I’M VERY SORRY
…Sichinga apologises for supporting HH, UPND
-
They don’t deserve my support or the support of Zambians
-
UPND and Hichilema had totally failed the people of Zambia
-
The current mess under HH and UPND is not what Zambians voted for.
By Mast Reporter
THE new government that will be elected next year should not betray Zambians like President Hakainde Hichilema has, Robert Sichinga has said.
Sichinga, a former minister of commerce, trade and industry, said his trust in Hichilema before the 2021 general elections had been misplaced. He warned Zambians against repeating the mistake they made by electing Hichilema and the United Party for National Development (UPND) in August 2021.
“With the current mess under HH and UPND, that is not what Zambians voted for. We cannot support them anymore going forward. They [Hichilema and UPND] don’t deserve my support or the support of Zambians. And if the new government that comes in 2026 won’t honour its word, they will not have my support. And this has been a painful experiment,” Sichinga said.
He said this when he featured on the Emmanuel Mwamba Verified Wednesday edition.
Sichinga said while in the opposition, Hichilema pleaded for his support on the premise that he would commit to rebuilding Zambia from the mess the Patriotic Front (PF) had created.
He said what attracted him to support Hichilema was his promises to address the country’s indebtedness and the misrule under the PF.
“President Hichilema had asked me several times to join him. I had refused. For a whole year, I did not want to join his party leadership. He insisted that we are the people who started this party. So, the basis of my support was because of the irresponsible borrowing that I saw in the PF, which I criticised,” Sichinga said.
He said he regretted supporting Hichilema and had lost trust in the leadership of the UPND because it had gone against the will of the people.
The UPND and Hichilema had totally failed the people of Zambia.
“I expected that there would be discipline in terms of how the UPND under HH would actually behave. I am so sorry to say that my trust was misplaced. This government is a total failure. That is a fact, I can tell you that quite frankly,” Sichinga said
He said Hichilema and Minister of Finance Situmbeko Musokotwane had no good economic intentions for the country.
“I criticised playing around with the figures during the MMD [Movement for Multiparty Democracy] government when Dr Musokotwane was minister of finance. So, what I’m saying is that I clearly differ with his philosophy. I also differ with President HH’s approach. This is not how you solve the problem. I’m basing it on my professional understanding, on my professional training,” Sichinga said.
He said Zambians were able to see that Hichilema and the UPND had failed to deliver on their promises and should be kicked out of government next year.
Sichinga said the UPND had sugar-coated and cheated Zambians with a flawed Constituency Development Fund (CDF) achievement, which did not reflect the needs on the ground.
“CDF is not a UPND initiative. It has been there for a long time. From 1998, it has been there. We introduced the CDF to help the members of Parliament in their constituencies for the maintenance of small projects and not capital ones,” he said.
Sichinga said CDF had turned into a political financial institution to fund and appease cadres.
“It was intended to help the members of Parliament address those immediate items. That’s how CDF started. The fact that now we have expanded it does not mean that it will produce results, because basically this is being used now to appease the cadres,” he said.
Sichinga said it was highly hypocritical for anyone in the UPND to suggest that CDF was an initiative of the current party in power.
