Rainbow Party General Secretary Winter Kabimba says President Edgar Lungu is deliberately governing Zambia in a state of confusion so that he can perpetuate his stay in office.
And Kabimba says Zambia’s Constitution deserves to have the prefix “useless” because it is adding to confusion in the country.
Speaking during Hot FM’s Hot Seat program, Thursday, Kabimba said the blunders which President Lungu and his government were making were not accidental but deliberate.
“This government has made so many blunders, that is why they will be kicked out of office in 2021. It is all chaos. We are already in chaos if you are not [aware], African Presidents deliberately govern countries in chaos so that they perpetuate their stay in power. This is what Lungu is doing today. It’s total chaos and the people don’t know what is happening. All this is meant for his perpetuated stay in power. It’s not mistakes, its deliberate,” Kabimba said.
And Kabimba said Zambia’s constitution was useless.
“Over the constitutional making process, I don’t think the PF know what it is doing. They have completely no idea how to handle this. They have to pay me so that I advise them as a lawyer. Firstly, they enacted a constitution which they have just some to realize that it is an obnoxious document. Terrible document. The constitution amendment act number 2 of 2016, very bad law, very contradictory in a number of provisions. And they thought at the time that that was the best. They thought they had scored 10-0 especially when they came from the background that Wynter Kabimba had hidden the document. And I have been vindicated. Extremely vindicated. I have always been vindicated because I tell the truth and I stand on. It is a rubbish constitution. It should have the prefix useless because is it only adding to the confusion in the country,” he said.
He advised government to exercise maximum transparency if it was to salvage its image and win the confidence of the Zambian people.
“If the PF government wants to salvage its image, and win the confidence of the Zambian people, it must exercise maximum transparency in what it is doing. Because you have a parallel or media stream now which is running on social media at times with very incomplete facts about national issues. So, the PF government has a challenge. It is not doing the Zambia people a favour. We want them to come out and tell us exactly what is happening. I have a lot of respect for Felix Mutati as minister, as an individual. But as minister of government, he needs to tell the Zambian people exactly what they want to do with these pieces of land at Jacaranda and Hebert Young Hostels so that the Zambian people appreciate that if you do away with Hebert Young Hostels, there is something better that is coming up than Hebert young Hostels which again is in the interst of the Zambian people. What we don’t want to hear is that you have sold off that piece of land to the Chinese investor, private investor that is going to come here and just make money. We have to cherish every centimeter of land that we have. That is the worry of the Zambia people and it is not misplaced,” Kabimba said.
“Now that kind of infrastructure was in the interest of the Zambian people and hence the point I am making that the Ministry of Works and Supply must tell us exactly what kind of development substitution for Jacaranda football pitch is. I have never seen myself a situation where you can have a school, leave the school there, and allocate the football pitch. Where will the pupils do their recreation from? The failure of the PF government is lack of transparency. That is the failure and a government that lacks transparency is a corrupt government. Because that the only reason why you don’t want to be transparent, it’s because you are not doing things the correct way.”
Meanwhile, Kabimba insisted that ZCID was toothless and could not successfully facilitate national dialogue.
“There are a lot of issues that need to be resolved in this country by all stakeholders, and by stakeholders I mean political parties and Civil Society Organizations or Churches and even just the common people. And therefore, we need to find a platform of dialogue. However, we need the agenda about that dialogue. So, we need to find the mediator, then stakeholders can respond. The ZCID has no teeth. Even during that time when they were just formed, they failed to organize dialogue. They failed lamentably even during that time. ZCID from the beginning has never managed or succeeded in bringing political parties together. All that they have is that administrative organ called the Board of Directors, you go and attend, they pay K200.00 as allowances and incentive, that’s all. Beyond that, there is nothing that ZCID has in terms of credentials. They must not be tasked to lead this dialogue. So, the dialogue process is a serious process and I can’t support ZCID as an umpire. If we have said no to Professor Gambairi and the Commonwealth, let’s find our own eminent Zambians. The church led the dialogue process in 1991 so why can’t we learn from history and let the Church lead? The church has done it before and we believe the church can do it again,” said Kabimba.