THERE WERE HARDSHIPS EVEN DURING PF BUT CITIZENS COULD AFFORD 2 MEALS A DAY – FORMER PF SG MWILA
FORMER PF secretary general Davies Mwila says although people were facing hardships even during PF’s time, they were at least able to afford mealie meal and have two meals a day.
In an interview, Mwila said mealie meal was fetching between K110 and K115 when PF was in government, but the price has now doubled.
“People must compare with PF and UPND. When we were in government, mealie was at K110 to K115. They said as PF we failed to govern and lead the Zambians and that they would reduce the price of mealie meal to K50 and fertiliser from K900 to K250. On fuel, they used to tell us that we’re stealing K3 from the people. They are now in government and the price of mealie meal has doubled. Everything has gone up. So the question is who is better?
The one who was selling mealie meal at K115 or K250? Those are comparisons people are making. Even in PF, there were hardships but now, it is worse. People were able to buy mealie meal and have maybe lunch and supper. But this time, they can’t have two meals in a day. It’s not possible,” he said.
“It’s now two years but they’ve never done any road in Zambia. Look at the roads, hospitals we built. They have not built not even one hospital or roads. Those are the things that people must compare. We are far much better than the UPND government. There’s no other alternative (opposition). That’s why people are crying for PF. People are crying for PF wherever you go. They want PF because they thought by going to vote at 05:00 hours and voting us out, [it] will help them. It hasn’t helped them. They are regretting.
All university graduates are regretting and they are saying they’ll never wake up to vote at 05:00 hours again. So 2026 will be a different ball game altogether”.
Meanwhile, commenting on President Hakainde Hichilema’s call for Zambians to continue working hard, Mwila said citizens will only appreciate the President’s hard work if results start showing.
“Work hard? But is he working hard himself? He has the right to tell the people of Zambia to have to work hard but he has to lead by example. What results are there to see? You can work but if there are no results, it is as well that [he] stays home.
Things are bad in terms of the living standards of our people. The President and government must intervene quickly. Otherwise, where we are heading to, it will not be good for the Zambian people. The prices of all the commodities are going up, especially mealie meal. A bag of mealie meal is running to K300. So the people of Zambia are complaining because of the high price of essential commodities. So the President must work hard,” said Mwila.
“You work hard and there are no results. So what does that mean? You have to work hard and people must see results. If you work hard without results, people won’t appreciate you. So whatever the President says, if things can’t change, they won’t appreciate him. He can go on holiday to work and people will see it as normal”.
(Credit: News Diggers)