ZAMBIANS have already made up their minds that they are fed up with the PF and they will vote for the opposition, says Clinton Nzala.
Nzala, who served as Southern Province Socialist Party coordinator but is now based in Venezuela, says the PF should give answers to the corruption allegations levelled against government officials.
In an interview, Nzala said it tells a lot to see ZNBC Television now giving airtime to FDD president Edith Nawakwi to attack UPND leader Hichilema without giving him the right to reply.
“What we see in Zambia is what is happening in Latin America…governments in power use allegations against political opponents as a means of getting them out of the race. We saw it happen in Brazil when the right wing came up with all sorts of allegations against [Inacio] Lula da Silva whose approval ratings were at 90 per cent and was arrested and remained in pre-trial detention up to the time of elections…. (Brazilian President Jair) Bolsonaro got advantage of this to win and this is what we see in Zambia,” he said. “But they need to understand that this is not between PF and the UPND leader. Even if Hakainde Hichilema is removed from the ballot, Zambians have made up their minds that they are fed up with this government, so they will still rally behind another candidate who will be put up by the opposition because they believe that this government has lamentably failed. They have mismanaged the country. We have reached levels which a few years ago were unimaginable.”
Nzala said in 2013 no Zambian ever thought of waking up to see a US $1 trading at K20.
He warned Zambians that what they are now hearing or seeing is just the beginning as the PF would come up with several schemes against the opposition.
Nzala said when government institutions are abused, law and order is affected.
“It is sad that Dora Siliya could react that fast because this makes citizens lose confidence in public institutions and forces them to take the law in their own hands…this is a danger to strong democratic processes. We have a duty to protect public institutions from being used to fight individuals,” Nzala said.
He said if there were wrongs done during the privatisation process, Zambians need to get answers.
“But how do they ignore the ongoing corruption? We have had reports,” said Nzala.