worked with President Hichilema before.
“The biggest problem that he has he thinks he knows it all.I got close to the man. The problem that my elder brother has, everything that he thinks it’s himself and is always correct. That is the biggest problem and the moment he’s going to stop thinking he knows it all and allow other people to advise him he will be a better President,” said Kambwili. “There is room for him to improve by beginning to listen from other people but he doesn’t listen. You cannot have monopoly of wisdom. He doesn’t have monopoly of wisdom. Don’t make capitalist decisions to impress a few businessmen. Make decisions that are going to work for the poor people who are in the majority, otherwise it’s a Trump situation, five years in office.”
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