UPND MAY DRIBBLE THEMSELVES WITH ELECTION MINGALATO, WARNS KAMPYONGO

UPND MAY DRIBBLE THEMSELVES WITH ELECTION MINGALATO, WARNS KAMPYONGO

SHIWANG’ANDU PF MP Stephen Kampyongo says it makes government look untrustworthy when a government spokesperson brags about manipulating citizens during elections through mingalato.

He adds that the ruling party could end up “dribbling themselves into a net,” as history has shown that even those who considered themselves master dribblers eventually dribbled themselves.

On Thursday, Information and Media Minister Cornelius Mweetwa, who is also Chief Government Spokesperson, said “mingalato” would be in high gear in the August general elections, stating that “after all, there’s no strong opposition”.

In an interview, Kampyongo said it was regrettable that people had cheapened governance.

He added that Mweetwa should be discussing policy issues not how government would deceive citizens in order to be re-elected.

“It’s just regrettable that people have cheapened governance. The spokesperson for government must be discussing matters of policy, to give hope to Zambian citizens who have experienced enormous challenges. He should be talking about how the government intends to alleviate the poverty levels of our people other than capitalising on their poverty levels by manipulating them. He should wait and see how clever and intelligent Zambian people can be. Let him wait. It makes the government look untrustworthy because you can’t have government priding itself in dribbling, in manipulating citizens because that’s what he’s simply meaning. Mingalato is deception and hope that people will be so dumb, so dull, to continue being dribbled by those they entrusted with authority to govern them,” Kampyongo said.

“But I can tell you, people of Zambia may look dull, may look docile [but] they are more clever than what the government spokesperson thinks and they are bound to teach his government a lesson. He should, by now, be talking about the checklist of the undertakings they made, the promises they made to the people and how they’ve fulfilled them, and how that should be the basis for them to seek re-election back into office. It shows you that they’ve done nothing and they are betting on mingalato for people to give them a fresh mandate, who thinks like that? Does he really think all of us citizens are so dull to see through their manipulation? They may end up just dribbling themselves into the net. We have seen this before in the political history of this country. Even those who thought they were master dribblers ended up dribbling themselves”.

He highlighted that it did not matter how President Hakainde Hichilema mobilised resources for his election campaign because winning an election was not entirely determined by how much resources one put in.

“It’s not about how much resources they mobilise, how much they put in, people have demonstrated that even with the resources put in, if you don’t give them hope and if you have demonstrated that you cannot keep your promises to them, no matter how much resources are mobilised, people are able to make resounding decisions that will kick the UPND out of government. It doesn’t matter the resources you mobilise, it will boil down to the people’s livelihoods. You promised them never to experience loadshedding, how many years of loadshedding did they experience? No matter how you deceive them now, people know how much they’ve suffered. It’s not about the opposition, it’s about the people. The biggest opposition in this country is the people themselves,” said Kampyongo.

“Even when you brag about free education, which free education when children are going to school on empty stomachs? They end up in crowded classrooms where a teacher to pupil ratio is beyond the required standard. The mining sector itself, now, is something else. Mopani, which you have sold for nothing, where shares were moved for nothing, these are the things that he should be speaking to. Yes, you can manage to manipulate and dribble the people with regards to the Constitution amendments, which you have not even budgeted for. You manipulate, you look clever, by changing the Constitution yet you have no money to implement those changes because the budget has already spoken to the activities that you are supposed to undertake, so where are you going to get the money to fund those activities? The delimitation of constituencies and increasing the number of members of parliament comes at a huge cost. The budget that we approved for 2026, there’s no budget line speaking to go to those activities, you can’t continue running a country on mingalato”.

News Diggers