The Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) liquidation process is a ticking time bomb that the Patriotic Front government should handle with caution, says party sympathizer Julius Komaki.

And Komaki says it is an administrative blunder for the PF to expel him for two months and still fail to serve him with the expulsion letter.

Meanwhile, Komaki appealed to President Edgar Lungu to part ways with Cabinet ministers who are not helping him explain government policies, saying they are a disservice to the nation.

In an interview, Komaki said the KCM issue was very delicate.

“This issue of KCM, your Excellency, this issue is a time bomb, which should be handled with care because it is very delicate. You need to open another attractive mine which can help. There is another mine called Mimbula Mine, which has been closed in Chingola. So, they should open it so that it can attract those jobless people. The issue of KCM needs to be handled with extra care because it involves about 13,000 people who are now jobless! And this issue is a double tragedy in that the parents are not working and their children, who are at CBU, are not going to school. They should re-open the CBU because they know the people who were at fault who should be punished, other than punishing the innocent students. We need a quick solution,” Komaki said.

And Komaki stressed that it was an administrative blunder for the PF to expel him for two months, but still fail to serve him with the expulsion letter.

“It has been two months since they said that they have expelled me and I haven’t received the letter because that is an administrative blunder for the secretary general. How can you expel someone for two months and he hasn’t received the expulsion letter up to now? But he went all over the media to announce my expulsion. Expelled by Mwila, who hasn’t given me a letter and up to now! He hasn’t called me to say: ‘can you come and collect your letter, Mr Komaki?’ And they know where to find me. But that is the problem when you want to be the prosecutor and the judge at the same time. We were complaining about Mr Mwila and how can he be in the forefront to discipline us who were complaining about him? In the interest of natural justice there was no fairness. He should have called the chairman of the disciplinary committee to come and announce my expulsion. So, is Mr Mwila telling me that he is above the law or the party constitution of the Patriotic Front?” he wondered.

He insisted that PF secretary general Davies Mwila had failed to mobilize the party, but was instead staging fake defections from other political parties.

“And I emphasize on the need for him (Lungu) to part-ways with the secretary general because he has failed the people. You see what is happening in Petauke; there are massive defections because those are the same people he is supposed to embrace, but he has nothing to convince them. And he is making stage defections from the UPND where defectors are just standing with chitenge materials. The UPND have got cards, why are they failing to produce the cards so that we know that these are the genuine UPND members who are defecting to the party so that we see that the party is growing,” Komaki said.

Meanwhile, he appealed to President Lungu to part ways with Cabinet ministers who were not helping him explain government policies, saying that they were a disservice to the nation.

“I don’t know why the current Cabinet ministers are not supporting the President because once they make decisions as a Cabinet, it is a collective decision. Now, to our surprise, members of the Central Committee are not explaining the party policies and the secretary general also has failed because he doesn’t explain the party manifesto to the Zambian people! And it’s time that the President parted ways with ministers who are not supporting him in terms of explaining government policies. Now, Mr President, Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu, ministers are failing to explain to the Zambian people on why the economy is like this. They are failing to explain to the Zambian people on why people are paying for digging of a borehole? They are failing to explain why Zambians are paying for plastic bags when going to the shop because our party manifesto is ‘lower taxes, more money in the pockets.’ But if there is an adjustment in government policies, where are the ministers to defend the President?” asked Komaki.

“Why are there so many taxes now? They need to come out strongly and explain all these things and tell us that ‘we are paying these taxes for servicing the loans, the roads, the infrastructure and the shopping malls, the schools and what.’ And I know that the President has all the reports on his table on the ministers who are doing well and those that are not performing. It is high-time he parted ways with those who are disserving his government so that he can have an alliance with the people who voted for them.”