‘UPND mediocrity, recklessness costing lives’
By Tony Nkhoma
THE mediocrity and recklessness of the United Party for National Development (UPND) is costing people’s lives, Nkana Member of Parliament Binwell Mpundu has said.
Mpundu urged Zambians to forget about the possibility of the UPND acting in their interest because it dined with the investors polluting the environment.
“How long, fellow Zambians, can we put up with such a leadership that only thinks about themselves and not the people they lead? Today people will silently be dying with health complications because your government has failed to act decisively to deal with the company that polluted our environment,” he said.
In a statement seen by The Mast, Mpundu said Zambians should in 2026 usher in a government that prioritised its citizens and not the pockets of leaders and officials.
“This UPND government cannot act in the interest of the Zambian people because they dine with the investors. The time has come to reset the country and usher in a leadership that will prioritise the citizens not their pockets,” Mpundu said
He said he had taken the matter of the Mwambashi/Kafue River contamination to Parliament three times and twice it had been trivialised.
“The third last attempt led to the Speaker [of the National Assembly Nelly Mutti] ordering for a ministerial statement which came very empty with no tangible actions on the part of government toward compelling the company involved in the contamination to act to save people’s lives,” Mpundu said.
He said the American Embassy had been engaging the government over the pollution for a very long time.
Mpundu said this was in an attempt to save lives owing to the threat of heavy metal poisoning caused by the river pollution after the tailing dam collapsed releasing acidic wastes and heavy metals into the Mwambashi and Kafue rivers in Kitwe and Chambishi towns.
“Sadly today, like they did not long ago after this government failed to deal with the corruption around the medicines, the US Embassy has again acted to show this government that their mediocrity is costing people’s lives,” he said.
Mpundu said Zambians were dying silently because of the lack of medicines after cooperating partners withdrew their support to the health sector citing corruption.
He said the pollution of Mwambashi and Kafue rivers would have consequences on the environment and the people for many years.
“Yet your government is ignoring our calls as well as our cooperating partners’ calls for affirmative actions to save our people’s lives,” Mpundu said.
In February, a tailings leach dam belonging to Sino Metals collapsed releasing over 50 million cubic litres of heavily contaminated water into the two rivers.
Yesterday, the US Embassy announced that its government had instructed it to withdraw all American citizens and personnel from the Kitwe and nearby areas affected by the spill.
