THE privatisation inquiry boggles my mind and I see a sinister motivation targeting Hakainde Hichilema, says Luxon Kazabu.

The former PF Nkana member of parliament said Hichilema was a threat to the leadership of President Edgar Lungu and the very existence of the Patriotic Front.

President Lungu’s press aide Amos Chanda on Christmas day called for a judge-led inquiry into the privatisation of companies in the 1990s.

He confirmed that President Lungu was a negotiating chairman in the privatisation of Cold Storage unlike others who sold companies to friends or relatives.

But Kazabu, a former livestock and fisheries deputy minister, wondered what the PF government wanted to achieve by the establishment of such an inquiry.

“This is a post-mortem exercise because most of the players in the privatisation process have since died and I know that one who is still alive was tried by courts of law and was convicted…perhaps a new issue has arisen after his comments that six out of 10 ‘Bemba’s are thieves, which is now a hot topic and if the defence of State House is that this was a chimbuya [traditional cousinship] issue then UPND’s Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba was also playing chimbuya when he had said something like going for President Lungu’s neck [throat],” he said.
“Anyway, this whole process [privatisation inquiry] boggles my mind and I see a sinister motivation targeting Hakainde Hichilema because he is a threat to the leadership of President Edgar Lungu and the existence of the PF. For Gods’ sake that man was a consultant and what he did was handed over to the Head of State [then president Frederick Chiluba] who should have then taken this to his cabinet and if cabinet agreed with the consultant, then it is not him to blame but the people who made the final decisions.”

Kazabu said this was reason enough that the ruling PF and all stakeholders met and dialogue to cleanse themselves of the hate for each other.