WE DON’T HATE ECL AS A PERSON BUT HIS POOR POLICIES – MWEETWA*
Choma – 03/07/21
UPND National Spokesperson and Choma Central Constituency Candidate Cornelius Mweetwa says the people of the Southern Province and Zambia in general have nothing against President Edgar Lungu as a person but his poor economic policies that have led them into untold poverty.
And Southern Province vice UPND Secretary and Choma Mayoral candidate Javen Simoloka says the PF failed to take advantage of the 2019 famine to win the favor of the people of Southern Province.
Speaking during his continued door to door mobilisation campaigns in Masuku ward’s Namaanza polling area,Mr Mweetwa said the people have no hatred for President Lungu but are annoyed with the current economic policies which have impoverished the nation.
He said the 2021 general election is not about President Lungu as an individual but his poor decision making and policies that have chocked the nation to its knees resulting into Zambians unanimously agreeing to get rid of him and his team.
” We don’t hate President Lungu as a person,No and neither do we the people of Southern Province hate him because he is from the East,No.We hate his policies that have killed our agriculture sector.We hate his policies of giving us only two bags of fertiliser when others were getting 8 bags and yet the selling price is the same at k150.We as Zambians collectively hate President Lungu’s tolerance for corruption and the break down in the rule of law.We hate his love for cadreism and violence.We also hate his silence when his officials are peddling tribalism and hate speech.Simply put,we hate his failure to manage the country’s socio-economic agenda and that as Zambians is what has made us agree to remove him from power on August 12th, 2021,” he said.
He said the resolve by Zambians in this year’s General elections is nothing personal but only aimed at saving the country from total destruction for the sake of posterity and advised the people to use the power of their vote in rescuing the country from total collapse.
“Use your vote wisely because your vote has the power to change the direction the economy is taking.Ours is an economic crisis and not an ethnic or tribal crisis.Zambians are this year resolved to usher in a government under the leadership of Hakainde Hichilema and his Alliance partners that will respond to the socio-economic needs of the people through a ballot.We as a people are ready to create for ourselves a free and just society and that will only be possible if all use the power of our vote wisely and not selfishly,” Mr added.
Meanwhile,Choma Mayoral candidate Javen Simoloka says the PF had a chance to make the people of Southern Province fall in love with it in 2019 but failed to seize the opportunity.
Mr.Simoloka said the 2019 famine had left the people in the region too vulnerable and really needed the support and care of the PF as a party in government considering the challenges and hardships the poor harvest had brought on them.
“In 2019,our people were spending weeks and months at the FRA sheds in an attempt to buy a bag of maize due to the famine that had hit the region.The PF is the first and only regime that failed to bring food to a starving society but instead opted to the sell the maize to a people that had been hit by circumstantial hunger.Three pregnant women went into labour while on the queue waiting to buy a bag of maize.We are a sad people and the thought of PF coming to us to ask for votes two years after is nauseating. Senior Headman Chipanga requested us to ask the District Commissioner to explain to the people why the government was not bringing maize to the villages.The DC told us to tell the people to go and buy mealie meal from Spar in town.How many of us can feed our families with Mealie-meal from Spar? Today the same people want to come to us to ask for votes. I personally has no love for the people considering the life they made us go through when we desperately needed them,” Mr Simoloka added.
(C) UPND MEDIA TEAM