Minister of Mines Richard Musukwa says no one will succeed to remove President Edgar Lungu through the back door because the people who voted for him are happy with his leadership style.

Reacting to a directive by UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to opposition MPs to impeach President Lungu on allegations that he had breached the constitution, Musukwa who is immediate past Parliamentary Chief Whip, laughed at the proposal, saying it was a sign of desperation.

He said in an interview that those who were eying State House would have to wait for 2021.

“HH and [Chishimba] Kambwili must wait for another election which is coming in 2021. Their desperation to go to State House will not yield anything good. The purported impeachment process will be a flop because Zambians expressed their confidence by voting for Edgar Chagwa Lungu. And they cannot use the back door to remove a president who was popularly elected by the people of Zambia,” Musukwa said.

“So really the statement by those colleagues of ours to engage Zambians in an irrelevant academic exercise will not bear any fruits. I think the Zambian Parliament is a Parliament of well-vested people who have issues across in their constituencies which they would like to concentrate on than an academic exercise meant to perpetuate the eagle of frustrated politicians.”

He urged the opposition leaders to accept that President Lungu was in charge until the next general election.

“It is no in doubt that His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu was popularly elected by the people of Zambia. And what our colleagues should do is to accept that he is in charge and he is discharging his functions to ensure that development gets to all parts of the country. Once they get to that kind of undertaking, I think they will be doing good to themselves,”
Musukwa said.

He added that it was cheap propaganda for the NDC leader to insinuate that the majority of PF members of parliament would support the impeachment motion.

“And for them to say that the majority is in support of the perpetuated motion is mare cheap propaganda because there is no such thing or such kind of support. What they are trying is to play to the gallery and think that they can cheat Zambians that they have the support. They have no such support. That support they are talking about can only be the support from their members of parliament and certainly not from PF,” said Musukwa.