President Edgar Lungu must reflect on the statements he makes at the airport because he is embarrassing us, says Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili.

And Kambwili has questioned the purchase of ambulances for the Ministry of Health at $288,000 each when the same cost around $70,000.

Briefing the press at his house yesterday, Kambwili said President Lungu was an embarrassment.

“How can you go to the airport and start warning the judges? What has come in your head President Lungu? You think you will be in State House forever? You think you will be in State House in perpetuity? You think you will be on power forever? Please Lungu, our humble President, reflect on your behaviour because you have become an embarrassment to the people of Zambia and my only appeal to you is please, try by all means to keep quiet when you go to the airport. Because I have said this before and I want to say it again, when you go to the airport, that is when you issue statements that do not make sense. My dear brother if you are human, apologise to the judges, apologise to my dear brothers and withdraw that statement. And let me tell you in the strongest terms, Zambia will never have chaos if you don’t stand in 2021, in any case you are the worst President this country has ever seen,” Kambwili said.

“And let me tell you in case people are lying to you. If you go on the ground, you are very unpopular. You have destroyed PF because of your unreasonable rantings and actions. What you said in Livingstone is unreasonable, childish and out of this world. Yesterday I met some donors for your own information and some members of the diplomatic call, they are so disappointed with what you said and if you heard, you wouldn’t come out of State House for one week. But you have no shame, you have embarrassed us enough. Reflect on your statements, Zambia does not belong to you, you have become too arrogant, you check when you talk what comes out of your mouth, it is not presidential…it appears this man just hallucinates.”

He said it was hypocritical for President Lungu at ask UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to accept the outcome of the 2016 election when he was telling the nation that he would not accept being disqualified to stand in 2021.

“You have been telling HH, accept the results, accept defeat, now you are telling us that when the court rules you will not accept, hypocrisy is the worst kind of behaviour that you can live with. But we know, you want to remain in State House because of the Skeletons that you have in your cupboard. And I want to warn all of you who are corrupt in PF that your days are numbered. Don’t think that the way people are acquitted is how you will be acquitted, no!” Kambwili exclaimed.

And Kambwili questioned the purchase of ambulances at $288,000.

“For your own information, a Land cruiser hardtop from Toyota Zambia costs US$60,000. Now when you look at the things that are in that ambulance that they have bought from Savenda at US$288,000, there is only a bed, small shelf, and a bench for paramedics. If you add up the cost of those three items I have mentioned, they will not exceed US$5,000, meaning therefore that an ambulance would only cost, to the most, US$70,000, a fully equipped ambulance, a Landcruiser that is duty free because government does not pay duty…Now countrymen, are we going to allow a situation where an ambulance can be purchased at US$ 288,000 and we are quiet watching?” Kambwili asked.

He insisted that President Lungu could not fight corruption because he himself was corrupt.

“I am convinced beyond reasonable doubt President Edgar Lungu is corrupt himself and he has no political will to fight corruption because he is corrupt Zambian number one. This is straightforward, we can go to Toyota Zambia and get a quotation and see how much we bought Landcruiser ambulances before, did they cost US$288,000? The answer is no. Why are we allowing a few individuals in government to be exaggerating costs of some of these things and pocketing the money and we are all watching? I am telling you Zambians, by the time Edgar Lungu finishes his term in 2021, Zambia will be bankrupt because it appears we Zambians are docile; we don’t want to participate in running this country,” Kambwili said.

“Please Edgar Lungu, for once act like a Head of State. Why are you failing, for Heaven’s sake, to investigate all these allegations of corruption? And when we talk, you say ‘bring evidence’. What more evidence do you want because I am giving you the evidence? The cost of an ambulance at Toyota Zambia would be roughly US$70,000 and your Ministry of Health has bought the same ambulances at US$288,000, what more evidence do you want?”

Meanwhile, Kambwili advised Vice-President Inonge Wina to stop defending the indefensible.

“As Vice-President, we expect you to advise the President. It is in black and white that the President was warning the judges. How can the Vice-President say he is CEO, is that how you give counsel? You go in public to castigate people then you call it counsel? If the President wanted to give counsel, he should have called the Chief Justice and said please can you advise your judges to do the right thing. [But you go in public, you start warning people, then the whole of the Vice-President says ‘he was just giving counsel’. Ala you can’t defend the undefendable ba mayo. Mwalalenga abantu bamusule naimwe, twaliimucindika, nimwe ba mayo, nankoko ufukatila abana (you let people lose respect for you, we respect you as our mother, who protects her children). Your duty is to advise the President, kabiyeni ku State House and advise; it’s either you get it or leave it. Elo batila munshebwa aile namashinsha kubuko, so ba tata aba Lungu, mwiyaluka ba munshebwa (they say a person who despises counsel went to his in-laws soiled, so dad Lungu, don’t turn into a person who despises counsel),” said Kambwili.