By Mubanga Mubanga
The current load shedding the country is experiencing has nothing to do with drought, but the government is exporting electricity to other countries, Socialist Party deputy secretary general Antonio Mwanza has said.
Speaking during his appearance on 5FM Burning Issues programme yesterday, Mwanza said Zambia’s current load shedding situation was because the government was exporting power to neighboring countries.
“You have heard the story that no because kuli drought, drought ina bwela liti (When did the drought come)? If we go to the Zambezi River Authority and check the water levels … and remember they are only talking about Kariba but we have Kafue Gorge… Kafue Gorge lower, why are they not talking about it? We have Lisuwasi, why are they not talking about it? We have the Bangweulu Solar project, Ngonye solar project, why are they not talking about those things? Why do they want to be talking just about Kariba?” Mwanza asked. “(It’s) because they think we don’t read, they think we don’t know. If you go to the Zambezi River Authority today, the water levels we have today are slightly higher than the water levels we had in 2021. And we didn’t have this kind of load shedding, so this load shedding is not as a result of the drought, this load shedding is because it is exporting power at the expense of the Zambian people. Bagulisa ma laiti ku Namibia, ku Congo bagulisa ma laiti, ku Botswana bagulisa ma laiti. Apa bafuna ku gulisa ma laiti ku South Africa (They are selling power to Namibia, Congo and Botswana, they are also planning on starting selling to South Africa).”
Mwanza further said the UPND are smooth “criminals” who are stealing money through maize import and export.
“Why were they hell bent on exporting all our maize? Because they were the ones who were eating, and they are very smart sibaja ba kawalala ba K2, aba ni ma smooth criminals ba pa level inangu (they are not thieves who steal small amounts like K2 but they are smooth criminals who are on another level). So they use legislation, they use government legislation to steal, when they were exporting the maize, they removed export duties,” he said.
Mwanza further said despite the difficulties the country was going through currently, the President was quiet and just playing politics with his opponents.
“Who would have thought that the President Hakainde Sammy Hichilema will one day stand and say that when you throw punches at me, l will retaliate by going for your neck? Who would have thought those words would come from the President? People don’t have mealie-meal, loadshedding but he is quiet,” said Mwanza.
