We don’t have a President in this country, what we have is someone who talks like an empty tin that has no idea on how to lead a country, former chief government spokesperson Chishimba Kambwili has charged.

And Kambwili says Zambians will continue suffering at the hands of a drunkard if they feel discouraged from taking party in the electoral process.

The rebel PF Roan member of parliament was reacting to President Lungu’s plea to Turkey for help in refinancing the Eurobond which falls due in 2022.

“First of all, let me say that we don’t have a President in this country. We have a figurehead. We don’t have a president who understands governance. The person that we have at the helm of government today is an ‘I don’t care’ type of attitude person who doesn’t understand anything about governance. And when some of us were in government, we prevented a lot of things by giving him advise that was correct but because of the advise that we were giving him, we ended up being hated,” Kambwili recalled.

“From the interaction between me and President Edgar Lungu, there is a lot. That is why I wrote to him, which copy I gave to News Diggers, a letter in which I was asking him to remove my oath of secrecy so that I can reveal to the people of Zambia who President Edgar Lungu is. Because I feel sorry for the people of Zambia when people say ‘we have a president who cares,” he said.
Kambwili revealed that State House chased president Sata’s secretary for commenting that President Lungu reports for work late.

“Some stupid minister last week says ‘I am chasing civil servants because the President reports for work at 8 o’clock. Which President reports for work at 8? Are you aware that one of Mr Sata’s secretaries has been removed from State House and she has been at home since 2016 for making just one comment, for complaining that Mr Sata used to come for work at 07:30 hours and this President comes for work at 11:00 hours, 14, sometimes 15 and sometimes he doesn’t even report to the office at all. And because of that complaint by this secretary, she was surrendered to Public Service Management Division. As I speak to you now, she just gets her salary, she has not been redeployed. I am telling you this because I have asked him to remove the oath of secrecy so that I can reveal to the people of Zambia who exactly Lungu is,” he said.

He wondered how the President could publicly beg for debt repayment from another country.

“How can a president, in public, you know, some of the things he is doing are things that are done in camera, for instance appealing to the president of Turkey to see if they can refinance our Eurobond, I don’t think any reasonable President will speak in public, in an open meeting like that? Those are issues that are discussed with your fellow President off the record but because this man does not understand even the etiquette of being President, he talks like an empty tin anyhow, without regard for how the people who will hear that information,” Kambwili said.

“Under Mr Sata, we discussed in Cabinet that we should set up a sinking fund and indeed a policy to set up a sinking fund to finance the Eurobond was there but immediately Mr Sata died, that story to set up a sinking fund died with him. I challenge Mr Chikwanda, I challenge President Edgar Lungu to tell the nation where the money that we were setting aside, the money which was going in the sinking fund has gone to.”

He said if Turkey refinances the US$3 billion Eurobond, Zambia will pay back US$6 billion.
“If we refinance that Eurobond debt, that debt is already US$3 billion, if you refinance it, it will be US$6 billion. Look what happened with the vulture fund, it was US$3.5 million, when they came and made a claim, they were claiming for something like 55 million dollars. But through negotiations, it was reduced to US$15 million.

So if 3.5 million can move to 15 million, where will US$3 billion move to? It will be six billion. So Lungu is throwing the problem to future generations. At the time when we will be paying that Eurobond, it will be another 10 years. Lungu will not be in government, he will not be paying taxes. All those ministers who are thieves will not be there, it will be future generations suffering. So tell Lungu to stop being clever for nothing, This is what we used to call when we were young ‘mbuli-clever’, you pretend that you are solving the problem when you are actually making it bigger,” Kambwili Charged.

“What a shame that an entire President can even go in public and start begging abwesha ne shiwi ati ‘If you can help us finance this…’ If the IMF can refuse to give you money, it shows that you have failed to manage a country’s economy, and yet you hear people saying ‘Lungu is a humble leader’, kabwalala kuti aba humble? Come on Zambians and let’s wake up and remove this government. I can assure you that in the next two-three years from now, we will be going two-three months without paying salaries because of debts repayment. Civil servants must see a danger of keeping this government, they must be going out to vote, otherwise, they will the first casualties.”

He charged that Zambians were suffering because of one drunkard.

“Already, just under half a year, you have a budget overrun of K5 billion and no one is talking about it, you think that is a small issue? It shows that you don’t have a Finance Minister, you don’t have economists and you don’t have a President in the country. What has caused the budget overrun is debt repayment and infrastructure development. This is a sign, ekwishiba uku ati ubuwelewele, bu chumbu munshololwa nabwisa muchalo. And because of one man, one drunkard, we are suffering like this. At the rate we are going, I can comfortably but annoyingly predict that at the end of the year, we will have a budget overrun of about K20 billion. And next year, I can predict a budget of budget repayment of K15 billion. This guy must just resign on moral grounds,” said Kambwili.