THE sale of Mopani Copper Mines to a Dubai-based company, Delta Mining Limited, a subsidiary of International Resource Holdings shall be reversed on the day President Hakainde Hichilema will exit State House in 2026, Harry Kalaba has declared.
Mr Kalaba, the leader of Citizens First says the sale of Mopani is one of the country’s biggest corruption scandal ever and that those involved should begin preparing themselves because the transaction was against the Constitution.
He said in an interview that President Hichilema had brazenly breached the Constitution, the country’s supreme law by selling 51 percent of Mopani shares without the approval of Parliament as dictated by law.
Mr Kalaba, who is a member of the United Kwacha Alliance said the Mopani secret transaction was nothing but an act meant to defraud Zambia and whichever government would come in after 2026 will have to reverse the fraudulent deal.
“There is no doubt that President Hichilema and the UPND leadership are guilty of not only fraudulently selling Mopani but shall be made to account for brazenly violating the Constitution. Knowing that the transaction was a fraud, President Hichilema refused to have Parliament approve the sale, which is against the Constitution,” Mr Kalaba said.
“Make no mistake, this transaction shall be reversed the day Mr Hichilema will be marching out of State House. And this President shall be made to account for breaching our Constitution not only in the Mopani transaction but in many of the decisions he has made such as appointing an Auditor General who is constitutionally barred on account of his age,” he said.
Mr Kalaba said many stakeholders had objected to the sale of Mopani in the manner it had been transacted but that the UPND, with their “know-it-all “attitude had gone ahead to secretly give away one of the nation’s giant copper mines.
He said the UPND had embarked on a crusade to strip the country of its major assets as the administration had allegedly lined up many of the country’s resources to share with their foreign friends who had financed their campaigns while in the opposition.
“This deal is not in national interest…it is not in the interest of Zambians but in the interest of the UPND and their foreign friends who bankrolled their campaigns prior to the 2021 general elections.
Zambians have lost in this deal and we shall not standby by and watch our country being looted and plundered,” Mr Kalaba said.
