DEMOCRATIC Party president Harry Kalaba says Easterners are bitter and that they will not tolerate jokes in next year’s elections.
Kalaba also says former Republican president Rupiah Banda tried in as far as the agricultural sector is concerned but that President Edgar Lungu has failed.
He says the problem with parliamentarians from Eastern Province is that they do not speak for the province.
Featuring on Chipata’s Radio Maria’s good governance programme on Saturday night, Kalaba, who shared the platform with the party’s supreme organ, Democratic National Committee (DNC) member, Bridget Nkhoma and Eastern Province DP chairperson Danton Ndhlovu, said easterners should not allow to be used by the PF again.
“Niziba, this time banthu bakum’mawa bakalipa, Bridget Nkhoma enze niuza ati ‘ba president banthu, bakum’mawa sibafuna masobela bafuna ati government ichinje next year (I know this time easterners are bitter. Bridget Nkhoma was telling me that ‘Mr president easterners do not want jokes; they want government to change next year),” Kalaba said.
He said the PF government would soon start enticing teachers and other civil servants because of next year’s elections.
“They will soon start telling lies that they will improve teachers’ salaries but that’s not true; don’t believe them. Again, look at the floor price which was given to farmers for maize and yet the same government went to buy a presidential jet,” Kalaba said. “They are claiming that the previous jet was not moving very fast because they want him to be reaching his destinations very fast. But now even if you reach very fast but people are hungry, what would you have benefited?”
Kalaba complained that teachers were not on payroll because the government said it has no money.
“This time even if you go to the nursing school and you graduate there is no guarantee that you will be employed. In those days during Dr Kaunda, Grey Zulu and Reuben Chitandika Kamanga’s government, when you finish your teaching course today then tomorrow you will be given a school,” he said. “Those days, people used to choose schools from three provinces but today those things are not there.”
Kalaba pledged that once in government, the DP would ensure that all trained teachers were employed within six months because there were a lot of schools without teachers, adding that the current teacher-pupil ratio was catastrophic.
He said unemployed nurses would as well be employed within six months of the DP’s government.
Kalaba said men and women in defence forces needed superior conditions of service.
“Once we come as DP, we’ll make sure we take care of them (civil servants) because today it’s only an MP who will bring a duty free vehicle in this country. The food that MPs eat at Parliament Motel is tax-free. Even beer, Castle is now K8 but at Parliament Motel maybe now that’s when beer has reached K2.20 because it is subsidised,” Kalaba explained. “But now why are you subsidising politicians only? Civil servants do not know subsidy [and] even the messengers in councils, there is no subsidy. DP in government all these jokes will go.”
He further indicated that Eastern Province could do well in the agricultural sector but that the problem was uncaring leaders.
“Tenze naba Rupiah Banda; at least tinaonako chitukuko ku agriculture kuyenda kusogolo. Pamene ba Banda benze ba president banayesako manje bamene balipo sitizakamba nazamazina pano, agriculture kuno ku Eastern Province yayendelatu pansi. DP ikabwela mu government tifuna agriculture kuno ku Eastern Province iyende kusogolo (we had Mr Rupiah Banda; at least we saw development in the agriculture sector going forward. When Mr Rupiah Banda was president, he tried but the one who is there; I will not even mention the name, the agriculture sector in Eastern Province has gone down. When DP forms government it will improve the agriculture sector,” Kalaba said.
He added that when people are neglected, next year was a good time to teach politicians lessons.
“People are staying as if Zambia is not their country, they stay like foreigners. We want to end this issue as DP! We only remember Eastern Province when elections are near; we forgot the easterners when there are no elections,” Kalaba noted. “We want to remind the people of Eastern Province that when they see that these people do not pay attention to you, the time to teach them a lesson is next year. In the next eleven months there will be elections, go and vote in numbers, voter registration starts next month, go and register so that you vote for DP.”
He said easterners should not live in the past of being told that the province was the bedroom for PF.
“Ngati muzasala mu vakudala vakuti niku bedroom beve bakudya. Ngati badya kuja vakudya sivimachoka m’mala mwao vathamangila m’mala mwanu (if you will remain in the past of saying this is the PF stronghold while them are eating… When they eat, the food doesn’t get transferred from their stomachs to yours,” Kalaba said. “So mufunika kuyenda ku vota kubachotsa aba (so you need to vote to remove these people).”
Kalaba said once Eastern Province starts making cooking oil, starts growing cotton and tobacco at a large-scale, farmers would have money.
He said Malawi was doing far much better than Zambia.
Kalaba also said members of parliament in Eastern Province did not speak for their people.
“God gave us everything here in Eastern Province but our leaders when we choose them here in Eastern Province and when they go to Parliament, they just play politics,” he said. “They don’t even talk on behalf of Eastern Province. I am urging the people in this province to listen to Parliament TV so that you see for yourself if there is any MP who speaks on behalf of this province. You will find that there is none.”
He further pointed out that Eastern Province could manage to feed the entire country but that the only problem was the available political leadership.
On his running mate, Kalaba said the right time to mention such had not yet come but that a running mate would be announced later.
On her part, Nkhoma said in the DP government there would be no by-elections because it was a sheer waste of time.
Nkhoma said areas like Chipangali sub-centre had no water, further proposing that the money used in by-elections could be channeled to water projects.
She also said the money that went to by-elections could be used to buy medicine in health centres across the country.
Meanwhile, Ndhlovu said he had gone to all the 14 districts of Eastern Province and that most people’s main complaint was being removed from Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) and that farming inputs were going to PF cadres.
Ndhlovu wondered how people could survive when the agricultural sector was destroyed.
He said the other problem in the province was lack of adequate points for accessing drinking water.