WE CAN’T REPLICATE 2021 VICTORY…HH will get above 3.2m votes, says Mweetwa
By Kombe Mataka
IF we went to elections now, HH will get above 3.2 million votes, says UPND spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa.
Reviewing the UPND’s one year in power, Mweetwa, who is also Southern Province minister, said UPND would amass more votes compared to the August 12, 2021 elections because of what President Hakainde
Hichilema has done.
Mweetwa’s statement is in the wake of a statement recently made by former Copperbelt Province minister Mwenya Musenge that if elections were held today the UPND would lamentably lose.
“And that is honourable Musenge. I agree with him. We can’t replicate that victory. That was a once in a lifetime moment. If we went to elections now, HH will not get 2.8 million votes. He will get above
3.2 million because of what he has done. He promised job creation. He created a conducive, attractive, and predictable business environment in the country for job creation,” Mweetwa said. “We are talking about Nickel Mine Kalumbila , 700 jobs plus. This is a President who has employed 30,496 teachers, 11,200 health workers. Yes not everyone is satisfied because we had 117,000 applicants for teachers and 137,000 applicants for health workers . Whatdoes that tell you? It tells you that these sectors had been neglected. People were busy building mansions, building lodges for themselves and not building for the country. That is why we have to deal with all this mountain of challenges. This is a President who has paid retirees. Those who would go and sing outside the Ministry of
Justice, two months, no one from government would address them. President, first thing, they have been paid. Not all have been paid. We are aware there are some sectors like Zampost. We have already relayed information to the relevant authority, the Minister of Finance and others who are bringing information. That is being addressed. TAZARA workers, arrears paid.
KCM, workers paid. Indeni workers, supplementary budget paid. What else can man do other than doing what is humanly possible? So my elder brother honourable Musenge was provincial chairman for the Copperbelt before he defected to the PF and this you have to note what makes UPND unique is that it has resilient people.” Mweetwa said those who want a quick fix “to
their economy cannot stay in the UPND”. “They jump around and that is why they are outside the boat. He is one of them. Not the boat of PF if you look at salvation of man, it is represented in the olden days,” he said.
Mweetwa said Musenge could be suffering with he called “temporary insanity”.
“This issue I am talking about is honourable Musenge is a political orphan. He jumped from UPND into PF, from PF into NDC. In NDC he antogonised Chishimba Kambwili. Now he is just a political orphan. He is a political pedestrian looking for relevance. Unfortunately in this country, we have a situation where those who speak loudest even when they don’t make sense, but because they speak loudest, you give them headlines like the headline I saw on elections,” he said, when he featured on Prime TV’s Oxygen of Democracy on Monday. “From what I have espoused here, what this country has been able to undergo in the last one year of UPND even if you don’t even talk about teachers, whatever, just the sheer fact that you can invite an opposition leader here, they can talk all they want without fearing that when they go outside there they will find a horde of thugs, criminals that they have to go through the roof like HH did at Sun Radio in Ndola, through the roof because panga-wielding thugs with blazing guns were after his life! HH has transformed Zambia from being a country of pangas to productive. That is what the President stands for. And for all that has been said and done in this country, would you agree with a doomsayer, a drum beater, saying ‘no nothing is happening. If we go for elections HH can’t win’. These are the same people who said such and such a person can never be a president in Zambia. Now that such a person who they said can never be president, is President they are waking to a rude shock. They are now in a state of panic that is why they can speak like that. In law we call that temporary insanity.”
Mweetwa said UPND had forgiven Musenge for his statement.
“During temporary insanity you can commit an offence. You will be forgiven. We forgive Mwenya Musenge. We forgive my sister Saboi Imboela for saying that ‘UPND cadres are broke people.
PF knew how to look after their cadres’. I am picking on her because I respect the role she plays as a role model for the girl child. And I want her to succeed. By the way she was a member of the UPND. The only reason she left UPND is that she was not adopted in Kafue [in 2016]. She had not done her ground work and so she lost at the primary elections and now she is
saying UPND this, UPND that,” he said.
“Right now she is the only one taking after [Edith] Nawakwi. She should take after Nawakwi in terms of being a role model to the girl child not in terms of Nawakwi’s politics of mischief and malice. This is what is
problematic about her.”
Mweetwa said even those that did not vote for President Hichilema were now happy with his leadership.
He said President Hichilema and UPND would not be distracted from working.
“…they are trying to have issues with us when there is no corruption in our government. Those who were involved in corruption like you saw, I should use this with a caveat. You saw the (former) permanent secretary appear before the ACC. You would not see this under PF. People would be shielded if they are taken to ACC (Anti-Corruption
Commission). They will be driving a GRZ vehicle with a flag . Just to do mockery on the citizens, just to shield them from the
amenability of the law,” said Mweetwa.
“…in an air conditioned office at ACC and cadres chanting slogans….”