YOU CAN’T COMPARE UPND’S TOILET PROJECT TO PF’S TRASFORMATION PROJECTS, MUNDUBILE TELLS MILUPI.
…Accuses UPND Govt. of corruption and mismanagement
Lusaka – Friday, November 15, 2024 (Smart Eagles)
Mporokoso Member of Parliament Hon Brian Mundubile has challenged Infrastructure and Urban Development Minister Hon Charles Milupi to point at a single infrastructure project that has been implemented under the UPND government in the last three years that they have been in power.
Hon Mundubile says under Hon Milupi’s supervision as minister, only some 1 x 3 classroom blocks in constituencies and a number of toilets that were recently commissioned by the President in Kwacha can be counted.
He says this is at the backdrop of the fact that the national budgets that have been passed by Parliament under the UPND have always been above K170-billion kwacha while during PF the highest was K120-billion.
Reacting to Hon Milupi’s assertions that the Zambians can never vote the Patriotic Front back into office, Hon Mundubile reminded the Infrastructure Minister that during the PF, the infrastructure development implemented under President Edgar Chagwa Lungu remain unprecedented.
The Mporokoso lawmaker has cited the various world class standard airports in Lusaka, Ndola, Livingstone, flyover bridges, numerous health posts and over 2,000 communication towers among some of the notable infrastructure that have remained unmatched in Zambia’s history.
“The comparison between themselves as UPND and us as PF in infrastructure development would be the Lusaka International Airport versus a toilet in Kwacha Constituency which was commissioned under the supervision of Hon Milupi as Minister of Infrastructure and Urban Development,” Hon Mundubile said during the weekly media briefing by PF lawmakers today.
And the Mporokoso lawmaker has accused the UPND government of failing farmers, pointing to a sharp decline in agricultural production from over 3.6 million tons under the PF to 1.5 million tons under the UPND.
He argues that the current government’s handling of input distribution and response to drought has left farmers with fewer resources, making them more likely to vote for the PF in the upcoming elections.
“The excuse of drought is a lame one because if we had a serious government, they could have doubled or quadrupled the distribution of inputs in the northern regions and we would have maintained our production at over 3 million tons,” the lawmaker said.
So if you ask the farmers to choose today between a government that was giving them six bags per person to a government that is giving them fertiliser in medas, common sense will tell you whom they would choose,” he added.
Hon Mundubile recalls that in 2015 under the PF rule, Zambia experienced a drought but the PF was able to listen to experts’ advice to commence a few hours of load shedding in order to conserve the water in the major dams that produce power and the country was able to go through the drought phase with minimal load shedding.
“But for UPND with their excitement to sell everything they find along the way, they have been exporting power without regard for the people despite the advance warnings we and the experts gave them,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hon Mundubile has accused the UPND government of widespread corruption, pointing to the controversial handover of the Mopani Copper Mine and the lack of transparency surrounding state assets, a situation which is undermining public trust.
He has called out the UPND government for its economic mismanagement, highlighting the country’s request for a $1.3 billion IMF loan amid allegations of corruption and misappropriation of state funds worth billions of dollars yet the President and state institutions are not excited about the alleged corruption within the government but that of the former ruling party.
Hon Mundubile has since raised alarm over the UPND’s growing appetite for state assets, accusing key officials like Minister Milupi of engaging in questionable deals that benefit their political allies.
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