Africa-Press – Zambia. MAKEBI Zulu says the PF will use another party to stand in the 2026 elections, in an event where the party is not allowed to be on the ballot.
Zulu, who is PF aspiring presidential candidate adds that as things stand, it will be impossible for President Hakainde Hichilema to get 50%+1 in the 2026 general elections.
He adds that President Hichilema is insecure because he promised what he cannot deliver.
Speaking when he featured on Prime TV, Tuesday, Zulu said the opposition were holding meetings and would emerge stronger from the defeat of Bill 7.
He added that the PF would not disclose the special purpose vehicle they might use for fear that the party might be victimized.
“There’s need for the opposition to come together; the issue of Bill 7 is something that just put a blow on the people of Zambia to say, your people can’t even be trusted, now we need to rebuild this trust. I can assure the people of Zambia that we are going to emerge and we’ll emerge stronger out of this because we have a plan and as late as yesterday, the other day, we are having meetings almost on a daily basis. We know that we need to go in a particular direction, cognisant of the fact that the long reaching hand of this administration may not allow PF to be on the ballot, we’ll keep fighting for PF but we’ll not be oblivious to the fact that they will not allow it,” Zulu said.
“As such, we are really prepared that we are going to move together with the people of Zambia on a vehicle that we dare not disclose at this particular time for fear that the persons that are holding this organisation may be victimised”.
Zulu charged that the decision to increase the number of constituencies is meant to reward the long serving members of UPND, who may be threatening to contest as independent MPs.
“The fact that they’ve increased the number of constituencies does not necessarily mean that they are going to win the next election because it doesn’t impact the presidential vote. The presidential vote still remains that he must get 50+1. As things stand, it is impossible for President Hakainde Hichilema to get 50+1, he will not get 50+1. This move was intended to serve most of the dinosaurs that are in the UPND.
The level of discontentment in the UPND, if you’ve noticed, has been that there are those that are said to have served for a very long period of time and what the UPND has been grappling with, you saw that meeting they had at their conference centre, where they were saying, we will not allow any independents, we’ll not allow anyone to go independent. It’s because they were looking at the constituencies where we have these members of parliament that have overstayed,” he explained.
“These members of parliament are saying, listen, ‘we know we have been there for long but we just formed government, it is our time to also enjoy, after we usher you into government. Why do you want to disadvantage us now?’ Now, at this stage, what the UPND was looking at is, how do we save the status? Let’s go to those constituencies where these people are and divide them, so that these long serving members of parliament also have an opportunity to stand on one part of the constituency and create a part of the constituency for their competitor, who, if we don’t adopt, is going to stand as an independent and will disturb the configuration of our numbers. It was a political move of the UPND, nothing to do with the good of the people; it was a fight for survival”.
Zulu argued that increasing members of parliament did not in any way guarantee that government would be much more efficient.
“You are saying we are creating new constituencies so that you could have more CDF, that is not making sense because you are just telling us that the system is broken. So, the question of the increase of members of parliament has got nothing to do with efficiency in terms of governance but it has everything to do with enshrining oneself to be able to overstay in government, to be able to manipulate the law into one’s favour.
Increasing the members of parliament does not in any way guarantee that government will be much more efficient. When you were coming into government you were saying we have a bloated government, we are going to reduce the ministries, then you create a 115 [parliamentary seats], what are your priorities? We have farmers that are queuing up to receive monies which FRA has not paid and you are going to spend over K5 million on each member of parliament,” Zulu noted.
“We already have a budget that has been passed, our budget, 90 percent of it is personal emoluments, 10 percent towards debt servicing and development. You can’t achieve anything with that 10 percent. In terms of development, it’s nothing. So, you have 90 percent that has already gone towards personal emoluments, salaries, wages and all. You did not factor that into your budget.
At the end of the year you come and introduce 115 new members of parliament. These 115 new members of parliament, they all have to be paid salaries on a monthly basis, not just that, there are allowances that go with that, not only allowances, they are entitled to vehicles which essentially, government gets to pay for. You have this huge wage bill [but] you are saying we need to introduce these new members of parliament”.
He further charged that President Hichilema is insecure because he promised what he could not deliver.
“I think we are where we are because of just one word; insecurity. I think President Hakainde Hichilema is insecure; he’s insecure because he promised what he couldn’t deliver. He stayed too long in opposition and made all the promises that are in the book and has delivered on none of them. There was a promise of fertiliser, a 50kg bag costing K250.
What is the cost [now]? I was just buying fertiliser, it costs over a K1000 to buy one pocket of fertiliser. You have a person that promised that and now he’s insecure that I’ve not delivered on this promise, how do I secure myself in this position or in this seat that seems to be sweet. He promised that fuel will be costing K12, where are we now? It’s not costing K12,” said Zulu.
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