ZAMBIANS UNHAPPY …President and team must explain high fuel, fertiliser and mealie meal – Nevers
By Fanny Kalonda
MMD president Nevers Mumba has asked the UPND to speak to Zambians about the challenges they are facing in fulfilling the promises made to during campaigns.
He said if the UPND does not communicate, they may achieve their goals and achievements but without Zambians.
Mumba said the UPND needs to identify that Zambians are unhappy about increased fuel prices, fertiliser distribution and the cost of mealie meal.
“We are telling the UPND that we understand. Personally I do understand that their compass is on the true North. If they can keep going in that direction they will achieve but if they don’t explain the steps that they’re taking, the Zambians will go separate ways. And that’s just the way it is,” he warned.“…it’s being able to explain the difficulties you are finding as a government. How much time you think you will need to correct that. Respect the Zambians. Talk to them and ensure that they are with you. So for me and us in the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, we are in partnership with them and therefore we want to make sure that they understand that we are supporting them, the decisions they are making, but these decisions must be explained to the Zambian people.”
Mumba, who featured on KBN’s state of the nation programme on Thursday, said there is need for UPND to go back to all the contentious issues and address Zambians.
“To our colleagues in the UPND including the President, all that he needs to do, and all they must do is to go back to each one of those contentious issues and address the Zambian people. ‘I told you 14:00 hours. I’m not able to do 14:00 hours because of ABCD.’ The reason why that is important is because there’s no straight line. I’ll give you an example. Mr Michael Chilufya Sata of the Patriotic Front when he came into government, he should not have been allowed to become president, but he told the Zambian people three things, ‘you shall have money in your pockets, lower taxes, and plenty of jobs within 90 days’. He even gave it a time slot…” he recalled. “So we have a situation where sometimes we advise each other that once you make a promise, it’s not wrong for you to promise people that your intention is to do this. But when you realise that government works in a different way, and it’s got hurdles, talk to them. But I think that what this government needs to do is to identify all these, what they call in the United States hot buttons, and address them without fear or favour. They should not be quiet and thinking that Zambians will forget about the promises. They should explain that the reason ‘this has not been done is because we have found this hurdle. We are working on it. Give us another two months. Give us another two years we will work on this’.”
He said his goal is not for President Hakainde Hichilema to fail but for him to succeed.
“The fact that somebody is in government, his party is government, does not mean he is worse than the guy who’s with you in the opposition. It doesn’t work like that. You know what happens today is that you’ll be doing very well with your colleague when you’re still in the opposition together, and you become friends, and you are fighting the same evils together. And when your friend becomes President or he forms government, he becomes an enemy just because he becomes President. I think that’s a lack of morality. But there’s this concept that as long as you’re in opposition, you hit at the guy who is in the ruling party, and that is where we become disunited. But I think we should give space to a new government to start to create an environment within which it can succeed,” Mumba said. “My goal is not for HH to fail. My goal is for him to succeed. Some other political leaders want him to fail so that they become…and that’s not how you become. I’ll give you an example. My older brother, he’s late now, president Sata had a very unique way of campaigning in the opposition. He didn’t hold back and he said things that we can’t repeat on television. But he won the hearts of people for that attitude. But then when he got into government, he couldn’t really roll it out. And it is really what we need to be discussing, what type of democracy do we want Zambia as a Christian nation to have and demonstrate to the rest of the world?”
He said the reason he is not criticising President Hichilema publicly is because he has his ear.
“I am committed in contributing to making Zambia better, and actually changing the way politics is done. That is why I get into trouble. And people tell me you cannot become president because you don’t know how to insult, you don’t know how to become ugly because everybody who becomes president first has to be ugly against those in government,” Mumba said. “If you haven’t heard me shout and scream against President Hakainde Hichilema is because I have his ear right now. I can talk to him. And I’ve talked to him over many things ever since he became President. And so it will really be pure politics if after I’ve talked with him about the issue, and I said what is happening on the ground is ABCD, and Mr President, you know, think about this. I think that I would have discharged a responsibility. It does not give me a big name to those who want me to insult but it gives me a participation in making Zambia better if he changes his mind about something and gets advice. I think that for me I would have achieved something.”
He said he recently presented a letter to the President on how the fight against corruption can be strengthened stressing that “the way it is going it may end up a disaster without achieving the goals it is supposed to”.
“So when I criticise concerning the fight against corruption, I have to criticise within the ambit of the fact that we have got that ear that we can talk to him but if they say that ‘no, we don’t care about this, this is the way we’re gonna go’, then we have two separate views on that matter. I will not be exaggerating, if I say that at the moment, even all the colleagues in the opposition, I may be the most senior today. So some of these issues, I fully understand what really makes a difference. If I had wanted a job, I would have gotten a job a long time ago. What we want is Zambia that our children and the days Zambians will believe my passion for this country of Zambia shall be saved, those questions will stop to be asked,” he said.
“I don’t spend my time on variables. I want to make that clear. I’m not going to spend my political arm to, too senior in politics, to be talking about the variables which are going to change tomorrow. Then I become irrelevant. I want to become relevant over a span of time. So I think for me, I understand that mealie meal can be where it is now because you are switching in a country where the debt stock is so high that you have to manoeuvre the cost of things. Now here is what I think needs to happen and what is missing. What is missing is the UPND explaining on a daily basis. The President said the mealie meal will be reduced to K250. But it’s not reduced today. The President and his team must explain the reasons why it has delayed.”
Mumba said what is missing “is that the President and the team have to put voice behind these issues”.
“They have to identify that Zambians are unhappy about increased fuel prices. Zambians are unhappy about the fertiliser distribution. Zambians are unhappy about the cost of mealie meal. Zambia’s are unhappy about the things that make their lives comfortable, medicines in hospital, and it’s the job of this administration to face that camera and speak to the Zambian people because life is not a straight line. Even if I took over today, the change is not going to be a straight line,” said Mumba. “…it’s like at home, let’s be fair to politicians. We have wives at home. We have children at home. And it is important that when we are discussing things that relate to building the family, we don’t let the whole world be part of it. But this is a government and I do understand and politically, you become popular in Zambia by raising your voice even when what you’re saying is not founded on facts. That’s why we have problems in our democracy in Zambia. Zambians have voted for people that have nothing within them to guide them but because they could shout and they cannot even test those statements that are making against truth, but because it’s the way politics is, they become more popular. But if you and I agree that we are going to work together, we have a programme together, Zambians should judge us and you on the basis of that programme.