…Mwaliteta refuses to accept UPND has messed up
By Thomas Ngala
OBVIOUS Mwaliteta has continued with the United Party for National Development (UPND)’s denial of responsibility for the suffering Zambians are experiencing under its rule, blaming the opposition Patriotic Front (PF) instead.
Mwaliteta, the UPND’s chairman for Lusaka Province, accused the PF of investing in gyms for youths to be lifting weights “while we are investing in skills development”.
He was speaking when he featured as a guest on ZNBC TV’s Sunday Interview live programme.
“That is the difference. We will remind them until they accept they were wrong,” he said.
Mwaliteta said the UPND would continue talking about the PF while working “very hard” to improve the economy and the livelihoods of the people.
He said members of the UPND talked about the PF because it was responsible for the current problems the country was facing.
Mwaliteta vowed that the PF, which he said had a toxic style of politics, was not going to bounce back in government.
“PF is not coming back. We only talk about them because they are the loudest now, trying to feed people a lot of propaganda. So, we are not fearing them. We are just trying to put them where they belong,” he said.
“These people, their type of politics is very toxic. It is a group of people who don’t want to tell the truth. It is a group of people who want to tell lies all the time. So, we try to challenge them so that they can start telling the truth. We want to tell the Zambian people that we are where we are today because of them [the PF].”
Mwaliteta said the PF had been careless in the way it used to handle the resources of the country, and could not therefore run away from blame.
He said the UPND could not talk about any other party than the PF because it was the one who destroyed the country during its tenure.
“You see, what it is, is that when we took over there was a calamity. We did not have rains. We did not have a good harvest. Our dam went dry, that is Kariba Dam. So, things could not happen according to our plan. But we still hold on to that plan,” he said.
“I think as we are sitting now, they are tendering fuel from Dubai, which they are going to use the TAZAMA pipeline, and I can assure you that at least cheaper fuel is going to come now. And also, God has blessed us with these rains and there will be a proper harvest, probably things will change and people will see the change we are talking about.”
He boasted that the UPND had contained the issue of caderism which Zambians had been against.
“But also, it is not only that. When we came into power in 2021, you saw the pronouncement of the President. What was troubling was caderism. We came to stop it, we stopped caderism, today there is peace. We are on the right track as a party. As a government we are on the right track,” Mwaliteta said.
Mwaliteta said there was political will to stop the perennial flooding in Lusaka.
“You see, what it is, is that when we took over there was a calamity. We did not have rains. We did not have a good harvest. Our dam went dry, that is Kariba Dam. So, things could not happen according to our plan. But we still hold on to that plan,” he said.
“I think as we are sitting now, they are tendering fuel from Dubai, which they are going to use the TAZAMA pipeline, and I can assure you that at least cheaper fuel is going to come now. And also, God has blessed us with these rains and there will be a proper harvest, probably things will change and people will see the change we are talking about.”
He boasted that the UPND had contained the issue of caderism which Zambians had been against.
“But also, it is not only that. When we came into power in 2021, you saw the pronouncement of the President. What was troubling was caderism. We came to stop it, we stopped caderism, today there is peace. We are on the right track as a party. As a government we are on the right track,” Mwaliteta said.
Mwaliteta said there was political will to stop the perennial flooding in Lusaka.
Mwaliteta said he ditched the PF and joined the UPND because the former had abandoned its manifesto.
“What I don’t like is to veer away from your promises, from your own manifesto. You remember there was ‘more money in your pockets’. There were more jobs. There were a lot of things we came with, very good policies,” he said.
“Then, you remember we started the programme of Link Zambia 8,000 to open up the country, which we came to abandon in 2015 when ECL [former President Edgar Lungu] took over. Then a lot of things started going not in the way we are supposed to do. I just don’t like corruption, okay?”
Mwaliteta said Lungu was under state capture in 2015 and 2016 by certain people, some of whom are fighting legal battles in the courts.
“So, I did not want to stay and watch them destroy Zambia. So, when I looked at the political scene, there was one man who we all thought was not the right person to be a president of this country, by the name of Hakainde Hichilema. So, even when I resigned, I went to see him and I said ‘tell me, what it is that you want to do for Zambia’?” he said.
He said Hichilema explained to him what he wanted to do for Zambia.
“I was convinced then. I was like okay I am going to join you. And that is how I joined,” Mwaliteta said.
He said he had worked very well with late president Michael Sata and described politics as a calling.
