Africa-Press – Zambia. We have now heard from two most prominent and seemingly influential opposition figures, all articulating their ideas in the current presidential race.
Why have we singled these two: State Counsel John Sangwa and Willah Mudolo? There has never been so much interest by the people, to hear from any presidential candidate more than there has been for Sangwa and Mudolo. We have analysed – without prejudice and bias – commentary, sentiments and feedback from social media, radio and television, on opposition figures and it is clear, a large number of politically active people have shown interest to listen to Sangwa and Mudolo.
Since the coming on the political scene of these two, there seems to be conviction among people that perhaps, we may now have serious challengers in 2026 to dislodge Hichilema from power.
For some time, other Presidential candidates have existed. Some of them existed since 2019 but what is their political impact on the ground? These people have failed to galvanize the people, and build robust movements to challenge the status quo. We are sure that many people agree with us that, without Sangwa and Mudolo currently in the picture, there was every reason to believe that Hakainde had a blank cheque to State House next year.Within a few days and weeks of both Sangwa and Mudolo openly coming on the political scene, the political complexion is changing.
Look at how all sorts of morons, goons from the UPND have reacted to John Sangwa’s declaration of interest in the presidential race! Look at scandalous stories State House sponsored Koswe and Zambian Watchdog are chunning out on Mudolo every day. They have been rattled by both Sangwa and Mudolo. We have never seen so much hate, insults and pettiness chunned out against any opposition figure more than we have seen what has been said but John Sangwa and Willah Mudolo by UPND goons.
However, there is a clear distinction between the line of thought of Sangwa and Mudolo.
WILLAH MUDOLO
He seems to have fair knowledge and understanding of the financial aspect of government and the economy. Through his interview with Emmanuel Mwamba Verified, Mudolo gave out some interesting alternative solutions to how he would finance government expenditure, while articulating how he would deal with the energy crisis in Zambia. He also spoke of how he would implement a mining policy that also captures small scale miners – “illegal miners” – by incorporating them into the mining system, and buying the commodities from them. He also said he would immediately set up a Gold Refinery in Zambia, to allow small scale miners of gold to sell to the government. He spoke about capturing over 5 million unbanked population, who are traders but excluded from playing a role in finance , and that he would use locally generated resources to lift up traders so that they could afford to pay taxes and take care of themselves.
Mudolo spoke about not going to the IMF to borrow money, but use locally available resources, in Agriculture through mechanisation and empowering small scale farmers, to produce and export. He spoke of how he would use Thorium – a natural occurring, radioactive chemical to generate more than 5000 megawatts electricity and eliminate loadshading from Zambia forever.
When you listen to Mudolo clearly, the man has very brilliant ideas.
JOHN SANGWA
Listening to him on Hot FM Hot Seat, of course, you can tell that he has a good understanding of governance, rule of law and Constitutionalism.Sangwa successfully traced and linked what has gone wrong in Zambia, since 1964 that, while we have resources locally and the potential to be better than now, successive leaders have failed because of failure to adhere to good governance, rule of law and constitutionalism. He argued that, for example, there is no need for any normal and honest President to embark on changing the Constitution to create more seats in Parliament which will goble more money from the people, when the current number of MPs is a headache to finance through Constituency Development Fund(CDF). He further argued well that, the laws available in Zambia are enough for a straight, corrupt free and clean President to eradicate corruption through first, declaring their assets, and ensuring that corruption among his appointees and government is eliminated.
He went on to argue that Zambia doesn’t need IMF loans and that it is irresponsible for Hakainde and his government to boast about borrowing when resources are available, through honest collections of taxes from mines unlike giving tax breaks to mines , simply because they fund your campaigns. It is at the point that Sangwa heavily denounces obtaining money for campaigns from external forces but rather, that, if he needed money, he would rather ask Zambians to contribute K100 than go to foreigners , who would later dictate policies.
John Sangwa is a credible voice and is known to be principled. He has stood up to bullies like Hakainde and fought hard to prevent them from rapping the Constitution. He stood up to Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Rupiah Banda, Michael Sata and Edgar Lungu too. When you look at his stand point, clearly we have a morally upright person in the Presidential race.
The question is, who is your best choice between Sangwa and Mudolo?
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