Foreigners advising, misleading HH, Katele says
By Adrian Mwanza
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema is being advised by foreign agents who are taking advantage of the political immaturity of the opposition, former home affairs minister Dr Katele Kalumba has said.
In an interview with The Mast Dr Kalumba said it was the same foreign agents that had concocted the idea of delaying former republican president Edgar Lungu’s remains for political reasons.
Dr Kalumba said delaying Lungu’s burial was just a political gimmick meant to cause confusion among the opposition and that the longer it took the harder it got for them to campaign for the August general elections.
“He is actually playing them without them knowing. I like HH, but I do not like his gimmicks because they are capable of hurting the country in the long run,” he said.
Dr Kalumba said it was disappointing that the current crop of opposition leaders were exhibiting high levels of immaturity with everyone thinking they should be president of Zambia.
He wondered what the opposition stood for because they had proved that they all wanted to be in power at any cost.
“In 1962 UNIP became a united movement which wanted independence, but I do not see that fire among these individuals who are all power-hungry,” Dr Kalumba said.
He said the opposition were being played against one another and were not even realising it even when they knew that the people of Zambia wanted them to unite.
Dr Kalumba said this was not the time for immaturity.
If they continued with their immaturity, the opposition political leaders would gift the UPND with an easy victory.
He said the UPND had used a number of machinations to disadvantage the opposition like the delimitation process and even the recent national registration cards (NRC) issuance.
“I’m talking from experience that some individuals managed to get more than three NRCs in certain areas and you have a situation were the opposition are busy dividing their votes instead of galvanising them,” he said.
Over 25 opposition leaders have paid nomination fees for the presidential election.
