By NATION REPORTER
HARRY Kalaba says as Africa is celebrating its freedom, there is need for Zambia to reflect on how much freedoms citizens are enjoying and what the country has done to achieve its economic freedom.
Mr Kalaba, the president of the Citizens First said the African Freedom day symbolised the freedoms from the yolks of colonialism and should translate to the country’s unity as chorused in the national anthem.
Mr Kalaba wondered how Zambians would liken themselves to a noble eagle when after 58 years of independence, ambitious citizens such as Zambia’s South African business mogul and philanthropist James Ndambo were being frustrated out of their own countries.
“After 58 years of independence Zambia has failed to produce not even a sidle billionaire when countries within the region continue to produce them in numbers. James Ndambo, Zambia’s own business mogul and philanthropist was brought down by his own people by forcing him to shut down the operation of My Home Town Zambia instead of lifting him up. Our own son of the soil who had touched many souls in Zambia through the My Home Town Project is now serving citizens in other countries because he is not wanted in his own country,” Mr Kalaba said.
Mr Kalaba said after many years of independence, Zambia had continued to rely on copper as a wasting asset as its own economic mainstream and the subject of diversification was but rhetoric for those in power.
He said Zambians’ production capabilities had reduced to less than a third compared to where it was in 1999, yet the country was having more graduates and a population of about 20 million people.
Mr Kalaba said Zambia had continued to be a dumping ground for cheap and in some instances dangerous products the bulk of which fell short of the threshold of the acceptable globally accepted standard.
He his party was intending to make Zambia an economic hub that would be producing for other counties and that the region would depend on it because God had blessed the country with all the resources that it needs.
Mr Kalaba said there was a need for collective efforts by well-meaning Zambians to take the country to greater heights by voting in a responsible government in 2026.
