Chishimba pleads with Lungu to be patriotic
By Staff Reporter
UNITED Progressive People president Saviour Chishimba says the misrule of the PF government thrives on most Zambians’ illiteracy.
And Chishimba has emphathised that he does not accept anything to do with fraud.
And Chishimba pleaded with President Edgar Lungu to be patriotic and provide service to the people of Zambia as opposed to amassing wealth for himself and his friends.
Speaking on Prime TV’s Oxygen of Democracy programme on Monday night, Chishimba said the government was taking advantage of citizens’ illiteracy to give half-baked information on re-financing of the UUS$750 million Euro bond.
“…Mind you in an economy which is not growing, it means come [after] five years, Zambia will not be able to repay because these people are looting. So, after failing to repay, they say let’s go to a company…. There are many factors we are not looking at. These people are thriving on ignorance, the illiteracy levels that are high. They can go in the compound and say this and people will not understand,” Chishimba said.
And Chishimba, who stood as a Lusaka mayoral candidate but lost on July 26, thanked the people Lusaka, saying he knew how the people voted “before the PF decided to allocate the votes in accordance with what was going to best suit their agenda of advancing their pockets and not the pockets of the people of Lusaka and Zambia at large.”
Asked if he accepted the results that saw ruling PF’s Miles Sampa emerge victorious, Chishimba responded that: “I don’t accept anything to do with fraud. Those who are accepting fraud, it means they are accomplices. But we are not accomplices.”
On how he intended to work with Sampa, the outspoken opposition leader charged that he had nothing to do with corruption and the corrupt.
“My business is with the people [and] we are going ahead, whether in Lusaka or elsewhere with the housing project. I was in Israel to go and learn how municipalities [are] run. So, when you are talking about all these urban slums that we have in this country, Zambia cannot, after 54 years of independence, have people who live with a toilet outside. People living in the capital bekele mulukungu (are wallowing in dust!)” he said.
Chishimba indicated also that he could not join the UPND because “I can’t sit on the same table with all those looters who have gone to re-group themselves there (In the UPND). Even Hakainde is already under siege….”s
He noted further that when it came to building of a nation, there came a time that patriotism must be the cornerstone of all decisions that were made.
“I don’t hate President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, for instance; I don’t hate him at all. This is somebody I ate with, I drank with in Chawama compound – the only difference is that I’m the one who was buying, he never bought me anything and I mean it. Him was on the brandy bottle. These things I’m talking about are real! The Edgar Lungu that I’m seeing now is not the Edgar Lungu that I knew. I can assure you that he is like a President who is under siege and my advice to him is all those men who have surrounded you, Mr President, learn from president Chiluba, learn from president Rupiah Banda – he was left alone….” Chishimba explained.
Meanwhile, a few minutes before the end of the programme, Chishimba knelt down in the studio and addressed President Edgar Lungu.
“Sir, you can heap up millions of dollars and think you own Zambia [but] Zambia belongs to God,” said Chishimba.
