If wealth was the criteria, HH would have been President in 2006 – Monde
Lusaka, Friday, December 23, 2022 ( The Mast )
PF presidential aspirant Greyford Monde has expressed optimism in scooping the party top job.
Monde, who clarified that he was not rich, argued that wealth is not a qualification for one to be a leader.
He said if wealth was the criteria for one to be president, President Hakainde Hichilema would have been leader of the country in 2006.
Monde said this when he featured on a debate hosted by Linda Banks on Wednesday.
“If wealth or riches were one of the qualifications for anyone to be president then there would have been no president in this country that has ever served, who would have served. I will start from the first president, Dr Kaunda was not wealthiest of them all. President [Frederick] Chiluba was not the wealthiest of them all. President [Levy] Mwanawasa was not and all these presidents were never. In fact, if wealth was the criteria, President Hakainde Hichilema would have been president in 2006 when he first came on the ballot because he declared the highest in terms of wealth and riches but he didn’t get it,” he said.
“It took him another 15 years for people to now believe and trust him, to give him the power. So it’s not his money that made him win the elections. What made him win the election, it’s the people who began to believe into the promises that he had given out to the country. I am very optimistic that I am going to win this race because I first of all come in as the youngest. With a lot of energy, fresh legs, and that said, a lot of experience. Not everyone on the list there has been cabinet minister, but I have been. I was one of the youngest in cabinet. And I want to assure the voters that I have got a lot of support from the young people. And they are not coming to me to support me because of age. I think they also know that I am able to perform. I have performed before in the past.”
On allegations that civil servants are sabotaging UPND government, Monde frowned upon the claims.
He ruled out possibilities that civil servants would indulge in such acts.
Monde charged that it’s the current administration that has been fighting the civil servants.
He said the agriculture system is the way it is today because of the same habit of calling civil servants as PF civil servants.
“So what went wrong in this particular one is that this political party has gone out to attack and fight the civil service, calling them PF civil servants. And that is where the mistake comes in. You know that the civil servants live longer than the tenure or term of a politician. A politician is only five years. The civil service, right now you go to check the civil servants, some of them how long they have been in those seats. They have been, some of them, for 30 years, 40 years. Others are even retiring. Why would they want just to sabotage the UPND today as if it’s the only political party? No, it’s because the UPND party has gone out for them and begun to align them to the former political party and say these are PF,” he noted.
“I want to tell you that when I went into the ministry myself, I had a very good time with those civil servants who are very well qualified. Some of them are not trained only in Zambia, they have gone into serious countries where they have received a lot of training and they have come out with serious qualifications. So for anyone to just come today and call them that these are PF civil servants, that is the beginning of the failure. So the way the civil service is, it’s like a vehicle. And these policy makers who are the politicians are like drivers. So you get into the seat, driver the car to where you want to take it. And the civil servants are always ready for these changes, following the manifesto, following the changes and following the budget. This is how the civil service works.”
Monde said the aligning of civil servants to the PF regime is the reason all sectors are not thriving economically.
“But these civil servants right now is receiving a lot of attacks from these politicians, from the President to the last person. Even cadres are going out for the civil servants, calling them names, wanting to change them and all of that. That is the problem and this is why you see that nothing is holding in this government. Completely nothing. Which sector is thriving today as we speak? You can ask everybody here there is no sector that is holding that you can call having achieved or having managed to treat the citizens, according to what they expect,” he said.
Monde castigated UPND for blaming the “mess” in the FISP programme on PF.
“It’s a very sad story. And when I talk about agriculture and I talk about services in the health sector, I don’t want to speak from a political point of view because these are issues or matters that really affect our lives. And to start politicising these issues and come to platforms and begin to blame everybody, including the PF…You know that this is the second season that UPND is delivering services in terms of agricultural inputs and so on and so forth. The first season was actually the season 2021/2022 farming season and that season came out very successful. Everything went well, no farmer complained,” said Monde.
“That season I want to tell you that it is not UPND that performed that, it was the PF structure. So UPND just literally found all systems going… so this is their first season where we have rated them, not the first one.”
