People’s Party president Mike Mulongoti says President Edgar Lungu does not care how much Zambians are taxed now because he has forgotten that it is ordinary Zambians who got him into State House.

Commenting on President Lungu’s assertion that the country must move on from the newly-introduced 30 ngwee per day Internet tariff because Zambians had already accepted it, Mulongoti said the Head of State is a heartless person who only cares about himself.

President Lungu has directed the Ministry of Communications to finalise the Statutory Instrument (SI) to effect the 30 ngwee Internet calling tariff, alleging that people have already accepted it.

But Mulongoti, a former Information Minister, reminded President Lungu that the people he was burdening with taxes today are the ones who put him into office.

“For me, some things he (President Lungu) says I don’t take them seriously because he always has a hangover. When someone has got a hangover, they tend to simplify things because that’s how alcohol works. President Lungu doesn’t understand the suffering of the people because he’s in the comfort zone. For him, everything is paid for by the people of Zambia, so to him, that 30 ngwee Internet tariff means nothing! And you see how people who don’t have a heart for the people behave? He is flying to China now, he’s all over, but at whose cost and what justification is there? He’s gone to China and he will be back after he has drunk a lot of alcohol and he will not tell us anything, it’s a waste of time! But what he’s saying about those [speed] cameras and the tariffs he’s saying from his heart, that’s how cruel he is,” Mulongoti said.

“There is nothing the people of Zambia have done wrong, in fact, if the people of Zambia didn’t give him (President Lungu) comfort, by now he would have been history. It’s the people of Zambia who made him live long by voting for him. He can be so arrogant now and even laugh at other people who he thinks are not in good health and they don’t support him. This is very unfortunate for a man who came from Chawama, if he was still in Chawama that man could not be here today. But it’s just his cruelty, which is motivating him today that he’s even speaking like that. There is nothing you can say about a cruel man; he’s just cruel like that. Just look at him, he goes out of the country when he knows that civil servants have not been paid. Government has taken all the money to fund his trip, but in the meantime, the civil servants who work for him have not been paid. That’s how cruel this President is, to him nothing else matters and with his hangover, each time he wakes up, he thinks all is bliss. But that’s unacceptable.”

Meanwhile, Mulongoti charged that the Head of State was so interested in addressing all the interests of mobile service providers because government officials were getting kickbacks from the three mobile service providers in Zambia, namely; MTN, Zamtel and Airtel.

“If he’s got time to think, what he should do is this: can he examine the services being rendered by the three mobile providers in this country, is it perfect? People have been complaining for a long time over the shoddy services being rendered. Now, when you render shoddy services, do you expect a client who is always aggrieved to pay you happily? That’s the first thing government should do; they should find out if the service providers are doing what they are supposed to do efficiently. The cost of using phones in Zambia is very high, but can the President understand that when everything is paid for him? Us who feel the pain can tell you that those cell phones companies could have closed a very long time ago if they were not making profit. Those are capitalists; they have no wish to do charity. Their interest is to make profit and they are ripping huge amounts. If you examine what they make per month, it’s more than KCM does. So, what’s the point of them crying?” asked Mulongoti.

“But this is why I am saying that, when you have your priorities in the wrong direction, you end up becoming a salesman for a mobile company. Surely, how can the President be protecting the mobile providers? What is his interest? His interest must be the people of Zambia, those people who have come to set up those companies are here because they are making a killing and that money is coming from the people of Zambia. I have never heard him condemn these cell phone providers for their shoddy services. But he wants to justify the fact that he wants to get that 30 ngwee from us, that’s how heartless this man is and since the tendency in his government is corruption, how do we know? Maybe, they are beneficiaries from the mobile providers. They should tell us why they have become marketing people for the mobile providers; there is a story in your paper where Honourable Harry Kalaba was saying that all these leaders are doing business with KCM that’s why they can’t tell them anything! We are now beginning to think that maybe they eat from mobile providers, too. And if we check properly we surely find something. Knowing these characters, that’s their habit.”