Government has condemned sections of society that are raising questions about President Edgar Lungu’s reported chartered plane to New York for the UN General Assembly.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Chishimba Kambwili said in an interview that President Lungu is entitled to choose any mode of transport in and an outside of the country.
Mr Kambwili who is also Chief Government Spokesman said for outside presidential commitments, the group that looks at the security of the President determines what mode of transport to use.
Mr Kambwili said that Government has to look for money to meet that expense as recommended by the group in charge of President Lungu’s travel.
‘If you are telling me that he did travel by chartered plane then it meant that Government had money to pay for that chartered plane but like I have said, people are not going to question how the President travels,’ Mr Kambwili said.
Mr Kambwili added, ‘Because he is entitled to use any mode of transport. Is he the first one to charter a plane in the history of this country?’
Mr Kambwili said people will always condemn everything.
‘When they bought the presidential challenger, people condemned, when you charter, they will complain, when the President flies commercial, people will condemn, why are they allowing the President to fly commercial.’
General at eight? Well done Vanessa!
A colossal failure of a common sense by Mr Kambwili
Failure to ask is lack of reasoning. Unfortunately for Kambwili not all of us are like him. He has a right to support his visionless. We shall always demand accountability in the use of public funds.
PF is all about expenditure and they do not care how much they spend at every turn of events.
Ba Chimbwi – we pay for Edgar’s livelihood. We have the right to know how he’s using our money!
Chikambwili you are fat for nothing. You can not really know that people are suffering in Zambia? How can you allow such colossal amount of money be spent at the expense of your suffering citizenry? Sure mr big stuff you are big for nothing you reason well
Kambwili is right
Thanks
BB2014
Gabon Disaster Heroes National Stadium – Author Chishimba Kambwili
what the hell is vanessa brown. kumyesu takwaba vanessa brown. if she was bwalya, taonga, mulenga ngatwaumfwa. i have never seen a white full caucasian child later on adult with any african name. why do we use theirs. i dont understand? i know some will say its globalisation. but i dont seem them using our names. yet we insist on using theirs. globalisation is just another form of colonialism, mental slavery. they still push their white agenda on us but we never on them. the sad thing about this new colonialism is that we have now outsheeped the sheep. we are actually volunteering ourselves to servitude, self cultural anihilation etc. why african man, why do you kill yourself. we should stop. tiyeni tuleke nokulanda muchikuwa!!! swahili yawamapo as a standard for africa. abrigani. muna…
OSCAR WINING BUFFOONERY AT WORK
We will not question him come 2016. As for now we have every right to do so. Sorry Kambwili!
It is our money, we have the right to question. Have the mines reinstated the miners as you ordered???. What security, who would want to do anything with a president from a broke country??
Chishimba, why cant you learn to shut up sometimes? We are questioning because the money spent is not yours but tax payers! It is public funds and we are entitled to question on how it is being spent , I especially when we have a budget deficit and we are supposed be be cost conscious and frugal. If I were President i will remove you because you are now proving a liability.Being minister of information does not mean you comment on everything. You are annoying people and making lose supporters. You are so neauseating!
You want the chief government spokes person to shut up? I he paid to talk ass wipe.
Kambwili’s thinking is not better than lunacy, from where does the GRZ gets money? Is GRZ an Industry that produces and earns money and makes profit? It is stupid for him to question the people’s intelligence when they rightly ask how their hard earned money is being used by vultures.
@Observer, now you know that IDC will be abused right left and center. And when the chips start falling they will invent the Zambia Airways story of a half-full plane of employees going on shopping sprees. How do broke b@st@rds even start flying on shopping sprees!? We have had a run of mediocrity for close to fifty years and one stage it surely MUST stop.
Mr Kambwili the president is perceived to be a servant of the people and he represents the people of Zambia, therefore, there is totally nothing wrong with people asking about the president’s movement and travel. He’s using public funds and hence people asking questions. Mr Kambwili and his team should just inform the nation what is going on, why do we have to make a big issue about everything. Just explain to the people and answer the questions they are asking. They deserve to know period!
Is it possible for Kambwili to ignore any comments of people?
Bla bla bla
Like seriously?????????
This Chimbwi is one hell of a gun! Unfortunately, PF has not inspired me with their way of thinking! Sadly in this era of austerity, one would think the President would be in the forefront of using the deminishing resources prudently! Off course, how do you expect someone who had misused a client’s money to look after ‘shabooka’ government funds?
“When the gods want to destroy someone, they first make him mad.”
This Chimbwi is one hell of a gun! Unfortunately, PF has not inspired me with their way of thinking! Sadly in this era of austerity, one would think the President would be in the forefront of using the deminishing resources prudently! Off course, how do you expect someone who had misused a client’s money to look after ‘shabooka’ government funds? We are going nowhere with this PF lot- we need to substute the whole team!
“Because he is entitled to use any mode of transport”
And that right there is a problem, a sense of entitlement to use public funds with impunity. We are well within our rights to question excessive use of public funds (OUR hard earned money) especially during a time like this when the economy is struggling and austerity measures must be put in place. What is wrong with flying commercial? And why carry musicians and an unnecessary entourage and further drain our limited resources? Combine this kind of attitude with calling for national prayers and blaming the devil for poor decisions and one can only wonder where we are heading with this kind of leadership at the helm of this country.
@HoneyDew, well put. Religion in Zambia has become the opium of the gullible. Once on their knees October 18, the devout citizenry will forget how they are being plundered. I am not a fan of organized religion at all, at all!
This kind of arrogance is not helpful to the nation. Why can’t he just explain what the people want to know? More over it’s taxpayers money being used so we deserve to know and we have every right to know. Sometimes I wonder whether this man actually thinks through what he says.
I’m actually a Christian Kalok and I would argue that religion isn’t the problem but using it to manipulate people is. If I slap myself, has the devil slapped me or have I slapped myself? I made the choice to slap myself and should leave the devil out of it. Leaders need to be accountable over their choices and not blame the devil. I’m pro prayer but prayer is rendered meaningless when you cannot take responsibility for your part in creating a mess.
@HoneyDew, you are the pragmatic, objective type of Christian of which we have not too many unfortunately. My belief system mirrors yours exactly. However, the story is a little complicated. In the midst of so much despondency and desperation, the brand of religious practice that goes around is one centered on empty hope and postponed success. See, the difference with the American brand of Christianity is that not too many practitioners there are urging their flock to wait for heaven before they can be comfortable or “happy” and “wealthy”. They serve one another, enable initiative and press on giving each other opportunity even to the level of lobbying their law makers for that. In our Zambian environment it has become the mainstay in substitution of offering real opportunity and…
…and creating pragmatic enablers.
I see Vanessa Brown Mwanza in the last picture but how did she transform from a saluting soldier in the first caption to that sweet little girl? LT you are just amazing. Anyhow, public expenditure, which includes presidential travels and charters are an informational item that citizens are entitled to. It is not correct to advise otherwise. We are in a democracy, not a monarchy. We are in Zambia, not Swaziland. Enough said.
Abuse of National resources and this pathetic effort to justify it by this clown is the biggest argument against the misplaced thinking of a National airline!
Taxpayers resources will just be grabbed and used without any accountability, even for personal use! Just like Lungus mentor and role model Mugabe has destroyed Zimbabwes airline with his globe trotting.
It is bad enough that our Kwacha is following the Zim Dollar into extinction, we do not need to “me too” any more dictatorship from there!
Kambwili you imbe*cile, do you realize the the leaders of developed nations like Australia and UK will travel business class on a commercial airline with a far fewer entourage than Lungu who leads one of the poorest countries in the world? What was the need of carrying singers and entertainers? Sometimes you guys must simply have some mercy for the poor people of Zambia. Do a cost benefit analysis when planning these trips and omit individuals that are not required to travel. Don’t just carry people for the purpose of appeasing them.
The president of Malawi Charters a plane every Sunday to Nigeria to watch TB Joshua. Tell us how rich Malawi is as compared to Zambia. Do not quot figure from the 60s as most of you do.
Iwe, chikala so if Malawi does it, does it mean that Zambia also has to waste resources in impunity? Do you think it is right that the president of Malawi which is also poor charters those flights to go for prayers? That is why this nation of ours is doomed because of dunderheadss like you who see nothing wrong in such things particularly when the economic climate of the country is so grim.
@ kci
Who cares fu*k about Malawi President?
Or, are you making association between international plunderers?
Why would you want to compare yourself to the worst and not the best?
You remind of a cartoon from long ago where the goalie had a striker’s boot in his mouth, all his front teeth knocked in, yet he was glad “…sa anangese!” What a dweeb!
On this one I cannot support Lungu and his government. Let Kambwili tell us when a Zambian President travelled commercial and Zambians complained. Presidents Mwanawasa and Sata used to travel by British Airways and Emirates and I never heard Zambians complain. All I heard from Zambians was admiration for frugality on the part of these two heads of state. President Sata would even travel only with the first lady and Chella on foreign trips to save on government monies when the economy was not even as bad as it is today. The number of times and size of delegations President Lungu travels reminds Zambians about the wastefulness we say when Rupiah Banda was in power. Kambwili and Lungu should know that what President Lungu went for at the UN was not a party function for him to take along with…
Lusaka Times, you are becoming more irrelevant to this country by failing to write about the real issues affecting us, such as the depreciation of the Kwacha by more than 16% in one day (28/09/2015). Kambwili is an id**t and his rants will never cease.
The man has a right to choose his method of travel – after all, he is the President of Zambia! We may not like every decision our leaders make but that doesn’t mean we should criticize everything either. In my experience – it is always easiest to know the right path AFTER someone else has already chosen their path.
You thinking is simply warped, no amount of counsel can help you.
Lungu has just lost it all, this is all because the people he has brought on board to support him are ndanda heads. You can not start chartering planes when you know your economy is in dire stress. Why not pump that money to resustaining the defact Zambia Airways. You know when you are being led with a visionless person, you all go blind. Kambwili should be the last person to comment though he is expected to comment , because his comments are usually not convincing. As a government spokes person he should have framed his statement in such a way that even the hard thinkers would be convinced. Kambwili’s statements are usually not researched and always very raw, that is why we say he is just an empty vessel making too much noise. LUNGU should look for some one as spoke person who is a bit…
You are the one who is the empty tin if your comment almost equals that statement from the kambwili
On this one I cannot support Lungu and his government. Let Kambwili tell us when a Zambian President travelled commercial and Zambians complained. Presidents Mwanawasa and Sata used to travel by British Airways and Emirates and I never heard Zambians complain. All I heard from Zambians was admiration for frugality on the part of these two heads of state. President Sata would even travel only with the first lady and Chella on foreign trips to save on government monies when the economy was not even as bad as it is today. The number of times and size of delegations President Lungu travels reminds Zambians about the wastefulness we saw when Rupiah Banda was in power. Kambwili and Lungu should know that what President Lungu went for at the UN was not a party function for him to take along with…
In Zambia Hunger and laziness makes us talk too much. Chartering a plane for a hard working society should not make headlines. Start small, charter a plane for you family over the weekend to Livingstone or Mfuwe then you will not have trouble with the heard of State chartering a plane to NY. This is why you lost your entire National Team and now you are the same people still demanding the Gabon Air d report.
I can’t get your point.
Out-going MP Chisimba Kambwili the man who build houses on a golf course has never uttered a sane sentence since Sata raised him to the podia. He was removed from Foreign Affairs, Tourism, labor etc. and then shunted to information when out of pity Chagwa gave him a job…if I were him which am not, I would said…’Grz notes the concerns raised by its citizens to question why the state chartered a plane to fly HE to NY, this decision was backed by intelligence reports and advise from security detail in the US…’ But NOOOO he must come out guns blazing like a thug that he is….anyway 2016 bye bye Chimbwili
Chicolour*** Kambwili.
These ups and downs are just choked with envy…..will they use ox carts to go to London for such meetings if ever they came to power ?
The same up and downs spent a lot of money in the 2015 election which they lost. Do you think given a change they will be any different? They are just bitter with envy. It must must hurt to have these combinations bitter and envy and hiding behind checks and balances.
Tyga, Obatala Jemasoni Lungu Shedding, ZedPoorPeople, zedoc, Rasco, Rio etc fortunately they are enough trees in Zambia for all of you who are hurting and hating to chose and hang to. Lungu is the president and has the support of the so called poor voters to Charter the plane. Pick a tree and kill yourselves.
uli tole sana………..no brains at all!
That is how plunderers reason, they dont want accountability, they see GRZ money as inexhaustible money from heaven. In any case with leaders like Kambwili they can not be blamed.
Kambwili, the money your boss used does not belong to PF but to us tax payers. Therefore we have every right to question the extravagancy. What security needs have changed now that Edgar cannot use commercial flights like Sata and Levy did? Is Boko Haram hunting down our presido? Just admit that you are a wasteful government that doesn’t care about the way you spend money; you think borrowing is the answer to the crisis. If billionaires who make their own money care about every dollar, who are you to say the president can spend our money the way he wants???
kambwili remember that lungu is just using you,he is destroying your name, nothing else.The thing is kambwili you can’t stand as presidential candidate, you are finished! you are useless did i know that you can behave like this useless chap.
Is this the same Kambwili who condenmed everything the MMD did a few years ago?People are not saying the President has no right to choose the way he wants to travel but they are simply looking at the current economic situation Zambia is facing today.
Icimukoshi
This is what you get when there are no checks and balances, the empty tins begin to think the own the taxpayers funds and answer to no one.
LUNGU AND MUMBI PHIRI SLEEPING IN ONE ROOM.ILIKO BAD
Lusaka times or is it PF members are now anti PF.This means they have observed emptiness in their subordinates
kci
I think you are not a Zambian , that is why you think like that , your mission is to see my country destroyed. Imagine if you are studying for ACCA/CIMA a pound is K20.00 , can a poor Zambian manage to pay in your opinion , please politics aside . Just answer my question politely , I know you will just insult me ,but it is ok.
That is why you have the ZICA programme so you do not pay in pounds
@Peace maker, I do not insult people or use CAPS like UPND supporters. Personally I can afford and I am done studying better things than ACCA/CIMA. The problem with Zambians luck strategy. When the Kwacha was k6 per $ I opened an account and saved my money in $. Today my money value is double. The world my friend you need to use your brain to survive. Not just depend on RB, HH or EL use your brain man. Work hard otherwise you will just end up poor, bitter and hurting.
What do people of Zambia see in voting for ifiikula like Kabwili? Mind bongling indeed! This id.iot has become too big headed and its the people of Luanshya to blame to let him behave as thou he owns the whole of the Copperbelt region.
I for one do not feel sorry for the masses complaining of hardships in Zambia because they brought this upon themselves. We told you that Lungu and group have no economic agenda for this country, but u kept singing ‘ifintu ni Lungu’. I hope with the suffering people are crying about, in 2016 people will use some common sense when voting to usher in people who can turn around things economically rather than these clueless batch called pathetic failures (pf).
People you are insulting as pathetic failures are not suffering. The are in diplomats, street vendors, business men working as we speak. Some are building roads, contracts building schools while you hurt with Southern province where there are no rains.
kci
You are an educated man who refuses to reason because u are a typical triabalist!
For your own information, none of these Zambians positing from developed nations are beggars economically nor hurting. Just as a hit, I earn over £2500 (equate that to yr K) per week and there are many who earn far more than that. When we speak, its not that we are hurting, we just feel sorry for the masses whom we think deserve better. Zambia is a very rich Country to be in such a mess, as someone said, all what is required is to drop this tribalim currently brewing and usher in people who are economic managers regardless the region they come from, with a heart to serve the people and things will start turnning around economically.
@Zezemba please do not dream during the day. The so called economic managers are so selfish that they enriched themselves during privatization. They were at the helm of selling private companies for a song and got commissions for that. They had a chance to showcase themselves but alas they are boasting of being wealthy today with no shame how they became rich. I am not tribal but I just live in a real world. Sorry about your 2500 pounds a week before exorbitant rentals and food that expire in a week.
KCI if you are eating together with these people just continue instead of insulting people thinking you will change our minds. Its only a simple mind that resorts to insults, so please continue so we identify you nicely. The point we are making is that government uses our money to do things on our behalf and we have to know how its used and in fact approve. How is that difficult to understand?
@ GIFT
U are very foolish. Where do u get such lies? Who told u that the president & mumbi phiri, they sleep in one room? Where is the first lady, for HIS EXCELLENCY to sleep with Madam Phiri? learn to respect your leaders.
Kambwili at it again , amano yafinkula . Kambwili you are not the only intelligent person in Zambia , being an mp does not mean you win the monopoly of wisdom. Niwe mumpuwelwa lyonse . Umwaiche ekalisha ilyo anya wait time is coming and so fast . even Lungu is usel-less how do you pick jere boy to be GRZ spokes person ?it means the rest in pf are below per
The children are crying for food at home and the father jumps on a hired car full of friends to go and enjoy themselves out of town at the expense of his starving family. Maybe that’s what kambwili would love
Imwe****** mwalefwaya Presido ende panshi kwati ni Marcopolo?
They are saying if they came to power,they would begin to export cow dung manure to earn forex and they will be using oxcarts in cairo road instead of taxis to have the price of fuel reduced.
To avoid starvation,mabisi will be the staple food in the land
Unbelievable ignorance and insensitivity. Hon. Kambwili could do well in reading the seasons.
And this guy is one of the advisors to the president? In his speech to parliament the president talked about prudence in use of national resources and he is the first one to abandon what he is preaching! Who will believe him?
The arrogance of power!
Before a great downfall, God turns men into fools
How about if one is a BUFFOON already?
In times when the economy is lean you travel commercial or cancel the trip altogether. Chattering a plane at $300,000 is astoundingly wrong. This 5 zero figure can pay 10 nurses for more than 4 years! Yet we complain of under-staffing in critical institutions such as hospitals and schools. Where is the credibility of this one off exercise?
The PF wants to plunder as much as they can because they know that next year they have no chance of winning. If you are a leader who cares for the people who put you in power you can not be spending this kind of money on just one individual. Majority of Zambians in the low income brackets salaries are now worthless, and yet they are the same ones you will be asking for votes from. Tizakuonani mu 2016. Your arrogance will come back and bite in you the faces in 2016
Amazing!! somebody is using my money and he says he can use it as he pleases. And you wonder why investors are panicking with this kind of mediocrity in our midst. Is this the kind of graduate who comes out of Copperstone (alleged) University? And please lets stop calling these people Honorable when there is nothing Honorable about the guy or Excellency when the chap is far from excellent. lets follow Mmembe and just call them Kambwili and Edgar.
Was he going there to represent zambia or to party? What is Mampi,Macky II doing with the president? To entertainment him? PF has smessed up big tme. Then you say we hurting,yes we are.Why waste our meagre resources?
Part of the consideration that went into chartering a private plane may be because they serve free alcohol in the first class cabin on commercial airlines. No country would want their head of state to start dancing and groping air hostesses on a commercial plane.
We are the tax payers who foot his travelling bill to decide on what mode of transport we can afford him to use. He has zero right to choose a mode we as his bill footer can ill afford, no! It is this gutless “Chimbwilic” was of thinking that has led bloodshed when governments change hands in Africa. If I were Chimbwili, I would be very careful with this vile verbature he keeps on raving off his smelly and sticky backside where it never shines because one day, we will ensure that he pays a dear price, for stinking stu.pidity!
kambwili get an education pleese
How can even ppl strt debating on kambwilis remark…..It’s like making a statement..that the sky is blue…n nw ppl strt debating on it…which shows ppl who do not take the sky to b blue r lunatics…So ppl supporting kambwilis outburst n debating in favour of it r jus plain nincompoops…full stop
@KCI, kindly share results of your psychiatry evaluation.
In PF they call them quality.kikiki.
And the Defence Attaches had to be one tribe thanks to MCS Fred Membe and Mtuembo’s choice for president ‘Our Micheal!’ they called him…lol
@Kci! You are very mistaken, not everyone commenting on the irresponsible handling of our economy are Tongas, but rather people who care about the welfare of our country and the future of generations to come. You sound like a typical tribalist who sees everything in terms of tribe! At first I thought you were one learned Zambian but I have come to realise no amount of counsel can correct you (chumbu munshololwa). You are a simple cadre who is enjoying a new experience and rapid change in life because of PF. Please don’t insult the zambians, eat quietly!
@Kci! You are very mistaken, not everyone commenting on the irresponsible handling of our economy are Tongas, but rather people who care about the welfare of our country and the future of generations to come. You sound like a typical tribalist who sees everything in terms of tribe! At first I thought you were one learned Zambian but I have come to realise no amount of counsel can correct you (chumbu munshololwa). You are a simple cadre who is enjoying a new experience and rapid change in life because of PF. Please don’t insult the zambians, eat quietly!!
Mr Chimbwili, we are in a democracy. People are free to ask of the government as they wish.