PEOPLE CAN’T EAT PRESS BRIEFINGS
-
UPND has failed to heal poverty in the country but is concentrating on holding boring press briefings.
By Mast Reporter
THE United Party for National Development (UPND) government must focus its energy on reducing poverty because Zambians cannot eat endless press briefings, Dr Lawrence Mwelwa has said.
Dr Lawrence Mwelwa challenged President Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development UPND) to discard their belief that Zambians were fascinated with press briefings.
“People are suffering in silence while the doctor gives a press briefing [instead of healing their hunger]. Ministers and officials fly first class, speak polished English in foreign conferences and claim that the economy is growing at 6.5 per cent. But in our homes, there is no nshima,” he said.
Dr Mwelwa, a politician, academician and entrepreneur said no Zambian could clap for the UPND, which would remain a self-praising government.
He said poverty in the country was spreading like wild fire and the government had ignored calls for practical interventions, punishing innocent citizens.
Dr Mwelwa said the UPND was behaving like a doctor who could not heal a disease but found pleasure in attending and smiling to a regular patient instead of treating the illness.
In a statement seen by The Mast, he said Hichilema and the UPND had failed to heal poverty in the country but were concentrating on holding boring press briefings.
“We are the patient. Our government is the smiling doctor. And the disease is poverty, hunger, youth unemployment, collapsed public services and the bleeding of national wealth,” Dr Mwelwa said.
He said shops were full of goods Zambians could not afford.
School fees were said to be abolished by the UPND but parents still bought uniforms, books, desks and even chalk.
“Children in rural areas still walk 10 kilometres to school barefoot. Some sit on the floor and write on their thighs. A hospital is built but has no drugs, no electricity, no oxygen and one nurse who works 24-hour shifts,” Dr Mwelwa said.
He said youths graduated with diplomas and degrees only to become callboys at bus stations, street vendors or mental health cases.
Dr Mwelwa wondered that the mines were producing copper but the wealth disappeared into offshore accounts.
“A few eat until their stomachs burst. The rest of us are told to clap. As we speak, a bag of mealie meal now costs more than a week’s wage for a domestic worker. Bus fares rise like smoke from a burning house. Rent is unregulated, salaries stagnant, fuel beyond reach and medicine scarce,” he said.
Dr Mwelwa wondered that despite all their failures, Hichilema and the UPND wanted people to be clapping for them every day.
“Yet, the government stands tall and claps for itself. They say we should be thankful. But ‘a grateful dog does not live long in the butcher’s house’. How can we be thankful when suffering is distributed like air, and prosperity is locked in a few hands?” he said.
Dr Mwelwa said the youths who had been promised jobs had been crushed by disappointment.
“We were told foreign investors would bring jobs. But all they brought are chains of cheap shops where Zambians stand for 12 hours earning K1,200 a month. They are called ‘casuals’ but their poverty is permanent. … we are still slaves behind the tills,” he said.
Dr Mwelwa said a country that could not feed its children was not free.
“And yet, while the suffering spreads like a wildfire, the leaders are busy pouring water on imaginary flames. They praise themselves for ‘saving’ us from collapse. They boast of restructuring debt while restructuring the lives of ordinary people into misery,” Dr Mwelwa said.
He said the UPND talked of stabilising the kwacha while the price of sugar, cooking oil and airtime rose daily.
“A man who roasts his own yams does not need the praises of another. Why should our leaders praise themselves when the people are still hungry?” Dr Mwelwa asked.
He wondered that if the UPND government were the doctors then Zambians would continue to bleed.
“If the government is the doctor, then the people are still bleeding. And we have not healed. We are simply too tired to scream,” Dr Mwelwa said.
