NDC leader Chishimba Kambwili says the he cannot let President Edgar Lungu represent him at the dialogue meeting because he lacks integrity.

And Kambwili said it was possible that out of about US$15 billion that was borrowed for infrastructure development, 15 per cent has gone into people’s pockets.

Meanwhile, Kambwili says he will rally behind UPND candidate Romeo Kangombe in the Sesheke by-election slated for February 12, 2018.

Speaking when he featured on 5FM’s The Burning issue program, Thursday, Kambwili said he deserved a chance to air his views in the dialogue process.

“Are you not surprised that out of all the people who are supposed to attend the dialogue meeting, they single out imbwili? ‘Yaliba strong imbwili, yalibabika mukakubila batila nangu nabalala, balelotafye imbwili (Kambwili is strong, he has made them panic. Even in their sleep, they always dream about Kambwili). You know that I have a problem with President Edgar Lungu, I have a problem with the Public Order Act, I have a problem with not allowing me to hold a meeting in my constituency. Why shouldn’t people give me an opportunity to go and air my views in the dialogue? This is national dialogue, not interparty dialogue where someone would say you will be represented by Edgar Lungu. Why should I be represented by Edgar Lungu, first and foremost, Lungu has no integrity, what he has done, he has no integrity, so how can a person who has no integrity go and represent me?” Kambwili asked.

“How can you have integrity when you deny the opposition from having meetings when your party is having meetings freely? And because they heard that Kambwili is insisting on corruption and they know they are corrupt, they had to find proxies to block me from attending the dialogue meeting. Imbwili is a Zambian, Imbwili is a stakeholder, Imbwili is an integral party of the political process in Zambia and imbwili must attend the national dialogue.”

And Kambwili has charged that out of about US$15 billion that was borrowed for infrastructure development, 15 per cent has gone into people’s pockets.

“People of Zambia, when I talk about corruption, don’t take it lightly, you will be so shocked that out of the $15 billion that we have borrowed for the so-called infrastructure development, 30 per cent has gone in individual’s pockets. Can you imagine country men and women, one Chinese came to me because he heard me talking about corruption and he said, Honourable you are right, yes, this government is corrupt, State House in particular. And he told me a story that I felt very bad about. He was approached by one man from State House because there was a tender at ZESCO where this man’s company quoted US$13 million for that tender. This man from State House went to him and said, ‘I have been sent by the President, I am representing State House, we are going to give you this contract but you must put it at US$15 million, give us the US$2 million on top, and you should give us this US$2 million dollars in advance because us we are State House, we are going to make sure that this contract is given to you’. And this poor Chinese gets the US$2 million and gave it to them. They later went and opened the tender and gave it to someone else, the US$2 million meanwhile had been eaten already. This man is vulnerable, he cannot go to court, and he cannot fight State House. No wonder you are seeing them writing their names on mealie meal bags, ‘Honourbale Chite Chite, helping the needy in society. Namukwata nempiya shakuya mukulembela amashina pamasaka? Imwe bapompwe imwe, bakabwlala! (You even have the money to print your names on mealie-meal bags? You blatant thieves!” Kambwili charged.

Meanwhile, Kambwili said he would support the UPND candidate in the Sesheke by election as his party structures are not strong in the constituency.

“At the moment, the NDC is focusing on creating structures across the country. When the election came in Sesheke, we looked at the structures and said, our structures are not very strong at the moment. So why should we contest for the sake of contesting? So we said, no, our alliance partners (UPND) is strong on the ground in Sesheke, so we are going to support them in the by election, there is nothing wrong with that. And some point, I will go to Sesheke to go and campaign for the candidate of my alliance partner, the UPND candidate,” said Kambwili.