Africa-Press – Zambia. PF faction acting President Given Lubinda says as opposed to the UPND government, his party can point to where the money they borrowed went.
And Lubinda says the Tonse Alliance is still trying to persuade other opposition parties to join in order to form a formidable opposition come 2026.
Meanwhile, Lubinda says when re-elected into office in 2026, the PF will reduce the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to K5 million from the recently announced K40 million.
Speaking when he featured on Mpika Radio, Friday, Lubinda, who spoke in Bemba, said UPND had nothing to show for the money they have borrowed in the last four years.
“Yes, we left debt, but we can point or show where these monies from debt went. But they should not be lying that they have not borrowed. For them in four years they have borrowed a lot of money compared to what we borrowed in 10 years. We can show you the roads we constructed, the universities we constructed. We can also show you centre pivots that we were giving to the National Service, the prisons so that they can be farming food. But where has the money they have borrowed gone to?” Lubinda asked.
Lubinda said Zambians were tired of having 15 to 20 presidential candidates on the ballot, stating that they now wanted one candidate to stand on behalf of other opposition parties.
“Zambians are now tired with the narrative of having presidential candidates 15 or 20. They want competition to reduce and have one candidate who stands on behalf of 12 political parties. We are also still trying that even political parties outside Tonse can join Tonse. We are asking them that let’s work together so that we can have a formidable opposition in 2026,” he said.
Lubinda said even though the CDF had been increased to K40 million per constituency, MPs and citizens were not given the authority to choose projects the money would be used for.
“Even though they have said that they have given them (MPs) K40 million, as they have spoken in Parliament that they will give them K40 million for CDF, they have already sat down Hakainde and his minister planning how to use the same money. We will buy police vehicles, ambulances. They are the ones giving instructions. That is not CDF. When it comes to CDF, we said this money is meant for the MP working with his people to agree on the projects that they want to use the money on. If it’s not the people who are choosing the projects, then it’s not CDF, it becomes the Central Government Fund. You will soon hear that the K40 million will be used by MPs to make township roads,” he said.
“That is not the MPs’ responsibility or CDF. If they say CDF should be used for building hospitals, then what is the duty of the Ministry of Health? So, they are only persuading you. They are saying we have given you this amount under CDF, but they are the ones using it when the people are not adding their voices on it.”
Meanwhile, when asked what new things the party would do once re-elected, Lubinda said they would reduce CDF to K5 million.
“We will continue from where we stopped. We used to give farmers eight bags of fertiliser, but it was later reduced to a meda. So, we will bring it back to eight bags, or maybe we will increase it to 10 bags. We will continue constructing roads. We had started opening up districts, and that’s what we will continue doing, opening up more districts. With regards to free education, free education was there even in the past. But when we come, we want to construct more schools so that pupils should not be more than 50 in a classroom, so that they can learn well,” he said.
“CDF we will [have it] reduced to where it was, but maybe we will be giving them K5 million and not K40 million, and yet the government is the one instructing on how it should be used. You are just putting our MPs in problems because people are saying Kapyanga, you have been given K40 million when in actual sense Kapyanga is out of the K40 million, he is only getting K2 million.”
Lubinda added that the current reduced hours of load shedding were meant to persuade people into voting for the UPND
“Since 2021, you have been experiencing load shedding for 16, 18 hours per day. We used to tell them that the power you are exporting is killing businesses in Zambia. For you to be on radio, you have to turn on your generator. Without the generator outside, you will go off air. What of our friends operating salons without electricity, they close their shops? The ones who are suffering are the citizens. Butcheries are being closed because of lack of electricity, yet they are exporting electricity to Congo and Botswana. Now that elections are closer, they are now telling you that they are importing 400 megawatts and we have reduced exports. We are only going to be exporting 100 megawatts. They have now added 600 megawatts for local consumption. But why didn’t they do this all along?” Lubinda said.
“They are trying to persuade you so that you can see that load shedding is reducing. I want to tell you that these guys are cheating because they want you to vote for them in 2026. Once you vote for them, load shedding will get worse, and you will only be having power one hour a day because these people do not know how to govern the country. When we came into office in 2011, Zambia was producing 1,600 megawatts. In 10 years, we doubled that to 3,200 megawatts. If we did not do that, Zambia would have been a total dark country. If you ask me what you are going to do when you come back, this is what we will do. We want to increase production of electricity.”
Meanwhile, Lubinda wondered why it was difficult for President Hakainde Hichilema not to attend former president Edgar Lungu’s burial.
“Someone who asked when the body of the former president will be buried is a concerned Zambian. This has never happened where you lose someone and then you keep the body for four, five months. People have been mourning for four, five months. It has never happened. They should be sympathetic towards the children and widow. We are still mourning even now. Who has caused this? Who has caused us not to bury Lungu? They are the ones who went to court and took the body to court. Have you ever heard of someone who has taken the body to court saying you will not bury the corpse until I see them?” said Lubinda.
“In Zimbabwe when Mugabe died, the family told Mnangagwa that we do not want you to attend the funeral and we do not want you to see the body. Mnangagwa sent a plane to go and collect the body and said I will not attend the funeral so you can bury him. Because the person who has died is a former president I will facilitate everything but I won’t come for the funeral since you do not want me to attend. But what’s so difficult with us.”
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