Renowned PF election strategist Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) has asked Zambians to believe him when he says the time is ripe for the country to change its leadership because he knows the behind the scenes story of how Presidents are elected to State House.

Speaking in an interview with News Diggers! KBF revealed that there was too much corruption in PF, especially during elections.

“I have worked with Presidents. I have pushed Presidents into State House. I have sat and strategised on national elections. I have sat and ran elections, I know what goes on behind the scenes. But I also know the kind of people we are putting in office and I am saying now is the time to change. We should come up with new strategies of who we put in office because it’s not just the question of ninkwata ulupiya (I have money), let’s not just put the people with money in office. Let’s not just put noisy people in office because they are able to talk or are courageous, no! What are they bringing to the table? What we have is a crop of politicians who only visit the electorate when there is an election. They visit the electorate not to go and educate them but to entertain them for a vote, I am not interested in that. I am interested in damaging the ignorance of our people so that those people begin to change,” he said.

And KBF testified that there was a lot of corruption in the election process in Zambia that allows political to build cartels.

“There is corruption sometimes in elections, people buy position. Even in these district and ward elections there is corruption going on. I know that. There are some people with money buying positions. What are they doing? They are trying to put people in office so that these people can nominate them for 2021, they are building curtails. And I am challenging the chairperson of elections Yamfwa Mukanga to look into this. It’s dangerous, we don’t want a party that is divided as we go into 2021. We don’t want giving people positions because they were given K300,” he said.

“I sent people to go and witness what was happening in Chongwe, there were people paying to put people in Chongwe, I know that, I have run elections I know… If we are going to have people who will be sitting in offices but don’t belong there, we’ve got a weak party, we will be weak in 2021. We don’t need that because of one person who wants to come and claim some Provincial Chairmanship or some Provincial women Chairmanship or Secretarial Province, no! The party is bigger than one person. We can’t have that. Corruption in the party is rife and we must stop it? We must get the best people for the next positions because they have the ability. Not because people have been bought and corrupted to do what they have to do, it’s wrong.”

He was speaking in an interview with News Diggers! when asked to elaborate his short Facebook posting last week.

“What I meant by saying ‘enough is enough”, I was simply saying there is too much intra party fighting within PF, there is too much inter party fighting between and amongst political parties. There is too much poverty, there is too much of allowing foreigners to take over our space. There is too much allowing foreigners to take over even the little businesses that Zambians should be doing. We’ve got Rwandese taking over all the corners for shops when Zambians are watching. And no one seems to be speaking for them. You have within the party a lot of in-house fights… And no one seems to be stopping it. Inter-party fighting, especially during elections and no one seems to be stopping it. There is no strong voice that is saying ‘hang on, stop this’,” KBF observed.

“Our baby is Zambia, first of all, we must look at the Zambians because without Zambia bonse nga tatulimo muno (we all wouldn’t have been here’. So there must be that element in everyone’s mind to say ‘we’ve had enough!’ We have had enough of our businesses being stolen, our economy being marooned and taken in different directions. We don’t want that. All those aspects lead me to say ‘enough!’ So this where now Zambians should come and say… like Jesus drew a line and said apa tatwachilepo ‘we will not exceed this line’.”

On the Black Mountain accident that claimed 11 lives, KBF said whether the miners were illegally scavenging or not, they remained Zambian citizens who deserved to be treated with honour.

“I was in Kitwe fortnight ago and I found an accident on the black mountain. People died, who has taken responsibility over the black mountain accident? No one, that’s serious. You can’t say the people who were mining at the mine were illegal miners, they are Zambians first. So whether they are illegal or not they are Zambians. Who put them in that position that should be doing illegal mining? We must take responsibility, if you had given them things to do better than that, they wouldn’t have been there. But they were there to make a living. Why? Survival! Why do school girls run around and get pregnant? Survival! Why do college girls get sugar daddies? Survival! Why did those kids go to the black mountain? It’s survival! But someone is not breaking that ignorance to say ‘ hang on, you can do better’. That’s the kind of leadership that we need. Not leaving things to run on remote,’ he said.

KBF encouraged Zambians to take stoke of the damage that had been done to the country at the hands of foreigners under the current regime.

“Let’s take stock of what has happened to us. How do we move forward from here? This requires leadership, it requires political will. It requires the leadership of this country to take the direction which must say ‘what we have been in the past is not what it should be going forward’. Otherwise, we will be going in circles, doing the same things all over again, allowing too much of our space being taken. The next thing, we are going to have foreigners as journalists here, there will be foreigners coming to sit as lawyers, there will be foreigners coming to sit as doctors, foreigners sitting as engineers if they haven’t taken that already. And then why are we going to school? And if we are as poor as we claim when asking for aid, why is it that foreigners are rushing into Zambia?” he wondered.

“I have got a copy of this [Seventh National Development Plan], what’s the aim of this thing? Without leaving anyone behind. How do you not leave anyone behind when two-thirds of the Zambian population doesn’t understand it? They live in the rural areas and you haven’t explained this to them. So wherever I go I explain this (pointing to the 7NDP document). Unfortunately, half the Cabinet doesn’t understand this, I am sorry to say even in there own unit they don’t they don’t understand it. So how do you expect to implement something which you don’t understand? How? I won’t mention names, but there are concepts in here which I know are beyond the understanding of some members of Cabinet. So let’s damage the ignorance even in cabinet.”

And KBF observed that the education system in Zambia was not inclusively encompassing and tailored to cover various children’s talents’ developments needs.

“There is something we are not doing right with our education system. We are not educating our kids the right way, our curriculum in our education must be skilled. Take up those kids that are talented in football, art, drama and music, push them in that direction and improve that industry without having to wait for them to fail there education. We must be able to take up that talent at a tender age and move with it. So when I say ‘enough is enough ‘ I am trying to say it is enough that Kaunda educated us, we had free education but we who are now educated must be saying ‘what are we going to do with this education? Is it business as usual or we can change things to suit our new generation which is coming behind?’ It can’t be business as usual,” lamented KBF.

“We must stop that politically, emotionally, psychologically, everything. We must change as a people … starting from now, the kind of politics I want to do, I want to go on a particularly different path and show people if you don’t have this, there will be a very big problem with you. It’s not about paying youths to go and beat up people. Change needs people to tell you that ‘you are more than a machine to beat up people, you’ve got potential which you need to use’. And that potential can be economic potential, financial potential… that kind of life, so that people could begin to see that they’ve got potential.”