The Saboi Imboela led National Democratic Congress (NDC) faction has accused the ruling UPND of intolerance and harboring hate against opposition political parties.
Ms. Imboela said the UPND’s intolerance and harboring hate against opposition political parties distorted Tuesday’s International Women’s Day celebrations in the country.
She said the NDC and other parties were not invited for Women’s Day celebrations.
Ms. Imboela said the NDC was disappointed to see thousands of UPND women clad in their party regalia at the exclusion of all other parties.
Ms. Imboela said the UPND Government decided to invite a handful of opposition members just to save their faces.
“To have a party in government that is so intolerant and clearly hates associating with other political parties is very retrogressive for the country. Governance is not about who you love or hate, but about the laid down procedures and processes that government workers have to follow in order to administer state affairs in an equitable and just manner. While we celebrated Women’s Day in different ways and had a great time as women from all walks of life yesterday, it was very sad to see that the UPND had gone all out to distort the government way of commemorating the day,” Ms. Imboela said.
She recalled how the UPND used to shun all state functions during its time in the opposition.
“The UPND was well known for staying away from all state functions during such days, and it looked like they decided to celebrate all the years they stayed away from the celebrations yesterday. Now they think that they can use government resources to line up all their cadres and eat what they failed to eat in opposition, all in one day. It was so disappointing to see thousands upon thousands of UPND women clad in the red danger regalia at the exclusion of all other parties, except a handful they called to save face,” Ms. Imboela said.
“A number of political party presidents have since confirmed that, just like the NDC, they too did not receive their Women’s Day invitation. Unprecedented. The Cabinet Office has a list of all registered political parties, their leaders and their contact numbers. This is the same list that successive governments have all been using. As a woman leader of my party, I feel extremely disappointed that the UPND and its leadership, that does not respect women, has appointed few women in their Cabinet and other positions, has scrapped off the ministry of gender, has finally gone ahead to distort our day as women by making it a UPND event, instead of a national event,” she said.
“Additionally, they have even failed to make the First Lady identify a charity of her choice and work with her in that area, because they do not value women and their contributions. Women are an endangered species in the UPND government and the distortion of the day yesterday further goes on to prove just how UPND will stop at nothing to undermine and erase any gains that women have made in the country so far,” Ms. Imboela added.
Meanwhile, unlike Ms. Imboela’s party that wanted to participate in the Women’s Day celebrations, the Patriotic Front (PF) resolved not to participate in the event.
In a statement released after the party’s weekend central committee meeting, the party said that it will use these days to galvanize their women and youths across the country to do community service in their various localities.
The Party accused the ruling United Party for National Development (UPND) of completely ignoring the youths and women and have relegated them to the tail-end of the social, political, and economic strata, adding that President Hakainde Hichilema has systematically excluded women and youths from critical governance issues by deliberately sidelining them as far as appointments to key government positions is concerned.