Africa-Press – Zambia. The ruling Patriotic Front (PF) member Chishimba Kambwili has charged that anyone saying the PF has failed after 10 years in power is not being truthful.
Speaking during the part’s first-ever PF virtual rally yesterday, Mr Kambwili said the PF came into power with a 20-year plan to develop the country and uplift the livelihoods of the people.
Mr. Kambwili who is also a PF founder member said the PF came into power with a solid plan because the first thing the party did was to find out where Zambia was lagging behind and came up with a 20-year plan to bring Zambia to greater heights.
“We asked why have we have not created jobs, why have we not created a wealth of our own, why are we depending on donors to pay salaries for civil servants and we found that our country is endowed with so many natural resources that would let the country create its own finances,” he said. PF SG at the PF Virtual Rally, while Chishimba Kambwili looks on
Citing the many developmental projects implemented by the PF governments from various sectors such as Energy, Agriculture, Infrastructures and Health among others, Mr. Kambwili said the PF government has built roads, schools, hospitals and increased the country’s electricity generation capacity and diversified various sources of energy and other sectors among others.
“Our plan was that in the 15th year to the 16th year we should completely finish the infrastructure development and then going into the 17th to 18th year we would now start creating industries and planting farm blocks because we would have had enough electricity, we would have had enough schools, we would have had enough roads to lead to these industrial sites,” he said.
He added that the party’s program for developing the country in terms of infrastructure development was for 15 years but the party has achieved so much.
“On the roadside, we’ve created 3,000 roads under link Zambia 8,000 and when you talk about township roads we have done more than 3,000 kilometres and for anyone to say PF has failed at this point, he is being economical with the truth,” he said.
He added that the Zambian people need to give the PF their 20 years and then judge them according to what they would have done, adding that if they did at 10 years they would be putting themselves in problems by taking the development backwards.
“Therefore you need to be very careful, Zambians, after 20 years judge us and if you say PF you have failed, we will gladly walk away,” He said PF members at the virtual rallies launch
Mr Kambwili further urged Zambians to be careful during this year’s elections, saying President Edgar Lungu has managed to run the economy amidst the pandemic, and Zambians must give him massive support.
Mr Kambwili said that the opposition especially the UPND want to take advantage of the suffering of people in order to get into office but nothing will happen this time around.
“Listen to what they say, we need to be very careful, some of them do not mean well,” he said.
Mr Kambwili said that the economy of Zambia cannot be compared to other countries in the region and that Zambia’s economy is doing well, as evidenced by people from other countries are coming to buy commodities in the country.
“They say to know how the prices of commodities are prevailing on the market you need to be an economist, that is nonsense. We buy things in our neighbouring countries and we are able to see how bad their economies are,” Mr Kambwili said.
Mr Kambwili said that those saying that PF must be removed because of prices of commodities are becoming economic with the truth, before adding that the economy of the country is doing well during this period because of achievements made in the energy sector.
Mr Kambwili said that every economy depends on energy for it to be efficient. “When we came in power in 2011 the country was generating only 16000 megawatts but because of the number of generating points we have put in place more power is being generated,” he said.
Mr Kambwili also cited the road infrastructure which has been rolled out across the country, saying no successful government has created and developed the country in 10 years like PF has done and urged the people of Zambia not to make any mistake to bring in a new government because they will take Zambia backwards.
