National Democratic Congress president Chishimba Kambwili says the PF cadres who hacked Patriots for Economic Progress leader Sean Tembo last week are well known but police are hesitant to arrest them.

And Kambwili says President Edgar Lungu’s recent trip to Abu Dhabi was a missed call because he found no solutions to Zambia’s current problems like load shedding.

Meanwhile Kambwili has vowed to fight Bill 10 politically.

In an interview, Kambwili said those who hacked Tembo during his peaceful protest against fire trucks were the same ones who had been causing havoc during by-elections.

He said it was also the same group that insulted him in Luanshya but lamented that police were hesitant to arrest them.

“Let me condemn those who attacked Sean Tembo, that is barbaric! Every Zambian must condemn what happened but this is typical of PF! If it was an election, there we would have said it’s the UPND, it is the opposition; but here is a man [conducting a] peaceful demonstration which started peacefully from Mandahill, everyone was just looking at him as he was demonstrating and you go and hack him. And it is the same people who hacked people in Roan with Bowman Lusambo. Those people come from City Market, they operate from Soweto Market and most of them are not Zambians but Congolese. Those who were insulting me in Luanshya, [it is] the same group. That is the same barbaric group and police must move in. I appeal to my elder brother and friend President Edgar Lungu, please control this situation, it is getting out of hand. For once, direct the IG to arrest these people. Even within PF circles they know who did that but is because we have given it lip service. I feel sorry for my brother Sean and on behalf of the NDC, we sincerely apologize for what happened,” Kambwili said.

“I have seen something going round on social media that one Maxwell Chongu was boasting in some group called Guru that he was a war planner and that he is the one who planned what happened to Sean Tembo and that the next person to be disfigured is Chishimba Kambwili. Let me tell that Chongu that he can go ahead and do what he wants on my life but he must know that prosperity will judge him very harshly. And if what is being said on social media is true, police should have arrested Chungu by now. What are they waiting for? That same group of people, they are a group that Bowman (Lusambo) uses, they are the same group that Kaizer (Zulu) uses, and they are a group that are used to hack certain people. They are from Kanyama and they are found at Soweto Market.”

He said he had offered information of this gang’s home addresses to the police but that no action was taken.

“The last time they insulted me, some informer called me and I called him in the presence of the police that ‘I know where these people live, we can carry out an operation tonight, their homes I know them’ did police take it up? They told me ‘no we will get back to you’, I gave a statement in order to round them up now that we have got someone who knows where they [live], have they even gotten back to me? And the guy (informer) keeps on phoning me ‘what is happening? I know where these people are’. Now you can see that these people are just sent. They are a special militia against the opposition and the people of Zambia,” Kambwili said.

And Kambwili described President Lungu’s recent visit to Abu Dhabi as a missed call.

During the visit, President Lungu submitted four priority infrastructure development projects to the Abu Dhabi Fund for financing consideration; rehabilitating of the 238 kilometres of the Serenje –Mpika road, upgrading of the 225 kilometer Kasela–Kaoma road, rehabilitating the Beit bridge which links Zambia to Zimbabwe, and re-developing “Misisi and Chibolya unplanned settlements” located on prime land within 1.5 kilometres of the central business district in Lusaka city.

But Kambwili said such projects were not a priority at the moment.

“The question that a reasonable person would ask is that what is it that we are lacking in Zambia? That should be a starting a point. The question is very simple. It is one: we have a shortage of electricity, secondly; we don’t have employment because we don’t have industries. Our agriculture sector needs investment in terms of irrigation so that we can have an all-year irrigation in order for us to create jobs and obviously to create wealth. So, all the projects the President went to negotiate to have debt again under the debt situation are not a priority. So, for me, that travel was a pure waste of resources. Today, what we want to hear from the President is to go out to look for money and industrialize, to look for money and sort out the electricity situation by creating alternative sources of energy such as coal powered electrical generation projects such as nuclear etc,” he said.

“You see, this is what people think that projects under this government are motivated by commissions because those are quick jobs you can do and get commissions. So for me, this trip was a total missed call because we have done a lot of damage to the economy as a result of infrastructure.”

He said most of President Lungu’s trips did not materialize into anything positive for the country.

“In India, they said they will give us rice and milk, where is the rice and milk? We haven’t seen it up to now. I haven’t seen a positive outcome from the travels, those travels are just public relations. What happened in Saudi Arabia? They promised they would give us fuel which will reduce the fuel pump price to five per cent per liter, has it ever happened? We are quick when we travel to come and inform the nation ‘this is what we have achieved’ but there is nothing that we have achieved year in year out, there is absolutely nothing that we have achieved. So these Presidential travels must be looked at in the [Tanzanian President John] Magufuli way otherwise we are wasting resources! There is no way you can go and prioritize infrastructure development,”Kambwili said.

Meanwhile, Kambwili vowed to fight Bill 10 in a political way since the Judiciary was unable to intervene.

“That ruling is a dark day for Zambia but dark as it may be, we will respect it. But we are going to fight this thing politically because it is a political issue and now that the Judiciary has ruled otherwise, we have to fight politically. And only the political issue will save the Constitution from being raped by those who don’t care and think they will be in office in perpetuity. Sooner or later, it will work against them. But we trust the [UPND] MPs and our MP will be up against in it in parliament and it will not see the day of light,” said Kambwili.