By Angela Moonga
Citizens First (CF) leader Harry Kalaba says he’s not sick to endorse another presidential candidate when he is also running to become president of the country.
Featuring on a Radio programme in Mpika over the weekend, Kalaba urged people to stop “ichibeleshi (familiarity)” of claiming that he had endorsed another presidential candidate.
“I have not endorsed anyone. I am running then I begin to endorse another one who is running! Then why am I even contesting? I am not sick. They must even stop that familiarity,” Kalaba said. “I stood in 2021. I know what I want. Even I need endorsement. Let the meaning of elections be seen on August 13.”
Kalaba said God was the one who chooses leaders.
He said his running-mate Moses Mawere had chosen another path, and would not be forced to remain with the CF Orange Alliance, saying those who wanted to work with the party were many.
“Don’t be cheated when they tell you because his running-mate has withdrawn Kalaba won’t stand. Awee (No)! We are on the ballot as CF. The law is very clear that when the running-mate decides to leave the ticket is not valid,” Kalaba said. “When we win the elections we are going to out the running-mate we want. Ifyakana bankalamu bachimbwi balatola (others get take up what others have rejected). So those who have refused have actually made us full. So don’t be cheated that Kalaba is not standing. I am on the ballot. Vote on the tree.”
Kalaba argued that while the constitution stipulated that every presidential candidate must have a running-mate, there was nowhere were it was written that when a running-mate withdraws, the presidential candidate must withdraw. He said he shall choose a vice-president who will join us at swearing ceremony.
Kalaba, who served as Michael Sata’s foreign affairs minister, said if his boss had not died, Mpika – where he was speaking from – would have been developed.
He said Sata had plans to bring in the Serbians to create factories for producing jam and juices.
He also said that he would open artisanal licences for gold in Mpika, and introduce a system where traditional leaders had shares in the resource from where it was mined from, like it was in Ghana.
Kalaba said he would open an agency in Mpika that would buy the gold from the people right in Mpika rather than them having to travel to Lusaka.
He said the Great-North road needed to be developed into a dual-carriage way to reduce on accidents, and also because of its importance to the country
Kalaba urged the people of Mpika to vote for him as he was the only presidential candidate that had been visiting the area since 2021, while others only went there to get people’s votes because it was election time.
He said as opposed to people receiving fertilizer in medas, the same would be distributed through cooperatives under his government.
He bemoaned the fact that the the largest General hospital in the area, the Michael Chilufya Sata hospital, had no mortuary.
“Why did you even name the hospital after him when he was a man of action?” asked Kalaba.
