STARDY MWALE JOINS UPND: THEY HAVE DONE A LOT

STARDY JOINS UPND: THEY HAVE DONE A LOT

FORMER Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary and Copperbelt PF Provincial Chairperson Stardy Mwale has joined the UPND.

And UPND Copperbelt Province Chairman Elisha Matambo says the party’s aim is to ensure President Hakainde Hichilema wins big in this year’s general elections.

Speaking when he and other PF members defected to the UPND, Sunday, Mwale said he had left the PF because of the “confusion” that had rocked the party.

“As you heard, I was provincial chairman Copperbelt Province and I was also a member of the Central Committee of the Patriotic Front. I joined PF in 2001, so I was a member of PF for 25 years. You would ask to say what has led to my decision to leave PF and join UPND. Sometimes, when you see that your friend lifts weights, he goes to the gym and is bigger than you, just stay far away. Just surrender from far away. Our friends have done so much, starting from CDF to free education and other things, it is very difficult to counteract and argue with that. How can you argue with that, there is free education and then you say I will be charging a small amount, can people agree? There is nothing that I don’t know here on the Copperbelt Province, everything that we were doing was coming from me as provincial chairman,” said Mwale.

“I have left PF because of confusion, those who have remained, you will see for yourself. The confusion that Chishimba Kambwili and Given Lubinda have brought in PF is not okay, there is too much confusion. So today, I’m officially inviting all those who have remained in PF to come and join UPND which has the manifesto that people will listen to in August 2026. I’m officially inviting all my loyalists, all those who used to support me, all those who liked my administration from 2001, leave PF and join UPND, don’t be shy. Now that I have joined UPND, I will be here for long, I stayed in PF for 25 years, I decided to leave PF after things got too bad”.

And speaking earlier, Matambo, who is also Copperbelt Provincial Minister said Mwale contributed to the growth of PF.

“In UPND there is no such thing as old members and new members, those who joined in 1998, those who join today and those who will join tomorrow, they are all the same. Those who join should respect those who they find in the party and the old members should welcome the new members with both hands. To begin with, this one they’ll even cry, they’ll scream, he has decided to come and work with President Hakainde [Hichilema]. Today he has come, the person I will call upon is one of the people who made PF what it is. I want to tell the country that one of the people who started PF, invested in it, supported it and made it what it was is today joining UPND and President Hakainde Hichilema,” he said.

Meanwhile, speaking at an earlier event where he received a donation of five motor vehicles from former PF Mpongwe constituency chairman Emmanuel Kasambo, Matambo said there was no doubt that President Hichilema would win the August general elections.

“We’ll take this message to the President and I’m sure we’ve picked your advice, his advice, the one who has sponsored these vehicles, not only vehicles, he has given us the five vehicles, he will be buying fuel for these vehicles, he will be servicing these vehicles. As a province, we’ll be employing five drivers on Tuesday, he has also created employment and he’ll be paying those drivers. We are very, very grateful. The emphasis which I don’t want to miss here is, for President Hakainde, there’s no doubt that the President is going to win the 13th August elections, there is no doubt about that, winning, whatever happens, he’s going to win. But there are two types of winning; just winning and what we call win and win big. So, our aim as Copperbelt province is for President Hakainde [Hichilema], just like Mr Kasambo has said, President Hakainde [Hichilema] should not just win, he should win and win big, salt sana,” Matambo said.

“Sir, we will take your advice to the constituency chairmen, district chairmen, the committees, the wards. The issue is that President Hakainde should win and win big. Our target as well is to grab all the 20 something constituencies, currently we have 22 but because of delimitation, we will go above 22, we are set to get all the constituencies on the Copperbelt province, separation of boys from men, this one. We want to win all the mayors, all the councillors, that is our aim. To others out there who feel like coming forward and [doing] what Emmanuel Kasambo has done, our office is open. Those who believe in President Hakainde Hichilema, look at what he has done, the wonders he has done in the past four years”.

Matambo highlighted that President Hichilema had resurrected all the sectors of the economy.

“All the sectors of this country were dead, I’ve been saying [that] he has a spirit of Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 37, where God asked Ezekiel that ‘can these dry bones live, and he said yes Lord you know’, for sure President Hakainde [Hichilema] inherited dry bones. The mining sector which was dead is back to life, [the] education sector which was dead is back to life, the water issues which were dead, back to life, health sector which was dead, back to life, construction of roads all over the province, the road network which was dead, back to life.

As provincial management committee, on behalf of all the structures on the Copperbelt province, starting with the polling station committee, the branches, the wards, constituency, district, province, NMC, which is chaired by President Hakainde Hichilema, on behalf of President Hakainde Hichilema, we are very, very grateful to our sponsor Mr Emmanuel Kasambo,” said Matambo.

“This party has survived through the dedication and hard work of President Hakainde Hichilema and individuals. The President has always been telling us that there’s a difference between government money and UPND money. Every time we want to do anything to do with our political party, we follow the principles of President Hakainde Hichilema.

I can start with this building which we have here, nice building, one of the best party offices in the region of Southern Africa. We had to raise this money through fundraising ventures where the President himself used to come and we raised the money, we had to build this building and part of it, as usual, the President had to support Copperbelt province like he has always supported us. Several other things in this building, if you go in, you’ll find almost all the equipment”.

Meanwhile, Kasambo said the donation was meant to help garner support and votes for President Hichilema ahead of the August general elections.

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity to come and contribute to the party in terms of giving vehicles to Copperbelt rural and the province. These vehicles are five, the dedicated one for the province, will be going around all the towns then the four, one is going to Mpongwe, one is going to Kafulafuta, one is going to Masaiti and the other one is going to Lufwanyama.

These vehicles are dedicated to get (getting) us the maximum votes for the President. We want the President to win and we want the President to win big. Over and above the vehicles, fuel will be provided until elections,” said Kasambo.

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