Mazabuka Central UPND member of parliament Garry Nkombo has pledged his continued support for United Party for National Development (UPND) President Hakainde Hichilema.

Meanwhile, Nkombo says it is shocking that the PF is blocking the UPND’s Eastern Province Card Renewal Exercise when they claim it is their bedroom.

Speaking when he featured on Pan African Radio’s The Peoples’ debate program, Thursday, Nkombo said there is no need to replace HH with another candidate in 2021.

“ I want to put it clear here and now that my support, my personal support has gone, is going and will still go to Hakainde Hichilema because I know his capabilities. His win, mark my works and read my lips, his win is double my win. This is the way I would like to put it to you, we have an agenda for this country, Hakainde’s win is Garry Nkombo’s double win so those waters that you want to take me to for me are not unchartered. I don’t know what God has got for me in the future but I have said to you; in the past, in the present, in the future, me I am saying Hakainde’s win politically is Garry Nkombo’s double win. The Americans say if something is unbroken, don’t dare to fix it, what is there to fix?” Nkombo asked.

He said HH was not a political loser because his votes were stolen in 2015 and 2016.

“You have said Hakainde has lost, come on, I have just been explaining to you how we believe the ECZ helped Mr Edgar Lungu to win the election and I am not shy to say this. And if this statement I am making here now that the ECZ helped Mr. Lungu is far from the truth, let them hear our petition. To us where we stand and the reason why we are in court is because we believe with no doubt that 2015 UPND took the day, 2016 UPND took the day and even after they did their shenanigans and you know the numbers in accordance to the doctrine by saint justice Chulu, Essau Chulu, Mr. Edgar Lungu made it to the presidency with only 13, 000 votes, that is a quarter of the people who vote in my constituency alone, no contest, there had to be some, fixing, twisting, shoving, pushing and manipulation. So to those who say Hakainde has lost so many times, we are standing here and saying let them hear our case, let us bring out our facts, you then learn that to us he is not a loser, he is not, even God above knows,” Nkombo said.

And Nkombo asked government to consider shutting down Indeni Refinery in Ndola and import finished petroleum products.

“If a liter of fuel is going to move from K10 to K14 and I am moving a farm product; maize, soya beans, whatever it is to the market it means every kilometer that I cover is going to increase the cost of that particular product, the one who suffer is the end user, the one who puts the food in the mouth. This is the connection that people would not put through but it’s only logical and we don’t need to open a shop to sell logic. It would have been better, and I am saying this with a lot of respect for the people who work at Ideni, it would have been better to shut down Indeni, close it down, give them their retirement package, remove that 25% and then like Zimbabwe, like Botswana, like Namibia, like South Africa, import finished products because it would be cheaper and remove that 25% which is a burden on the ordinary Zambian. You do your simple multiplication, K13 for ordinary diesel now, remove 25% from K13 to me that should have been the real price of diesel right now,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nkombo wondered why the PF was blocking the Eastern Province UPND card renewal exercise.

“The issue of Eastern Province I want to tell you that before I came to this station, I was in the office of the Minister of Home Affairs Mr Kampyongo, I met him, I met the Inspector General of Police, I met the two PSs together with Honorable Jack Mwiimbu and Mr Felix Ngoma, basically to deal with the issue of why they would like to take our inherent fundamental rights and freedom which are not given by the government to assemble, to meet people. The police in Chipata, they told us, after we made a notice to them that we are meeting the people in Chipata to do card renewal on the 10th, they can and said no ‘we have a few challenges can you do it on the 17th’, which a day after tomorrow then they come and say no you can’t meet because there is less manpower. And accordingly we’ll write to the minister to explain to him that this is unacceptable, we would like to enjoy our inherent God given rights and freedoms to assemble and we want to engage the people of Chipata,” said Nkombo.

“In their dark corners they say this is our strong hold, there is nothing like stronghold, if it’s a stronghold, allow us to go and address ghosts. But anyway, we think we dealt with that matter in a very civilized manner, we presented ourselves before the minister, we talked at length and we are ready to take this matter to the wire, what I mean is that we are going to follow the entire route of the legal channel and have the meeting the day after tomorrow in Chipata, nothing will stop us and we made this clear to the minister that we are playing hide and seek here, you say no, your police are saying that there is no enough manpower and now the latest story is that there is cholera in Chipata and then we say to them fine, you think there is choler, are you also going to canceling the N’chwala which is coming in six days’ time? You could tell that someone is urging and who is urging, in this case is Davies Mwila, You know people power will always be greater than the power of those people who rule people. This is a principle that people must understand. Look at what has happened in Zimbabwe, look at what has happened in South Africa just yesterday. Power that is taken in an absolute way without give and take can be dangerous power, it always has a terrible end.”