By Daily Revelation Reporter
Chishimba Kambwili says President Hakainde Hichilema will not be granted the luxury of time as days when people used to say that it is difficult to remove ruling parties from office, especially after serving just one term of office, are now long gone.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Kambwili said arguments that it was difficult to remove a ruling party from office were now obsolete, saying such things used to happen a long time ago before people became enlightened. He said people now know how the cost of living is hitting them, including the massive unemployment and would therefore not wait for those in government to put their act together, especially if there was no sign that things would improve.
“You keep talking and the cost of living goes up. You keep talking but unemployment goes up and there is no sign that these things will be resolved, then people of Zambia will not wait for 10 years,” Kambwili said, but he would not say that he is the only one in the PF who could defeat President Hichilema, saying he has a lot of respect for his PF colleagues
But asked on the fact that the UPND administration had a justifiable argument that some of the challenges are on account of the problems created by the PF government including the unsustainable debt levels former president Edgar Lungu got the country into, Kambwili said the PF also found problems when they took over from the MMD, arguing that governments were elected to solve problems and that the UPND administration could not keep on pointing the finger towards the PF as people already removed them from office.
Kambwili said lamentations were for the governed and not for those governing.
“To me that is a very lame excuse and a sign of total failure. When UPND was coming into government they knew about these problems. Where is their plan to resolve these problems? Let them stop lamentations and focus on facing those challenges head on. There is no government in the world, there is nowhere they change governments in the world when there are no problems. They change governments because there are problems. So when you are brought in sort out the problems,” Kambwili said, saying continuing to complain one year and five months into office was a total sign of failure.
He said there was no country in the world which did not have debt problems as even the United States had a debt ratio that was higher than their GDP, yet the cost of living was not as bad. Kambwili said even in Kenya where the President has indicated that people will not be arrested for defamation of the president had huge debts, but the cost of living was not as high for the people living in that country.
And Kambwili said he did not want to give credence to Chilufya Tayali and would therefore refrain from commenting on assertions that the PF would knock him and others from seeking the party presidency using a constitutional technicality, saying they will have a central committee meeting and until the matter is discussed in that body will he comment.
Asked that his fellow presidential aspirants, Brian Mundubile has indicated that he is the best man to take over as PF president as he has been there for the party, contributing his own finances to party causes and also spearheading the committee that has been handling the petitions and that Geoffrey Bwalya Mwaba said his stints in the MMD, PF and UPND gave him the edge over the others in terms of experience, Kambwili said everybody has a right to say what they want, “but really if you are there to help petitions or if you have been just in politics for a long time…you know politics is about the vision that you have for the country and my vision is to industrialise this country to create jobs for the people.”
Kambwili said if he were given the opportunity to lead the country he would reduce the cost of energy as doing so would also reduce the cost of doing business, saying the cost of energy has since August 2021 jumped from K17 to about K28 in the case of diesel and thereby pushing the cost of living skyrocketing.
“I feel like I am the best because my vision is to industrialise this country first and foremost so that we can create the much needed jobs for the youth,” said Kambwili.
