PF should give us time to sweep the mess they left – Mweetwa
By Thomas Ngala
THOSE who are saying we should stop referring to PF it’s like asking people to stop talking about the devil when the devil is busy tempting people to join his kingdom of hell, Cornelius Mweetwa has said.
Addressing the media at the party secretariat in Lusaka on Friday, the UPND spokesperson said people should not ask the ruling party to stop talking about the opposition PF.
Mweetwa said this following remarks by PF media director Antonio Mwanza who charged that UPND has failed to govern and has instead continued to blame everything on PF.
Mweetwa, who is also Southern Province minister, castigated Mwanza saying he has no credibility to be the one to say the UPND has failed because he cannot be trusted.
He said Mwanza was amongst the people who championed the PF propaganda, made the party unpopular and be rejected by the Zambians.
“And let me make this clear and categorical. Those who are saying we should stop referring to PF is like asking people to stop talking about the devil when the devil is busy tempting people to join his kingdom of hell. So when the devil stops tempting the people, who will talk about the devil? PF should stop talking the way they are talking,” Mweetwa said. “They must be humble enough to realise that they have been rejected by the people after 10 years of governance and economic mismanagement leading to the kind of degradation we are witnessing the consequences of now. So for as long as the effects of the decisions and actions that they took when they were in office continue to manifest, and affect the people of this country, we shall remind the people that this equation of cause….effect relationship, the PF has a role to play. So stop asking us to stop talking about PF.”
He said the UPND would stop talking about PF when the opposition party stops talking about the ruling party.
“…wanting us to look bad for the consequences of their bad decisions…when they leave mess, they should give us time to sweep the mess they have left in this country so that we can make progress,” Mweetwa said.
He said people who brutalised citizens should not be allowed to shout as if they are saints.
Mweetwa added that PF needed to repent.
And Mweetwa said the maize price set by the Food Reserve Agency for this year is transitional.
“This price of K160 from K150 is a transitional price. We have just formed government, and we found a broken economy which has been broken for 10 years and we can’t fix it in 10 months. We may not yet be at our best yet in terms of delivering certain deliverables that we promised the people. To the farmers out there, this is a transitional price and we are very hopeful that going forward in the next crop harvest seasons, the price will be better,” he said. “But we must also indicate that even at a K160, the monetary value for a K160 today is better than what it was 10 months ago. In August last year, a K160 would have amounted to $6. Today, K160 amounts to $10. So what a K160 would not buy in August last year can buy now. The power of the currency has been improved, we are making progress.”
Mweetwa also mentioned that there must be a commercial market for maize as he advised farmers not to make FRA the ultimate buyer of their produce.
He said President Hakainde Hichilema has been up and down opening the regional market for the farmers adding that FRA buys for national food security.
Commenting on the trips that President Hichilema has been undertaking, Mweetwa said the trips are very important as they help in repairing Zambia’s image internationally.