HARRY Kalaba says the cruelty with which political cadres have been allowed to “run the show” in Zambia is detrimental. And Kalaba, who is Bahati PF member of parliament, has observed that the PF government has adopted a hard-line stance of not allowing divergent political views.

Speaking on ‘Let the people talk’ programme on Radio Phoenix yesterday, Kalaba, the former foreign affairs minister, pointed out that the country was being spoilt by “letting wayward political cadres override constitutionally established institutions of governance”.

“The time for change is now. I had said it earlier on that the ruthlessness with which we have allowed political cadres to run the show in this country is detrimental – we are spoiling ourselves. We are destroying this country by giving roles to people who should not have those particular roles. Why should we make them (political cadres) so special that even the police should begin fearing them? That even the diplomats in foreign affairs…I was having challenges because the cadres would begin talking about diplomacy in a manner that you realised [that] for this cadre to speak like this, he has a backing. You can’t do that,” Kalaba explained.

“We have let them (political cadres) be loose cannons and as I said, you will find that they are not only occupying markets and putting those vitenges all over. [But] they are even getting land – it is the cadres and Chinese who are getting land and when this cadre gets all that kind of land, he even goes and builds a big house for himself because he gets 20, 40 plots at [the] Ministry of Lands and starts selling them. Yet civil servants…I know they are hearing me in their offices and hear me good; I was a civil servant before for 10 years. I know the challenges you (civil servants) are going through – you don’t even have land [and] you don’t even know how you’ll stay after you retire.”

He observed that many people today could not participate fully in what they ought to participate in because “they are failing to talk”.

“They know that their economic activities will be sat on. It is sad that 54 years after independence, one political party should think that they have the monopoly to control everybody’s opinion. It is not correct that you should not have a business with government because you have got a different viewpoint on how to run government. Does it mean all those that don’t believe in what the PF is doing should leave or cease to be Zambians? No! That is why they say there should be unity in diversity. We are being told by the PF government today that we should all think alike, in their pattern and we should defend what they think we should defend and those that don’t agree with them should not get businesses. Those that don’t agree with them should be punished [and that] those that don’t agree with them should not acquire bursaries. These are crimes being committed [and] it is not right because for as long as you are a Zambian, you should compete evenly, regardless of political affiliation,” Kalaba explained.
“The person supporting Harry Kalaba and the person supporting Hakainde Hichilema are all Zambians and they have got the right to support whoever they want to support without let or hindrance. You cannot force somebody to support you simply because you have got access to capital.”

He said he always believed that it was imperative to give personal advancement opportunities to Zambians, regardless of their political connection.

“You cannot start discriminating that because you support this party, you cannot even work for this organisation. You support that one and so, you cannot supply there. Everything has become political. We are destroying this country with the levels of cadreism we are encouraging. We can’t continue like this where even the police are beginning to fear cadres. This country must be called to order. We must stop this anarchy – this is how anarchy sets in,” Kalaba lamented.

He further reminded leaders in the executive that they were only custodians of public resources.

“Leaders must know that they are not in charge of those [public] resources – they are only custodians on behalf of the Zambian people. Because they are custodians, they must be good custodians, otherwise if they become bad custodians, they will end up the way Charles Taylor ended up,” said Kalaba.