AMERICA IS ONLY INTERESTED IN DEMOCRACY, DEAL WITH CHINA IF YOU WANT INFRASTRUCTURE – FORMER PF SG MWILA.
FORMER PF secretary general Davies Mwila says government should deal with China if it wants more money for infrastructure.
Commenting on President Hakainde Hichilema’s statement last week that there was no competition for friendship between America and China, Mwila, in an interview, said countries like the USA were only interested in democracy and could not help with infrastructure development.
“Hakainde Hichilema as President he must swallow his pride and go and negotiate with the Chinese government at a higher level. As we are talking, most of the Chinese are going back because there is nothing that they are doing. The Chinese when they came here, they came to do business, they came to do roads, they came to do clinics and everything.
But I want to tell President Hakainde that China has the money, it is the only country that can give you a loan to do a road. It is the only country that can give you a loan to build a hospital, it is the only country that can give you a grant to build a clinic,” he said.
“America is only interested in democracy, but when it comes to infrastructure development, they are not there. America is broke! If you look at the UK’s economy it is not doing fine. So you will find that the money is remaining with China and Russia. Zambian government under the new dawn administration, they are not dealing with these two countries which have the money. So you can’t deal with countries that are poor, countries that are broke, countries which don’t have the money.
From the time he started working with the European Union and America, President Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND have to tell the country how much money has come from all these countries to benefit this country”.
He said the UPND government would have nothing to show for with regards to infrastructure development.
“I don’t know whether they have the money in their coffers. They don’t have the money; because we don’t have drugs in hospitals, they don’t have the money. So it is high time they went and negotiated with the Chinese government. He will be able to see infrastructure development again. Without that I can tell you that come 2026 UPND will have nothing to look at or to point at, that this is what they have done. It is now one year four months, they have not started anything,” Mwila observed.
Mwila said PF’s infrastructure development was influenced by China.
“Our infrastructure development was influenced by China, the ring road was China, Mansa-Luwingu was China, Luwingu- Kasama it is China. The road from Kafue to Mazabuka it is China. All these roads that we are talking about, all these hospitals the Chinsali one, the one in Petauke and most of the district hospitals, it is the money that came from China. There is no money that came from America or Britain. Yes, in in terms of strengthening our democracy yes they will be able to give you money because they have interest in our country. But I can tell you that this country will suffer more because of the relationship between Zambia and America, UK and the European Union,” said Mwila
(News Diggers)