By Thomas Ngala
UNITED Party for National Development (UPND) Lusaka Province chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta’s blame of the last administration for the pathetic state of the economy does not inspire confidence in Zambians, the Patriotic Front (PF) has said.
Featuring on ZNBC’s Sunday Interview, Mwaliteta said the PF had only invested in gyms for youths to be lifting weights while the UPND government was investing in skills development and would therefore continue talking about the former.
He said the UPND “will continue talking about them [the PF] while we are working very hard to improve the economy, to improve the livelihood of the people.”
But PF media director Edwin Lifwekelo scorned Mwaliteta’s ‘blame game’ remarks describing them as absurd.
His remarks do not give confidence to the Zambians who voted for UPND. The remarks highlighted the inability of President Hakainde Hichilema and his government to deliver on the numerous promises they had made to citizens.
“What is even more worrying is how the integrity of President Hakainde Hichilema and his government is being eroded by this confession from its leadership. It just increases the negative momentum from the electorate to even doubt the UPND government’s ability to fulfil their numerous promises made to the Zambian people,” he said.
“In case the UPND leadership has forgotten, we want to remind them that in 1991 MMD removed UNIP from power and immediately we saw the MMD liberalising our economy under the leadership of late President Frederick Chiluba.”
Lifwekelo said the MMD government then focused on improving the lives of the people instead of blaming UNIP.
“What followed was the emergence of late Levy [Mwanawasa and late Rupiah Banda. They also never focused on blame games but instead concentrated on the job at hand. MMD was removed from power by the PF and as we know, Zambia witnessed massive infrastructure and road projects under late President Michael Chilufya and continued in the seven years of former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu,” Lifwekelo said.
He said under Lungu Zambia witnessed even more unprecedented development projects.
“We never heard of any blame game. President Sata and President Lungu appreciated the projects of their predecessors,” Lifwekelo said.
Lifwekelo recalled that there had been no blame game during the periods he had cited.
He, however, alleged that instead of working hard to improve the lives of the people and lowering the cost of living, Hichilema and “his cronies” had started shifting the blame on PF with one year left before leaving office.
It was becoming clear that the UPND government had become dysfunctional and had abandoned the plight of poor Zambians.
“If this trend continues, Zambia risks descending into an era where people lose interest in our democratic governance system because of the inability by the government to uplift the standard of living for our people. If that is the case, let us allow our people to go back to their ex if the new husband has failed to take care of the new wife, instead of complaining about the old husband. All let us allow our people to look for a new husband,” he said.
“We just want to remind them that power is never permanent, and those who think they can secure their survival through lies often find themselves abandoned by the people. Today PF Matters have been dragging in the courts of law for the last two years without being heard because the UPND government wants to weaken the opposition Patriotic Front party.”
Lifwekelo said the Judiciary was allegedly part of the scheme to annihilate the PF, Zambia’s largest opposition party.
