If failure was a political  party, it is the UPND- Dr Canisius BANDA

Press Statement

THINGS FALL APART
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The shit has now hit the fan. No one is laughing now. Now people are very mad with anger.

Ba gwila ku mankhwala. Ba gwila kosagwila. Be gwila ku moyo. Some women at a market were heard lamenting today.

Things have now gone beyond tolerable limits. The wheels have come off the leadership and governance wagon. Everyone is now both concerned and enraged.

The shocking revelations of theft of life-saving medicines, including ARVs, donated by the US government are a stark reminder of the UPND administration’s catastrophic failure to prioritize the health and welfare of Zambians.

Using objective parameters, we have said it before. And we will say it again. Based on its own yardstick, the UPND government has failed.

If failure was a political  party, it is the UPND.

Zambia’s Republican President Hakainde Hichilema had promised that, in five years’ time, Zambia would be better. It isn’t.

In fact, Zambians are worse off now. According to ZAMSTATS, a government department, their poverty has increased.

Just how many times are we going to say it? Just what language should we use now, how should we say it for this fact to be understood? We thank God now diplomats, inspired by their own national interest, are speaking on behalf of citizens.

For how long should Zambians continue to suffer? Is it normal or acceptable that economic recovery should only be seen by economists? Where in the world is economic wellbeing not lived or felt by citizens? Why should citizens, instead of relying on their pockets and the belly, need a professorial lecture to know that Zambia is doing well?

As Professor P. L. O. Lumumba cautions, as a leader, if you have to explain what you have done then it means that you have done nothing.

To the UPND’s failure, now add theft and corruption.

Trouble has come. Now the shame is here. Every citizen is now in panic.

President Hakainde Hichilema, the leader of the culprit and responsible officers, remains captured, stuck and functionally paralysed, like a deer in the headlights.

If it is not President Hakainde Hichilema who has stolen the medicines, who is corrupt, and who has failed, then who is it? The buck, you see, stops with him.

You see, everything rises and falls on leadership.

We demand that the government takes immediate and concrete actions to investigate, prosecute, and bring to justice those responsible for this heinous crime.

The United States of America, supposedly an ally of Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s, is now calling him out, saying he has stolen the drugs, saying he is corrupt and that he has failed. And as a consequence, Donald Trump and the American people have made their decision. They are now imposing severe, life-threatening sanctions on innocent Zambians.

Just as we have repeatedly said that this government has failed, the US is now saying the same thing.

Perhaps their voice, carrying with it a barbed whip, will cause the required leadership-shifting quake in the country.

There is no hiding it. There is no spinning it.

The failure of the UPND is now in the open for all to see. The failure of the UPND has now gone global, and because of this unmitigated governance fiasco, Zambia, its image soiled, is now under sanctions.

As if Zambians had not suffered enough, their suffering is now about to get even worse, and for many of them, their premature one-way journey to the cemetery, to an early grave is now being quickened, it is now on the fast track.

Listen to these strong and biting words from the US: “We cannot continue to underwrite the personal enrichment of fraudsters while patients go without life-saving medicines we provide for free, and the Zambian government fails to enforce accountability or introduce necessary reforms.”

Things have indeed fallen apart. When your friends start to wash your dirty and stinking linen in public, just know that, indeed your days are numbered. Friends do not embarrass you this way.

For the sins of a few in the UPND,  now the whole country is being made to pay.

Quoting Mwebantu, ‘the United States government has announced that it has cut K1.4 billion approximately $50 million in annual funding for malaria, HIV, and TB medications due to government’s failure to address widespread theft of donated medical supplies.’

Disease, you see, is not partisan. Citizens who need and take ARVs, TB and malaria drugs are in their millions. They are found at State House, within the Ministry of Health, all ministries, in churches, the Zambia Police Service, and in all political parties. And a caring government looks after all its people. It does not defraud them as the UPND is patently guilty of, and doing.

Disease comes to all. It follows then that there must be healthcare for all.

And now because of its failure to govern properly, failure to ensure accountability, and because of its deception and ineptitude, the UPND is now playing Russian roulette with the lives of Zambians. As the saying goes, the UPND government is now aiding and abetting the ill health and death of citizens.

Just listen to this shocking exposè: “Between 2021 and 2023, buyers visited over 2,000 pharmacies across Zambia. Shockingly, 95 percent of those selling products the US provides were also selling stolen goods,” US Ambassador to Zambia, Michael Gonzales revealed.

‘Speaking at a media briefing, US Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales said that since 2021, the US uncovered systemic theft of life-saving medicines including antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) intended for free distribution to the public.

He said following the discovery of widespread theft in late 2021, the US Embassy informed the Zambian government and initiated an on-the-ground assessment of private pharmacies nationwide.

He added that 45 percent of those pharmacies were selling medicines donated by the United States.’

Michael Gonzalez, livid with anger, goes on: “Across all ten provinces, nearly half of the pharmacies selling US-donated medicines and supplies were dealing in stolen stock. The remainder were selling medicines stolen from supplies purchased by the Zambian government, the Global Fund, and other donor partners.”

‘Ambassador Gonzales said that on April 3, 2024, he presented the alarming findings to senior government officials, including representatives from multiple ministries, law enforcement, and the Executive branch.’

See,? He presented to the Executive branch of the Government of the Republic of Zambia, to President Hakainde Hichilema himself.

“I asked them to act in two areas – stop further theft and hold high-level perpetrators accountable,” he said.

Note here Ambassador Gonzalez’s reference to and emphasis on ‘high-level’ thieves.

‘Ambassador Gonzales said despite more than 33 high-level meetings over 12 months including with Permanent Secretaries and senior US officials, the Zambian government has failed to take sufficient action.

He said the US even offered technical support in supply-chain management and law enforcement, but results have been disappointing.’

This then is the gory tale of those that promised to fix Zambia, to make it better. Those that said they knew better and how.

This then is the sad ending to a party that once held so much promise, a party I once helped.

This is exactly what happens when, instead of leaders, you have dealers in government.

It is not just the US government which is disappointed with the UPND government. Every sober citizen in all the ten provinces of Zambia, save only for demented sycophants and zealots, is even more disappointed., is seething with anger.

The failure of the UPND has not only grossly disappointed citizens, it has also shocked, embarrassed and angered them. More so for me who was one of the chief architects for its ascendancy to State power. I am not only shocked but now shame has become me.

Talking of some people being more equal than others, of sparing sacred cows, Ambassador Gonzalez further complains: “Instead of targeting masterminds behind the theft, enforcement efforts focused on low-level actors, resulting in only a few arrests of mid-level officials.”

The Ambassador clearly knows who should fall on the sword but isn’t. A school of big fish is still Scot-free,
profiting off US aid

‘Ambassador Gonzales further added that now more than six months into a forensic audit of the Zambia Medicines and Medical Supplies Agency (ZAMMSA), no public report has been released, nor has any been shared with the US.’

“Since October, I have made it clear to senior government officials that I am obligated to safeguard American taxpayers’ resources in light of gross theft and mismanagement,” he said.

Haven’t Zambians said it many times before that the UPND government is mega-corrupt? Now look who is talking. Is the US ambassador motivated by sour grapes, bitterness or jealousy?

‘He further said that while the US remains committed to Zambia’s development, it will no longer fund systems that enable corruption.’

But then, as if having diseased and addled minds, the UPND, defending themselves, will again annoyingly remind us that failure is global, and that corruption isn’t new or limited to Zambia, that it was there before 2021 and that you will also find it in other countries, where it is even worse. As if possessed, they might even say that ECL is behind all this.

If this is not a valid reason for regime change, then tell me fellow Zambians, what is?

Divest yourselves of cronyism or ethnic bias, use an objective lens, why should a ruling party that endangers the lives of citizens, through its acts of both omission and commission, be retained?

Furthermore, whilst it is still in office, in the few months left we call on the government to provide a comprehensive plan to mitigate the impact of the US funding cut and ensure that Zambians continue to access essential healthcare services.

The people of Zambia deserve better than a government that allows corruption and mismanagement to rob them of their right to health.

In the final analysis, in light of this gross theft and mismanagement by a ruling party, Zambians are also obligated to safeguard their country. And as the Patriotic Front with its Tonse Alliance, we state that the hour to remove the UPND from power has now come. We must change again.

This then is how the cookie crumbles.

Twacula pafula!
Aluta continua! Indeed, the struggle must continue!

Dr Canisius BANDA
PF National Chairman for Health

8 May 2025
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