Newly-elected National Restoration Party (NAREP) president Steven Nyirenda says when he is elected into office, he will repossess land owned by white farmers and give it to the Zambian people.

And Nyirenda says Zambian miners need empowerment, instead of allowing “criminals from Europe” to steal.

Speaking on Radio Phoenix’ Let the People Talk program, Tuesday, Nyirenda said Zambians would be given free land in 2021.

“Any development that is there today started along the river banks but what have we done? We have moved away our people from the rivers banks, we have given these areas to the whites. [Us] when we come, we will take back that land and put our own people! If you look very carefully, these people that have chunks of land, they never bought them, the government gave them for agricultural purposes. They are now dividing the land. All these whites were given land for free and they are selling small portions at US$250, they are millionaires. You have made them millionaires on our land which is illegal to sell land that you are given for free for a specific purpose. We will look into that when we come that land belongs to the Zambians. If you want to buy land now, don’t buy wait for 2021 we will give land for free. This land that we have is not for a foreigners it is for us Zambians. We should not accept a person coming from Asia or Europe to come and govern us,” Nyirenda said.

And Nyirenda said Zambian miners should be empowered instead of having “criminals from Europe” coming to steal.

“Mining must be run by Zambians, not people that are coming to lie to us. They are given incentives for 10 years and they are not giving us money they are not paying taxes when you look at their books, they are declaring loses. That means that we are not earning and the little that they sell, that money is not coming to Zambia it is exchanging hands with the London Stock Exchange. Any little money that is coming from the exports must come through Bank of Zambia (BOZ) and that will mean that our Kwacha will be strengthened. The few Zambian miners are treated like criminals, and thieves empower these people, give them credit facilities embrace them, find markets for them. They will pay taxes but then you take the actual criminals that are coming from outside, the criminals from Europe who have been stealing our stuff, criminals from Asia those are the people that you call investors. Those are fake investors, they should go back. We want proper investors in this country who will respect us and respect what we are doing and respect our laws. When they come in the country, they want to behave like chiefs because we let them because the leadership that we have is nothing, they are looking for crumbs which are dropping down,” he said.

And Nyirenda promised to industrialize Zambia.

“I want to reorganize the party to make sure that we become strong and take the country forward. We had factories, we used to make drinks, beer and fertilizer. Everything is gone! When MMD came into power, they sold the machines, today Zambia is like a supermarket, we are getting everything from outside. We will make sure that the industries come back and Zambia will be making everything,” said Nyirenda.