By Patson Chilemba
PF presidential aspirant Chishimba Kambwili says former president Edgar Lungu would not be challenged if he were to come back because he already has the PF presidential mandate.
And Kambwili said Zambians must carefully watch activities surrounding a selected company to supply Compound D fertilizer, saying he suspected “stinking corruption.”
Asked by Daily Revelation if the halt in presidential campaigning in PF was to accommodate former president Edgar to come back on assertions that he was interested in standing again, Kambwili said the campaigning was halted because the party was getting divided when they needed first to deal with the constitution and the reorganisation of the party.
He said he cautioned against opening up nominations five months before the envisaged conference, and has now been vindicated.
“Look at what has happened. One person has gone to court. Confusion. So to avoid that confusion it was in the wisdom of the central committee to say let’s suspend these campaigns so that we put out house in order. It has nothing to do with president Lungu,” Kambwili said.
But asked if he would challenge Lungu for the presidency in the event he decided to run, Kambwili wondered why Lungu should run for the presidency if he decided he wants to come back.
“Because first and foremost he was elected up to 2026, 2025 eh. If the general conference is going to be held before 2025 and he wants to come back automatically then there shouldn’t be a general conference because he still has the mandate,” Kambwili said. “But all these things are neither here nor there. There is no manipulation for president Edgar Lungu to come back to active politics. No! Not to my knowledge. So you know it’s not even making sense that if he is going to stand you challenge him, challenge who, if he’s got the mandate up to 2026. How do you challenge a person who was already elected?”
But Put to him that Lungu resigned and even submitted a letter in that regard, Kambwili responded: “That’s a story for another day. I don’t want to be misquoted. As far as I’m concerned president Edgar Lungu resigned and has never told anybody, I have been close to president Edgar Lungu of late and not has he told me even one day that ba Kambwili I’m coming back to active politics.”
He said all what those in PF were doing was to escort Lungu to wherever he was going and to keep him company because of what he has been going through, and those in PF felt he needed friends and people around him as he was being abused everywhere he goes.
He said Fr Salangeti was being abused for simply saying that people must be given food instead of graphs, as it was the same UPND which was celebrating when the same priests were raising issues about PF during their ruling days.
“The guilty are afraid. There is nothing wrong in what Fr Salangeti said,” Kambwili said and that Catholic fathers were very consistent on national matters. “Leave Fr Salangeti alone. Leave Edgar Lungu to rest alone. Deal with the issues that we have in the economy. The high cost of living. You promised people you will reduce the cost of living.”
He said to borrow President Hichilema’s words during his opposition times that it was because of poor leadership that people were buying mealie meal at K130 and fuel at K17, it was indeed poor leadership on Hichilema’s account that all the prices of all the things he was mentioning have skyrocketed from the time he was elected into office.
“Totally poor leadership. And a bad carpenter blames his tools,” Kambwili said.
And Kambwili said the UPND administration could not solve a problem by creating another problem as the K100 hike in the maize floor price from K180 to K280, while intended to reward the farmers will further push up the already skyrocketing prices of the staple food in the country.
He said Zambians are now likely to be buying 25 kilogram bags of mealie meal at K350, saying what they should have done was to reduce the cost of doing business in electricity, fuel and fertilizer, arguing that in countries across the global, energy was being subsidised including in the capitalist England where every household was given £130 towards the cost of energy on account of the escalating cost of gas in Europe.
Kambwili said it was ironic that President Hakainde Hichilema was talking about promoting local production of fertilizer but seemed intent on promoting a foreign company instead of recapitalising the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ).
“That clearly shows that there is a vested interest in that private company which is very difficult to have in a parastatal. No question about it,” Kambwili said, saying NCZ if well utilised could produce cheaper fertilizer.
He said he was reliably informed that “a politically exposed” supplier of fertilizer was given a contract to supply fertilizer at $1400 per metric tonne they went and bought the fertilizer from NCZ which was cheaper for resupply to the government.
“Even this thing of saying Compound D fertilizer will be supplied by one supplier because he’s setting up a plant here. That does not make sense. That deal stinks corruption. There is no way. I mean even if fertilizer which is coming from outside can be cheaper why do you want to go and buy the expensive one here?” Kambwili asked. “Is that supplier because they will be manufacturing here cheaper than the imported fertilizer? If the answer is no then it doesn’t make sense that you can give one supplier to supply D compound the whole country. That is corruption. That is single sourcing and giving one person, under the guise that he’s going to set up a plant and produce from here. In any case how much do these same people setting up the industries paying the workers?”
He said he will be closely watching the activities surrounding the same supplier, as he will also be interested to see the price at which the same fertilizer will be sold.
“But I can tell you there are vested interests in there. That is why sometimes it’s not right for a head of state to make certain statements because the head of state is the alpha and Omega,” Kambwili said.
“Immediately you hear State House is talking about it then you know there are underlying shorthands in there.”
He said instead of displaying graphs at State House, President Hichilema should have been explaining to Zambians why Dolika Banda resigned from the ZCCM-IH board chairpersonship, whom he thanked saying he was happy there were still people of integrity in this country because most people were interfered with but stayed put for fear of losing their jobs.
State House said President Hichilema remained chairman of the Industrial Development Corporation because he was simply obeying the bad law which was left in place by the PF for him to do so.
But Kambwili said that argument was very laughable saying the problem with President Hichilema is that he does the opposition of what he says.
“It’s very difficult to trust this President. Extremely difficult to trust the man,” he said, arguing that the President said he had repealed the defamation of the president law and have entered nolles in favour of all the UPND cadres who were facing charges over that same law against Lungu but Raphael Nakachinda was still appearing in court over the same laws, including a 78-year old lady for allegedly defaming Hichilema.
He said President Hichilema has refused to do anything about repealing the law on his continued stay on the IDC board because he is benefiting, and that he was always giving excuses depending on where he stood on matters where he had interests.
He said the IDC was in fact aimed at revitalising existing parastatals and to continue planting parastatals to rebuild the 266 companies which were privatised in order to create a manufacturing industry for creation of jobs, and not in the manner it was operating.
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