Chishimba Kambwili says President Edgar Lungu has given Zambians enough reasons for impeaching him, saying the sooner the process starts the better for the country, because the Head of State has demonstrated his lack of capacity to lead the nation.

And the PF media team yesterday promptly moved in to defend the President’s controversial statement made during a PF dinner event in Ndola.

During the PF fundraising gala, the Head of State said Zambia belonged to PF and PF belonged to Zambia.

“My first remarks are to simply thank you for finding time to come and congregate here and support the cause of the party, PF, which is the cause of the people. PF belongs to Zambia and Zambia belongs to PF. Whether you voted for us, whether you believed in us or whether you despised us, we are in charge,” President Lungu said.

“There was a time that people believed that PF is full of ignoramuses, people who knew nothing and have never been to school, that was the selling point of the opposition, mwiba sala aba taba sambilila but look at what we have done, we have transformed the economy of this country because we listened to you the educated. There is no secret to being successful as a leader, just listen to the wise guys around you and you succeed. ‘Edgar Lungu is not an economist therefore he will grind this country to a halt’ but look at where we are, the only accusation now is ‘the rains can’t come to Zambia because of PF’, now the rains have come, I don’t know what they will say.”

President Lungu concluded his remarks with a Bemba expression “ubomba mwibala alila mwibala”, which is commonly used to justify pilferage, as it loosely translates “he who works in the cornfield eats what is in the cornfield”.

“I am glad that finally this gathering has taken place, I should have come here much much earlier but your patience has paid because I am sure the numbers have swelled and the 10 million you were talking about has been achieved tonight. We came into government without money, so we will leave government without money but the Zambian people will get all the benefits, that must be made very clear. We are your servants, we listen to you, but finally, and most importantly, those of you in charge of managing these resources, please don’t let these people of Zambia down. There is a saying I used two days ago and I will use it again ubomba mwibala alila mwibala but tabatila ati ulye nembuto kumo (he who works in the cornfield eats what is in the cornfield, but don’t even everything including the seeds),” said President Lungu.

“We have had, even projects like this one end up going in the ground because people end up eating everything. That’s why there is what we call contingency. If what you want is to be paid for this project, please tell us so that we provide 10 per cent contingency so that you don’t steal our money. Several times, well meaning projects have ended up in shame, in ruin because the people managing them have not behaved properly. Let this be a start so that people can learn from us that we can be trusted with their contribution of trust in the party and I can tell you that if we handle this money properly, K10 million is nothing, we can be talking about K25 million in a very short time. Good deeds will inspire others to give us the money but immediately they hear that there is misappropriation of the moneys and they cant see where the money is going, they will withdraw quietly. I am saying this seriously because we have just reviewed a report that the party just contributed 10 boreholes to the Copperbelt and three of them have ended up at officials residencies and we are investigating that. Ten boreholes were donated to the party to give to the communities and vulnerable groups but three of these have ended up in households or farms belonging to some officials. So we will investigate and there is nothing like ‘I will refund, Kamfinsa has got room for one more criminal.”

Immediately the President made the statement, PF youths present at the event started circulating a video clip, accusing President Lungu of encouraging theft.

Noticing the social media backlash, PF media director Sunday Chanda tried to justify the statement from the President.

“Following a video being circulated by opposition members, let me state that ‘Uubomba Mwibala, alya Mwibala lelo tabatila ulye nembuto Kumo’, is a Bemba idiom meaning that while a person is expected to be rewarded in a manner they deserve from their labour, they are not permitted to consume the seed (What they don’t deserve),” said Chanda.

But Kambwili said time to impeach Preisdent Lungu was now.

“That is corruption. The President is encouraging corruption because that man is corrupt, I have said it. I don’t know how many times I am going to say that this man doesn’t mean well for Zambia. It is high time the Zambians kicked him out of office. How can a president be encouraging corruption? That means that you are supposed to pilfer from where you operate, from where you work from and I think it is unfortunate that you can have a president who can say such things. Of late, the man has become very careless in the way he talks, but that is typical of people who have accumulated so much wealth that they have not worked for. So you can forgive him, the man is drunk with the money that he has not worked for. It is unfortunate that the president can be the one to say that ubomba mwibala alya mwibala. It is extremely unfortunate,” said Kambwili.

“He is not consistent with what he says, just three, four days ago he was opening that seminar for ministers and he was discouraging people from misappropriation of money and corruption, then four days down the line he goes to say ‘ubomba mwibala alya ifya mwibala so what kind of a man is he? We have a problem and I think the faster we start impeachment procedures, the better for us Zambians. The man needs to be impeached. And I want to thank the people of Mufulira for showing him, telling him that enough is enough. They refused to go for his meeting, he was addressing small children in Mufulira. Thank you to the people of Mufulira for saying no to corruption, no to bad governance.”