By Patson Chilemba
I have never seen a minister receive such backlash as Garry Nkombo did yesterday from the street vendors, says Bowman Lusambo.
And Lusambo said Zambians will be spending their festive season in misery due to the economic hardships.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Lusambo was asked if he supported Local Government minister Garry Nkombo’s move to rid the streets of vendors seeing that he supported the same and even castigates NDC’s Saboi Imboela when she said she would reinstate street vending during campaigns for the Lusaka mayoral elections.
Responding, Lusambo charged that the UPND was a government of liars and that it was unfortunate Zambians had accepted to be led by a government of liars, saying they supported the same street vending during their time in the opposition and told the PF to provide trading places before removing the vendors.
“When Garry went into town, very arrogant minister, very arrogant minister and I have never seen a government minister in many years who went into the field, trying to control the people of Zambia and receives that type of backlash,” Lusambo said. “That was the first time and these are new ministers. New ministers. I presided over several situations even during the time of artificial mealie meal shortages and no time the people of Zambia shouted we want change. I can assure you that the UPND government will be a short lived government.”
Asked if he was guilty of doing the same things he was accusing Nkombo of doing on street vending and if he has changed his position on the matter now that he was in the opposition, Lusambo said the PF had a plan of building markets for the vendors and claimed that they treated vendors with respect.
“We were engaging these people but the way Garry conducted himself it was unprofessional and as a minister you cannot and you should not conduct yourself in the manner where you go to the people and say ‘I am not here to compromise with you, I am here to order you to move from this place,’” Lusambo said. “That’s not the way we behave as ministers. We carry delegated power from the President and president from Zambians. Presidents don’t have absolute power. So when you are going to your bosses you go to your bosses with respect, you don’t go to your bosses with that type of arrogance. That’s why people started shouting for change.”
But put to him that he was moving around whipping the people he felt were not adhering to Covid-19 regulations during his time as Lusaka Province minister, Lusambo said the two matters were different.
“First and foremost I want to differ with you on the issue of saying I carried sjambok. I never carried any sjamboks, I never carried any whip,” Lusambo said, saying the PF administration was fighting the Covid-19 pandemic through a multisectoral approach, including the police, Ministry of Health and other government institutions. “For me the reason why you saw me moving with that team I was trying to give them political will, and that’s the thing which I was doing I was just giving them the political will. I wanted them to work knowing very well that even our supervisor is in it. That is the thing which we were doing. We were not trying to inconvenience any people, we were trying to protect the lives of the people of Zambia.
“…the way we conducted ourselves we managed to save many lives in this country, that’s why the numbers we had were different. So for me the issue to do with Covid 19 it cannot be compared with street vending…the issue if street vending is historical.”
He said the solution to street vending was not removing the vendors themselves from the streets but for people to change their mindsets by stopping to buy goods from the streets.
Lusambo said he would spend his festive season with his family and visiting orphanages and sharing the word of God with them.
He said traditionally Zambians have celebrated Christmas by sharing special meals with their loved ones, but that it would be difficult to do that this time, as people were moving with misery on their faces.
“This is a government which has failed to pay farmers, suppliers and contractors and these were supposed to pay their workers and these were supposed to buy food and clothes for their family members…they will be remembering the life of Jesus in misery conditions and this is not the work of government,” Lusambo said.
Put to him that the economic hardships he was complaining about started under the government he served under as minister, Lusambo claimed that the government of president Edgar Lungu put the people first.
“That’s why we even failed to go to the next stage with IMF because the conditions were not favouring people, they were meant to kill Zambians and favour boys in Washington,” said Lusambo. “We were able to buy 25 Kg mealie meal, people were buying in shopping malls, today things HH discouraged like pamela and cooking oil in small plastics that’s what is happening now. You can’t send your people in misery and say that you are improving your economy.”
