THE United Party for National Development has urged the PF to respect clergymen who stand for the truth.
UPND secretary general Stephen Katuka said the Catholic Church and Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu have been instrumental in shaping Zambia’s democracy for many years.
Katuka said the UPND found the statement by Davies Mwila, in which he dragged the UPND into his debate with Archbishop Mpundu malicious.
He said UPND holds Archbishop Mpundu in high esteem for the role he has played in speaking against injustice and speaking for the poor in the country.
He said Mwila thinks whoever disagrees with President Edgar Lungu’s poor manner of running the country was UPND.
“For his information, the majority of Zambians who include some staunch PF members, civil servants and the general citizenry are against the PF’s way of running the country. The fact that civil servants and everyone cannot come out openly does not mean citizens are happy with the manner in which Edgar Lungu and his PF are running things,” he said.
“If Davies Mwila wants to know how much economic misery Edgar Lungu and his PF have brought on citizens, let him check the high electricity tariffs, the high cost of food and high levels of corruption, and the general increase in the prices of commodities.”
Katuka said even a pre-school pupil today knows that PF had failed to run the country.
“Only under the PF can you find the whole government failing to explain the owner of 48 houses. Only under the PF do we find ambulances costing more than US$280,000. In case Mr Mwila has forgotten, his government bought 42 fire engines at US$1million each, far above the international market price,” he said.
“Additionally, Mwila and his PF have not told us what role some of his named PF members played in the gassing of citizens. We are aware that some PF officials were implicated and Mwila is shy to tell us the role PF has played in gassing.”
Katuka further said PF ministers remained in office illegally in 2016 and had refused to pay back the money they got.
“The Catholic Church and Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu have been instrumental in shaping Zambia’s democracy for many years. For Mwila to begin insulting the man of God for simply denouncing poor governance is very unfortunate,” said Katuka.
“We urge the PF to have respect for clergymen who stand for the truth. Telesphore Mpundu has never gotten UPND membership card and we do not have his details in our membership data base.”