THE UPND says Zambians must take the August general elections seriously by voting in a credible leadership to avert a disaster in an event that the PF rules beyond 2021.
Mweetwa says the PF have operationalised a political craft to make President Edgar Lungu “wamuyayaya” (lifetime president).
Briefing the media in Choma on Thursday, UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa said there would be no Zambia to talk about if citizens decide to extend the PF’s mandate next month.
“Zambia will be a disaster itself not that there will be a disaster in Zambia but Zambia itself will be a disaster if we don’t take this election seriously,” he warned. “That disaster, we the people can avert it if we use this election, use our ballot to put in place a leadership that will bring confidence the people of Zambia have lost in their government – confidence that the international community has lost in this government.”
He urged people to use their vote correctly and change Zambia once and for all.
“Just begin to imagine life post-12 August under the leadership of PF! What kind of lifestyle with the high cost of living, corruption, impunity, political violence, political cadreism? What will Zambia be with another five years of PF? The things we are complaining about now – the high cost of living which is now, according to JCTR, around K9,000 for a family of six when the majority of Zambians, those in the civil service are getting a salary of K4,000 and those in informal sector are getting as low as K600 per month because the economy has collapsed?” he wondered.
Mweetwa noted that thousands of youths had graduated from institutions of learning but have no jobs.
“There will be no Zambia to talk about. It will have ground to a halt because the economy is already in ICU, governance, rule of law has been taken away. We are in tatters,” he observed.
Mweetwa said what President Edgar Lungu and the PF had done in terms of failing to pay international debt obligations would ground the country to halt.
“They are failing to pay interest not the debt itself. Most of the debt is maturing next year, 2022. The Eurobond is maturing in 2022. Most of the huge debt is beginning to mature in 2022. Now if you are failing to pay interest before you begin to pay the actual principle sum, how will it be for Zambians when Eurobond kicks in? And you know it is very difficult to negotiate with the international community using the PF and its leadership, that’s why the IMF for the last 10 years has refused to come and aid Zambia notwithstanding that we have reached the lowest. They are refusing because they don’t trust this government. They know the corruption of this government,” Mweetwa said.
He said renegotiating the debt would require a leadership that could be trusted.
“You need a leadership with clean hands not this government with filthy hands. Wherever they passed they left a trail of destruction by way of corruption,” he said. “Look, how can the international community continue to assist the government when you have a party which corruptly procures expired drugs, expired condoms? This election, let’s treat it seriously citizens.”
Mweetwa said the August 12 elections should be treated as a referendum on whether President Lungu qualifies to go for a third term having already stood twice as president.
“And if you have listened to the way people from PF speak and they have printed regalia ECL 2021 and beyond, what is that beyond? They want to make President Lungu wamuyayaya. We have seen they have already put this political craft into operation. The people of Zambia stood firm against third term of late president Frederick Chiluba in 2001. In 2021 the people are now being called to stand firm against third term so that no individual takes the people of this country for granted,” he said. “For those who are supporting President Lungu, the majority of them we understand, where majority means a clique of them who are benefiting directly from mismanagement of national resources and its departure from rule of law, they will continue singing and justifying his candidature but anybody who is serious about where Zambia should go knows that President Lungu does not qualify. Like KBF (Kelvin Fube Bwalya) had stated that time when he was still in PF, he indicated very well that President Lungu has veered off what initially PF had been intended to do – service to the people of this country.”
Meanwhile, Mweetwa said the UPND supports a no third term campaign a neutral organisation intends to launch.
“So I’m here to report that a no third term campaign with relevant activities, regalia to depict no third term campaign shall soon be launched and I hope it does so soon. A neutral organisation, not political, we have heard is mobilising to launch a no third term campaign,” he disclosed.
And Mweetwa urged the PF to stop forcing civil servants to attend their meetings.
“Civil servants are technocrats who belong to the state apparatus that is a going concern notwithstanding a political party being voted out of office by the citizens. Two days ago Professor Nkandu Luo was in Chiengi where civil servants were held in a hall where they were forced to sing PF songs. We know that citizens have been refusing to attend PF meetings hence their resorting to force civil servants. So Professor Luo, stop abusing civil servants, go and talk to the people, not abusing our civil servants,” Mweetwa said.
Mweetwa also called for the immediate release of Ndola Central Constituency UPND candidate Frank Tayali from detention.
“We are aware that our colleague is held in police custody on politically motivated charges because initially when he was summoned, he was told that the charge was for playing loud campaign music at night but now the charge has changed to malicious damage to property,” said Mweetwa.