National Democratic Congress (NDC) leader Chishimba Kambwili says although he is being squeezed economically, he has no intentions of re-joining the PF.

And Kambwili says he can only consider rejoining PF when all the thieves have been chucked out.

Speaking when he featured on Prime TV’s Oxygen of Democracy, Monday, Kambwili lamented that PF had destroyed his businesses.

“I have been very consistent, don’t just look at me like things are okay. They have squeezed me economically very badly to the bone and this kind of nonsense must come to an end where if somebody is in the opposition, and because he is opposing you, you squeeze his businesses! I started business in 1993, long before I even joined active politics, but you have destroyed my businesses on the basis of politics because I am telling you the truth? I want to tell you that political office is very temporal. I will not mind if I don’t do business today, I will wait until you are out of office and I will do business. I will suffer a bit but after 2021, I will start business again. Lesa nga ami pala mwa wina na (when God blesses and you win) 2021, 2026 will be coming, I will wait. The money that I am owed by government, which I have not been paid, I don’t mind. I will be paid with interest. It’s the same as the money is in the bank, it’s a waste of time to instruct people not to pay me the money that I worked for genuinely. You just direct that ‘don’t pay Mwamona Engineering;’ the money is in the bank, once you are out of office we will be paid and you must think of the consequences, you don’t pay me today I won’t mind, the day I will be paid I will be paid with interest,” Kambwili said.

“Today, my brother, I cannot do any business in this country, wherever I go to ask for business, the government goes there to scare them! There are monies that I worked for, certain projects I did for the government that I have not been paid since 2014 to-date. All the other contractors were paid except Mwamona Engineering, up to now. There are some jobs that we were doing for some parastatal company, they were terminated without cause, without reason. Matters are in court and I don’t want to dwell on matters in court. I have been squeezed economically, but I can tell you that no matter how they squeeze me, I will never go and plead with them that ‘please napapata, nalafwa ku nsala, njeleleniko, tubombe pamo, mumpeleko business!’ (Please I beg you, I will die of hunger, forgive me…let’s work together so that you can give me business), I will never do that because my difference is on principal and making sure that the right thing is done.”

He complained that despite suffering for the ruling party from its inception, the PF had treated him like a leper.

“I have been arrested on trumped up charges and taken to prison several times, at one time, I was bundled in a vehicle from Lusaka to Luanshya for merely speaking on behalf of the AVIC employees! What happened was that they entered a nolle prosequi. Today, I am appearing in court on about five, six charges and I don’t want to talk about cases. I have been treated like a leper by my own brothers and sisters belonging to a political party that I suffered to build. Ine, the party I suffered for, I used my personal money to fund that the party, its leadership of today has killed my businesses forgetting that what they are enjoying today, the same businesses that they have killed from the mining sector and all that are the businesses that funded the existence of the Patriotic Front and for that I have forgiven them because vengeance is for God,” he said.

Asked whether he was willing to return to the PF given a change of leadership, Kambwili said he could only consider going back after all the thieves and the corrupt elements had been weeded out.

“No, I haven’t said that, I was only saying a possibility of all the thieves in PF, being chucked out, clean up the PF, bring it back to the way it was with Micheal Sata where it was allergic to corruption, where it was caring about the poor people, maybe, we can say, rethink our position. But at the current state of affairs, li sengo lya mbwa! (it’s like a horn of a dog, it’s impossible!),” replied Kambwili.

“My thinking on that appeal is that where the Patriotic Front is today, it has reached a point of no return in terms of leadership because the current leadership of the PF is not inspiring for anybody to even think of going to work with them because there is absolutely no way that you can decide to go and work with a leadership that has sent this country on the trajectory of poverty. There is no way that you can think of working with a leadership that has failed to even sort the issue of load shedding, there is no way you can work with a leadership that doesn’t not see the difference between high cost of living and the general salaries or earnings of its citizenry, particularly the miners, the civil servants, the police man, nurse the doctors etcetera, life today has become unbearable!”