THE people of Barotseland should not give PF a vote because they have done nothing for the region, Clement Sinyinda has advised.
Sinyinda is a former prime minister of Barotseland and served as deputy minister of education in the MMD government. He also served as Senanga member of parliament.
Sinyinda was reacting to a statement by Vice-President Inonge Wina in Mongu recently that the people of Western Province should not disassociate themselves from government because this can disadvantage them from accessing development services.
She said Western Province had generally lagged in terms of development because most members of parliament in the region have been from the opposition and they refuse to work with the government.
“If we continue being in isolation, many things will continue passing us. I am certain that we have learnt our lesson and that this time around we will vote for Patriotic Front (PF) representatives,” Vice-President Wina said.
She said President Edgar Lungu was determined to develop Western Province.
But Sinyinda disagreed with Vice-President Wina’s reasoning and advised the people not to vote for PF because it had done nothing for them.
He said the people of Barotseland did not ask the PF to construct the Mongu Stadium and King Lewanika University for them but the ruling party promised them.
“Even on things that they themselves promised, they have done nothing,” he said.
Sinyinda said if the PF were serious about developing Western Province, they could have improved the economic roads in the region by working on the road to Lukulu, Lusaka–Mongu, Senanga–Livingstone, and Mongu-Limulunga which were in bad shape.
“The so-called King Lewanika University that has never been constructed and I am told, I am not very sure, I wouldn’t even actually try to make comparisons with other regions but I wanted to emphasise and advise the people of Barotseland not to vote for PF because they have done nothing at all, not even a single thing that they have done here,” he said.
Sinyinda said the Mongu-Kalabo road was an MMD project and even money was secured by the former government.
He said construction of the road started in the Levy Mwanawasa government but stalled because the contractor was not very competent.
“When president [Rupiah] Banda came into power, he himself through the minister of finance Situmbeko Musokotwane and the secretary to the treasury Mr Likolo Ndalamei secured some money that constructed, in fact, there is one thing that I should emphasise which you should also take note of that the initial project was supposed to be from Mongu to the border with Angola,” he explained. “The money that was secured was to construct the road from Mongu to Kalabo to the border with Angola. But whatever happened, it was only done half way. The rest, that road which was supposed to be constructed from Kalabo to the border, in fact everything was put on site but from nowhere, the project was completely abandoned. We don’t know why because money was secured, to the best of my knowledge.”
Sinyinda said the people of Barotseland have been disadvantaged by the failure to complete the road.
He said only the stretch of road from Mongu to Tapo was constructed.
“For us that is very annoying. We feel that we have been abandoned, we have been neglected…I don’t know which word I can use but the current regime has actually neglected us and there is no reason, no justification whatsoever for us to vote for them,” emphasized Sinyinda.