Selfish leaders undermining HH, UPND popularity- Banda
By Mast Reporter
EASTERN Province United Party for National Development (UPND) ‘die-hard’ member James Banda has accused some selfish individuals of making both President Hakainde Hichilema and the ruling party unpopular.
In an interview with The Mast yesterday, Banda, a former UPND provincial trustee for mobilisation, warned that the actions of a few risked the party losing the upcoming general elections.
“There is very little serious party mobilisation happening in the region because of selfishness among the top leadership,” Banda said.
He said some individuals entrusted with party funds for mobilisation were failing to engage party structures, undermining grassroots’ efforts and weakening the party’s outreach.
“UPND is a very good party that has done a lot compared to previous governments. All the previous governments never did what the UPND government has done in four years. But the selfishness among those entrusted with mobilisation funds is killing the party in the region,” he said.
Banda, who is popularly known as Chisinsi, said the party in the region lacked financial support to reach out to the grassroots ahead of the August election.
“The party lacks mobilisation support as it is slow and if we had enough, we could have left no stone unturned before the polls and victory could have been very easy if grass-roots structures were well funded,” he said.
Banda said Zambians believed in the UPND pro-poor policies.
He said with the right funding for mobilisation, the party would win the 2026 general election without any opposition fight.
“We can’t say there is no opposition. It’s there, but it’s weak because of how the UPND was doing politics,” he said.
Banda appealed to President Hichilema not to listen to those saying that Zambians were happy when party structures were languishing in poverty.
“Most of these structures are good at telling lies, good at cooking stories to deceive the President into believing them that they are working when the ground is not okay,” Banda said.
He said UPND members were frustrated because of a leadership that did not care for them.
“Let me give you an example. You have a figure of 44 members at this polling station, but UPND gets 20 votes in a by-election and the opposition 45. Where are the rest of the members? Cooked data deceiving the party leadership, and this is how people are destroying the party,” he said.
He urged Hichilema to save the party by getting rid of selfish and dishonest individuals around him.
“My message to our president is that he has done everything well, but let his subordinates be investigated and hear what people say about them and make changes before we go into the election,” said Banda.
