Africa-Press – Zambia. Hakainde Hichilema has lost credibility and Zambians must fire him before 2026, says FDD leader Edith Nawakwi. Speaking through an interview on the UPND administration to Zambians that load shedding will be commencing in the next few days for an average six hours daily, on account of the low water levels, Nawakwi, who served as Energy minister among several ministerial positions she held, said Zambians were now tired of what she described as President Hichilema’s lies, saying they should fire him before 2026.
She claimed that the President had not moved into State House for fear that he would not perform and therefore did not want to face the embarrassment of packing his belongings from State House
Nawakwi described the remarks by Energy minister Peter Kapala as lies, arguing that last year there were floods in the country with the Zambezi river basin bursting with flood waters, and that those waters arrive somewhere between August to October in the collection basins.
“These people are talking as if they are the first ones in government. That’s why some of us get very disappointed with their behavior. I was minister of Energy, I am an energy economist. I was working at the Ministry of Energy and water Development. I understand the rivers of Zambia and how the water flows. My job was to understand the Zambezi River, its tributaries and how water collects into the Kafue and Zambezi basin,” Nawakwi said. “So this nonsense of thinking that Zambians are foolish should stop. The truth is that they have got contracts to export power, that’s the truth. And you see if you say you have collected money from people and you have to pay, you have to export that is honourable.”
Nawakwi said people understand when they are told the truth that the country is bankrupt and need to collect a bit of money, rather than being told lies.
But she said if she were to give the administration the benefit of doubt over their claims, then it means that “they have a useless manager” at Zambezi River Authority as the flood gates were being opened carelessly, saying that was the alternative to her other argument that the power is being exported and therefore leading to more load shedding locally.
She said Zambians are not supposed to be told “malikopo (lies) stories” this time of the year that the water levels are low, saying President Hichilema has told so many lies, including telling Zambians that he had opened “turbine number 1, turbine number 2, turbine number 3”, when he does not even know how they are being repaired and that that was in fact not his project, but the project initiated by the PF administration.
“Even if they say when you inherit something you have inherited everything that is not the way to behave. Hakainde Hichilema has lost credibility. The bottom line is that the people of Zambia must fire him immediately,” Nawakwi said, saying there were many ways of firing a President besides waiting for the 2026 general elections, including demanding for early elections and through parliament, where of course those in the opposition do not have the numbers.” She challenged President Hichilema to call for fresh elections to read the general mood in the country.
“You see this is why he didn’t want to move from his house. He knew that he would not perform and he didn’t want to have the embarrassment of parking from State House. So he made a strategic choice that for the next five years he is going to be moving from his house. That is why you can see that he wants to move public money to Aflife as if they didn’t move enough when he was not even President,” Nawakwi said. “They were getting contracts from KCM to manage KCM pensions which they have not given them back. There are so many people dying. The latest one is Expendito Chipalo, he has died without getting his pension from Hakainde’s pensions companies.”
Nawakwi said while poor people had to resort to the courts to be paid their money, President Hichilema was sitting on the top of the pile as being among the richest people in the country.
“He is the richest man in Zambia but poor people lie Expendito Chipalo dying with tubes in their necks to clean blood, cannot get their pension. He is very deliberate in what he is doing. Unfortunately the Zambian people were hoodwinked,” said Nawakwi
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