Even if Lungu’s PF won, they couldn’t have made Zambia better – Chief Nzamane

Even if Lungu’s PF won, they couldn’t have made Zambia better – Chief Nzamane

SENIOR Chief Nzamane of the Ngoni people has stated that the former ruling party, the Patriotic Front (PF), would not have been able to effectively tackle the natural disaster currently affecting Zambia, even if they had won the 2021 elections.

He added that even if the party won the 2021 elections, the country would be in a worse situation.

Chief Nzamane said this during a courtesy visit from Nicholas Phiri, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development yesterday.

The traditional leader also condemned the past regime’s issues of political violence and cadreism, describing them as unfortunate and traumatic experiences for Zambians.

“I cant encourage that cadresim to come back, I wouldn’t want it to come back, it’s a nasty thing. I have always told the communities that times are hard and it’s not only for Zambia, other countries are going through similar problems. Like the drought is a natural calamity. Issues of the economy are also not things that can be turned around almost immediately.” He said.

“Let’s say for instance, PF won the elections, am sure they could have been nothing, they could have not changed anything. Yes we are talking of hunger, its because we are not growing anything. The last year’s crops, failed because of the rains, there is nothing that we can do.”

Chief Nzamane noted that with the strides of putting up dams, harvesting rain water and having industrial boreholes, the country might gain its glory back.

He shared an example of himself putting up a field on drip irrigation and that the maize is doing well.

“So these issues could have not been handled even by PF, they could have not managed to handle the situation as it is, maybe we could have been on a worse situation with this national calamity of the drought.

“This is a sober government, we may say this and that, but I find this government to be sober as compared to the previous governments, I think we need to give them a chance to work and I think they are in the right direction,” Chief Nzamane said.

The Chief also praised government’s Cash for Work initiative stating that the current hunger calamity that has befallen the country has affected most households who are even failing to even take their children to schools as they have resorted to eat the little maize they harvested instead of taking it to the Food Reserve Agency (FRA).

He said the initiative has come as a relief to the community as it will now help them to source for food for their families, adding that the duration of six months is also okay, especially that the country is expecting early rains this year.

Phiri, said government is committed to not only bringing services closer to the people, but also to ensure that they directly benefit from programmes services in disaster times like this calling on the traditional leaders to take the front seat in sensitizing the community on the initiative.

The Cash for work Programme is targeting 500,000 drought affected households which is adding up to at least 2.5 million people using the ratio of five people per household.

And on the construction of the Chief’s palace which was bemoaned, the PS cautioned the constructors to ensure they use quality materials and put in full consideration in the standards of building pulling down a structure that is almost completed will mean wasting tax payers money.

The new Chief’s palace is being constructed through the Constituency Development Fund? constructed by the Zambia Correctional Service (ZCS) and will comprise of a four bedroomed self contained morden house, two houses for the Chief’s returners that have two bedrooms each, and a Conference hall (Chief’s court) and an office space for the chief.

However, Phiri told the constructors  to expertise their works as the palace was expected to be handed over in last month.

Meanwhile, project Assistant Superintendent from the Zambia Correctional Service, Engineer Sakala Duncan committed to working on the errors made in the construction, speed up the work rate, and ensure that the project is handed over to the Chief by November this year….https://kalemba.news/politics/2024/09/24/even-if-lungus-pf-won-they-couldnt-have-made-zambia-better-chief-nzamane/

By Buumba Mwitumwa in Chipata

Kalemba September 24, 2024