Lusaka Province Minister Bowman Lusambo says Roan PF member of parliament Chishimba Kambwili has injured a lot of people, including President Edgar Lungu.

Speaking when he featured on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview, Lusambo reflected on the bitter altercation he had with Kambwili, which culminated in slapping the former Information Minister late last year, adding that Kambwili had injured various people in the PF, including the Head of State.

That violent incident led to Lusambo being suspended from Parliament in March this year.

“I am just a human being like any other person but sometimes….I don’t know what word I can use for this person. He has been injuring a lot of people emotionally, not only me, but a lot of people, including the President. I can assure you that, I sat with that person in Cabinet and it was very unfortunate that he came out and ridiculed the President’s activities to the outside world! We were telling him that we have a listening president, a God-fearing president, a hardworking president, the president of all Zambians…he has got the right to say anything, but the only thing, which I won’t allow, especially within my political circles, is someone to insult the office of the Presidency or someone to assault the Constitution of our country. The Presidency exists because of all of us; the Constitution of Zambia exists because of me and you and it’s us to protect these two institutions. And if we let it in the ‘kantankalas’ hands like the gentleman you have just alluded to, this country will cease to be called a country,” Lusambo lamented.

He, however, insisted that being portrayed as violent was somehow a misconception.

“I didn’t even think that at least one day I will be a minister for Zambia so soon, but you know leadership comes from God, and through His Excellency Edgar Chagwa Lungu, God has ordained me to be a minister in his government. If you want to know my character, I will invite you to come and talk to my wife, Nancy Natasha Lusambo. I think she will be in the position of giving the picture to the outside world whether I am violent or not. The only thing which I believe in; I believe in loyalty and I believe in protecting the authority, the office of the presidency regardless of the person in that office and also I respect Zambia, and I respect the Constitution of Zambia and the constitution of organizations. So, relating my character to that person who is violent I think neither here nor there,” Lusambo, the former MMD Die-Hard youths national coordinator, argued.

He added that “bootlicking” and loyalty were the same thing and that it did not bother him when people called him as such.

“It is the same, there is no difference. [You can] bring different dictionaries, but it will point at the same thing. These are just words. And I am shocked that people had to say, ‘no, he is a bootlicker and what.’ I am loyal to President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s leadership, I will do exactly what he is expecting me to do. And I will make sure that I support to deliver the development for the people of Zambia and if I go against President Edgar Lungu’s vision, I am not supposed to be near him. It is better I just excuse myself, ‘sir, I think I can’t take your path because my thinking and your thinking are different.’ We do advise the President that is why we are in Cabinet, but what I can assure you is that the President has the mandate to work for the people and us we have to tap in his vision and in that mandate,” he narrated.

And Lusambo said laziness in the civil service would not be tolerated.

The Lusaka Province Minister has been fond of chasing away some civil servants from government offices in the last few weeks due to late-coming.

“With the type of behaviour, which I have observed [in the civil service], we are heading for disaster as a country and as a province because people don’t know why they go to work in those government departments. To them, it’s about the salaries, to some of us it’s not about the salaries; it’s about the productivity which we want to see. When you go somewhere and you find long queues, you know that there is no leadership here. So, I want to see Lusaka as a province, which is different from other province, I want to see the civil servants working as if they are in the private sector. It is better people are calling me a class monitor, a head-boy or whatever name they are calling me, but I will do what is right. When I see that things are not moving according to our expectation, I won’t sit and wait for things to go worse than they are. I have to move in and correct the situation. A provincial minister is a small president in that province, I have no boundaries as minister for the province,” said Lusambo.