By Lovemore Lubinda
Citizens First President Harry Kalaba has promised that every Zambian will receive a piece of land with a formal title deed when they turn 18, if his party forms government after the 13 August polls.
Kalaba says Zambia has only about 2 million citizens with title deeds despite having 752,614 square kilometres of land and a population of 22.5 million. He compared that to Rwanda, which he said has a far higher rate of land titling.
“For us, formal land ownership is the foundation for economic growth,” Kalaba said. “A Citizens First government will reform the Ministry of Lands so that titles are processed faster and young people can own property from age 18.”
Kalaba, who finished third in the 2021 General Election behind the late President Edgar Lungu and President Hakainde Hichilema, says he is contesting again this year with one goal in mind, that is to win the presidential election.
“I came third in 2021. I am not coming third again in 2026,” he said while speaking during a church service in Katete recently.
The former Minister of Foreign Affairs said his party is confident of improving its performance and believes Zambians will give it a stronger mandate this year.
Kalaba is among 13 presidential candidates seeking to unseat President Hichilema in the August 13 General Election.
Like other candidates, he has been criss-crossing the country campaigning and says he is confident of victory when Zambians go to the polls.
Apparently, Kalaba has demanded a level playing field in this year’s election, complaining of being unfairly treated by the police.
Recently his party was barred from holding a rally in Ndola rally after police officer-in-charge had insisted they couldn’t proceed after President Hichilema’s rally in the same area a day after.
It took Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) chairperson Mwangala Zaloumis’ last minute intervention for Kalaba to be allowed to hold the rally that stretched into the evening.
Trouble started earlier in the afternoon when three plain clothed police officers arrived at the Chipulukusu school grounds ordering the CF staffers who were mounting the stand to stop as the rally was not going to proceed.
The police in the process picked up the Ndola CF district chairperson Juvas Simwanza and other officials and ordered them to accompany them to the police station as they had not been given a permit to conduct the rally.
But Kalaba’s campaign manager Stanley Mhango, who had just arrived on the scene told the officials to immediately disbambark from the police vehicle telling them that they were going nowhere.
He said the same police had given them permission to hold the rally after they stopped their roadshows in the city a few days earlier.
As the the back and forth continued, one of the officers called someone he only identified as the officer-in-charge at Ndola Central police Miyanda Siyanga.
Siyanga directed his junior to pass on the phone to Mhango so that he could directly tell him that the meeting was not going to proceed.
Mhango in turn called Kalaba to inform him about the happenings. Kalaba in turn phoned Zaloumis to explain the unfolding situation to her, complaining that police were always standing in his way and trying to destabilise his programmes.
As Kalaba was talking to Zaloumis on the other end, from the other side of the city in Chipulukusu, Siyanga arrived at the school grounds and told Mhango that they could not proceed with the rally because they had instructions from ECZ that once a party had left the district they could not come back again.
He also told Mhango that they could not come to a district where the Republican President Hakainde Hichilema had just left having addressed his rally just a day after.
But Mhango told the officer that he would not accept his terms and was not going to prescribe to CF how they should conduct their campaigns in their allocated five days on the Copperbelt. He told the officer that he was “playing” to suggested what he was he was suggesting.
But shortly afterwards, the officers received a call from their superiors after Zaloumis had intervened and told them to respect the days allocated to the CF to conduct their campaigns in the province.
By the time the matter was being resolved it was already late in the afternoon approaching evening and the rally was allowed to proceed. But some in the huge crowds that gathered had already gone home after police had earlier insisted that the rally would not proceed.
“Their presence made people fear and they walked away and we delayed starting the meeting to late evening,” said Mhango.
When starting to address the meeting, Kalaba apologised to the people telling them that police had made every effort to have the rally cancelled because they don’t want other voices to be heard except the UPND’s. He said that was why they had started the meeting late.
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