Former Foreign Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba says government must tame the Chinese or else Zambians will tell the PF to get their votes from the foreign nationals in 2021.

And Kalaba says Zambians must not only vote to out President Edgar Lungu in 2021, but remove the entire PF from power.

Meanwhile, Kalaba says he does not intend to stay any longer in the PF because he has Presidential ambitions he needs to establish ahead of 2021.

Speaking when he featured on Prime Television’s Oxygen of Democracy programme, Monday, Kalaba, who is also Bahati PF member of parliament, said Zambians must reclaim their country which is now being run by the Chinese through PF.

“This country must be called to order, there must be a point where you should say ‘you can’t cross this line’. I can be poor but someone can’t just come in my house because they’ve got more dollars than myself and say they are going to sleep in my bedroom and I should sleep in the sitting room, no! There must be places, there must be areas which are sacrosanct. Even in our poverty as a people we claim sovereignty, not the way we are losing sovereignty in this fashion. We can’t lose sovereignty in that fashion, no ways! All I am saying is that the Chinese need to be tamed, if Zambians should rise against anybody, they should rise against the leaders that they elected. The PF leaders must be told that the ones who will vote for you in 2021 are the Chinese because they are the ones you are giving businesses, they are the ones you are giving preference to. You are not giving the Zambians preference,” Kalaba said.

“So Zambians wherever they are, yes they must stand up and stop these jokes. Yes they must stand up and tell them ‘enough is enough’. We have tried this path, they have played this game and it is not working. We have to curtail this, it is Zambians that are suffering because their leaders are refusing to talk for them. Zambians are own their own. But anyway they are lucky because we are here, we are here to come and stop this nonsense. In fact, government, who do they listen to? What is government? That’s why I said ‘while you get a sit at that table of governance, you don’t own the government’. The people of Zambia own the government and that is why I am telling the people of Zambia that let us tell the PF in 2021 that we have come back to reclaim our government. We need our Zambia back into our hands, we need our youths and our women to have access to capital, which they no longer can have. Look, in other countries they even have cooperatives where they put people together and give them contracts. What kind of country is this where we don’t have any cooperatives for our people?”

Kalaba observed that President Lungu was not able to perform his functions because he had been swallowed by the system.

“If you have followed my debates very well, I hardly bring President Lungu in my debates because what is going on now in this country is beyond President Lungu, that’s why I don’t talk about him. For me, when I talk about the PF going out [in 2021], I don’t mean President Lungu going out alone. We are seeking to fundamental change the status quo, we are looking for a change of just the party this time around… I think I have said it on other for a and I will say it again, we are talking about a failed leadership in the Patriotic Front. We are talking about a leadership that has failed to synchronize itself with the people, right now, the system of government has swallowed the President. The President has been held hostage by the system, that’s why I am saying that we are looking for more than a change of party in State House,” Kalaba explained.

“We are going to fundamentally change the status quo because it is the system that has failed to respond to the people of Zambia. And if you are not strong and firm enough as you get taken up, as a leader of the country you get swallowed. What we don’t have in this country is just leadership. If we can replace that leadership with a leadership that is affirmative… I mean look, the President was in Parliament on Friday, listen to his speech and how he came to the defence of the Chinese. He didn’t defend the Zambians, he was defending the Chinese more and he was literally warning Zambians ‘be careful, don’t lie about this. It won’t help you no matter how much you shout against the Chinese. We will continue with relationship’. Now, where does that leave an ordinary Zambian? Where will an ordinary Zambians now get the courage to stand up to a Chinese who was also listening?”

Meanwhile, Kalaba said his time in the PF was almost up.

“My time to leave PF is coming, that time is coming and I don’t anticipate it will very far. Watch the space… Calling me president Kalaba sounds good and in 2021, it will be sounding great. I am going to stand for president in 2021, people have said I should stand and that’s why the Democratic Party has written to me. I have read their manifesto and I think the Democratic Party needs to be supported. All Zambians must stand up and support he Democratic Party if this country has to be redeemed,” said Kalaba.