Immediate-past Muchinga Member of Parliament Howard Kunda has charged that praising the UPND Government that it has done well in its first year in office is doing a de-service to the nation.
Mr. Kunda, who served as Muchinga MP from 2012 to 2021, said it is even difficult to tell whether or not the UPND Government has set a base to make Zambia more prosperous.
The former Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee questioned what the UPND Government has done in the last one year to improve the living conditions of the people.
Mr. Kunda said many Zambians are going to bed hungry because of the high cost of essential goods and services.
“I think that to sum up everything in one statement, that is that they have done well in the first year of governing this country? I think that the UPND government found first of all the debt which has been a problem in that we have been failing to even pay back, that is why they have opted to borrow so that they can bury the debt. To say that the UPND have done well I think we will be doing de-service to our nation. I think they have just come, one year in office and they have a mandate of five years. As they run the affairs of the country we have to be there to check the perimeters,” he said.
“What have they done on for example the much talked about issue of the living conditions of our people, the food security of our people, the expense that each one of us has to incur to have three meals which should be the minimum but we are finding sad situations where people sometimes are sharing meals that you will eat tomorrow, I will eat today. That should be unacceptable and as a person I think that is why I have given myself to check on this government so that we can speak for our people because if we sit quiet then we will be doing de-service to our nation. So, there are a lot of areas I have seen that we need to check, we need to talk about,” Mr. Kunda said.
He continued:”The other issue is the mining sector where the government has decided to give tax holidays. I think that we have so much debt, why can’t we use that money which we are now giving these multinational companies freely. Why are we giving away free money to these mining corporations when we have poverty in this country, when we have people going hungry? Going for a day without putting anything in your mouth.”
Mr. Kunda, however, said the UPND has done well to increase Constituency Development Fund and to provide free education.
“There are other things that I can refer to that they have done well. The issue of free education but again it is about implementation. The issue of the CDF being increased from K1.6 Million to K25.7 Million, I think it is also a good thing and it is also about implementation. Are we able to expand? Have we built capacity to handle this kind of money? Those are the questions but from the pronunciation I think that it is well received. In terms of fighting corruption, I think that yes just by word of mouth that you are fighting corruption is a good thing but again it is about implementation. “
“We have not seen convictions of those being alleged to have been corrupt. So we need to see convictions, we need to see the results then we can say indeed they are fighting corruption but again it is also an issue where we are just seeing politicians being followed by we know that in this country the culprits are those tasked to handle money. Those are Permanent Secretaries, the directors, those running the government. The permanent secretaries are the controlling officers. There is nowhere a politician signs were so they should also be followed,” Mr. Kunda said.
He said the UPND government should be checked regularly to ensure that it works for the people of Zambia.
“I think it is too early to say whether or not the government has set a base to make the nation more prosperous. We are seeing a lot of people going hungry, going without food. A bag of mealie meal is just skyrocketing. They promised the Zambian people that a bag of mealie meal will be K50. Even writing on boards that the fuel will be reduced but what have we seen? The fuel is going up. Even if they can argue that fuel price has started coming down but the fact is that was fuel 20 something Kwacha? No, it was at K17 per litre. So we are only going to start praising them when they bring prices of fuel to K16 then we will say now the base has been provided for greater things. I think that we need to talk about these things so that the government can wake up to the reality of why it is there. It is there for the people of Zambia period so they need to work for the people of Zambia,” Mr. Kunda said.