ZAMBIANS WILL DO A “DON’T KUBEBA ” ON UPND DURING POLLS –JEAN  KAPATA

ZAMBIANS WILL DO A “DON’T KUBEBA ” ON UPND DURING POLLS – KAPATA

PF senior member Jean Kapata says people will do a “Don’t Kubeba” on the UPND in the forthcoming general elections.

She adds that the UPND will perhaps campaign easily in their strongholds, but says Lusaka, the Copperbelt and other provinces will not be easy.

UPND Lusaka Province Chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta recently said the ruling party would have the easiest campaign in the country’s history, adding that no promises would be made as President Hakainde Hichilema had already delivered.

He said the party was intact in the capital city and to demonstrate this, the President would be escorted by more than 200,000 supporters when he files his nominations on Friday, May 22.

But commenting on this in an interview, Kapata said the UPND would be “taught in black and white” because they were the only ones who could see what they had done.

“We thank God if that’s the way they feel, but let them just find the independent people on the ground and ask how the Zambian people think about this government. They’ll be taught in black and white. Because the things they say, they’ve performed, they’ve done whatever, we don’t see them. We don’t see them, we just hear them by word of mouth. So you begin to wonder whether what you are hearing is true or not. Well, maybe in their strongholds, but Lusaka, the Copperbelt, these other provinces, it won’t be easy for them. We all had, Makebi had in Lusaka about more than 2,000 people. So you can’t gauge by people, because we don’t pay people money,” Kapata said.

“They pay money. They entice people with money, we don’t entice people with money. That is not a problem. He can get even a million people to escort him, that’s not a problem, but the problem is when we go into the ballot box, that’s where the issue is. We are here, we wait. The campaign period has just started. So, if that’s the way they do it, if the people do them ‘Don’t Kubeba’, it will be a ‘Don’t Kubeba’ issue. If they give you money, you eat. If they do that, you eat. Because we have not seen anything, really, to be very serious with you, we have not seen anything other than changing policies and government laws just to suit themselves”.

And Kapata said the President would still assent to the Public Gatherings Bill despite it being rejected by many people.

She also argued that the amendments were not made in the interest of Zambians.

“The issue of the cyber law itself is very bad. The 74 laws that they changed within two weeks, who does that? Why are you changing the laws at the last minute? To suit yourselves, so that you can do more harm to people. No. Listen, what has happened to the Constitution? The Constitution was ripped with impunity. People complained, but what happened? Still the President assented to it. Even in this case, he will really assent to it and they can assure you that as we change government come 13th August, those will be the first things that will have to change because you need to give people freedom. Freedom of speech,” said Kapata.

“But is it in the interest of Zambian people? No, it’s not. It’s not in the interest of the Zambian people. They’ve changed it, but they’ve made it worse. They’ve made it worse. They can brag, they can do whatever, but they’ve made it worse, very worse actually”.

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