By Patson Chilemba
Why always me, Chishimba Kambwili has moaned about being frequently involved in road accidents.
And Kambwili said he supports those asserting that the slight reduction in fuel prices is aimed at hoodwinking people, given the Kabwata by-election which the UPND fears of losing, as it will reverberate negatively on them barely six months after resoundingly winning the general elections.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Kambwili said he and his family were worried that he was always being involved in road accidents, saying with the recent one, the vehicle just flipped off the road.
But asked if he needed to address the manner in which his vehicles were driven, Kambwili said he did not drive himself and that those who drive him just drive normally.
“I just don’t understand what has been going on also. I just put it in the hands of the Lord whether it’s a general status of the road or if there is any foul play. Only God knows. I cannot start making accusations. I need to establish the facts but it’s quite strange that I can be having accidents like this. It’s very strange but I don’t want to start accusing, to point an accusing finger,” Kambwili said of the 5th road accident he has had in recent years. “We are worried, I am worried, my family is worried. Yes the roads can be bad but we travel on the same roads. But why me all the time? Why me all the time?”
And Kambwili argued that the government’s policy of reviewing fuel prices every month, showed a government which had no plan.
“My dear you cannot be playing with the price of fuel on a monthly basis because businesses will not plan. This President was telling us that he’s an economist, he’s a businessman but he knows that planning is annual, it’s quarterly but he wants people to be doing plans every month. There is no way you can run business like that,” Kambwili said. “And by the way the country is not a business, people who do that are mainly businessmen to try and maximize on their profits. But running a country you have to look at the social aspect of the country, the living standard of the people and surely you cannot be telling people to adjust every month.”
Kambwili continued.
“Salaries of people do not go up and down on a monthly basis. Is he telling us that as the price of commodities go up people will also be given salaries up? If he is saying that let him go ahead. If the price of fuel goes up, electricity up, the civil servants and all the workers must also be given a salary increment,” Kambwili said. “When the price go down they reduce the salaries also. Because this is unacceptable. It’s actually a government that doesn’t know how to plan.”
He also railed against the government’s argument not to get involved in the procurement of fuel, saying such could not be left in the hands of the private sector as they could easily sabotage the availability of fuel on the market, especially for a fragile economy like Zambia’s.
“Don’t run the country on the basis of a balance sheet, you have to weigh the living standards of the people, what challenges in the social sector do we have as a country. That’s why sometimes you need to do these subsidies in order to cushion the living standards of the people. But if these people are going to run the country by the book, using theories, they have already failed to run the country and they will not run this country,” he said.
He gave his reasons for asserting that the slight reduction in fuel was motivated by fear of losing the Kabwata parliamentary by-election, saying “you can think in that way because most of the attack on the UPND government in Kabwata has been that they promised to reduce the cost of fuel but they have increased it. And why now (reduce it)?”
“The increase in the fuel was just done some two months ago. Why today because there is a by-election in Kabwata you reduce? Taxation and things that have to do with the running of a business must be predictable in order for you to plan. You must have a predictable environment when you are planning,” said Kambwili.
More @ www.dailyrevelationzambia.com
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