Africa-Press – Zambia. Former Patriotic Front (PF) Kwacha Member of Parliament Boniface Mutale says the UPND Government should be supported to do good and correct things as it governs the nation.
Mr. Mutale, who served as Kwacha MP in Kitwe from 2011 to 2016, said the new Government has so far done well. He said it was too early for people to antagonize the New Dawn Government.
“We will support those who are ruling now. We will support the Government of the day that they do good things because we cannot start fighting them now. We have not seen how far they have gone so it’s better to give them the support they deserve because you will learn from mistakes,” Mr. Mutale said.
“So everybody must accept defeat, they must accept change and let others who are there work. We have got nothing to offer at the moment. I can’t go and work against the current Government. For what reasons, they are in office and let’s support them and see how they will work. People will judge the UPND by their performance,” he said. Meanwhile, Mr. Mutale said some people rushing to join the UPND were not genuine.
“As a Zambian citizen I am here as Bonny Mutale and watching what is happening and I will decide where to go because I can’t just say ok let me do this. This is what happened to PF, some people jumping from other parties and they brought confusion. Today they are jumping back to UPND in order to create confusion. Why didn’t they go there when UPND didn’t have power? Nobody wanted to join UPND now that they have power everybody wants to rush there. These are ba muselela kwakaba. You see if I have to move I have to move genuinely wholeheartedly not because I have seen that honey dripping there. I have to move because I have seen that they have principles, they have good ideologies and they mean well. I should move because I want to benefit bukandile. That’s what a lot of people are doing. So it’s very easy to make a decision to say I support them and I am supporting them because what they are doing is ok. Some of the things they are doing are ok,” Mr. Mutale said.
He also lamented how the PF allegedly sidelined him after the death of party founding President Michael Sata in preference to former MMD leaders. Mr. Mutale said the PF stopped listening to the people prior to being defeated in the August elections.
“Some of us who were active in politics some time back we didn’t go in politics for gain but we went there to serve. Probably that’s what made us unpopular, not unpopular amongst the people but unpopular among some fellow leaders because when you speak the truth and you want to speak for the people we were sidelined. Personally I feel that the PF didn’t listen to the people. PF didn’t listen to the people in the sense that when people wanted to say something to them they changed their numbers or switched off their phones. They were unreachable until there were elections. Political life should not be like that,” he said.
“People should not take for granted that we will go back; they will vote for us. People can only vote you back in office if you deliver. You can deliver things like good roads, good water and sanitation but there are personal issues that should be paid attention to like job creation. The youths were looming in the streets. They were promised that they will give them employment. If the youths don’t see employment they will revolt through the ballot because they are in numbers and they are in numbers they will vote the way they want to vote and that’s what happened. At the end of the day I am just looking and watching because I don’t know what is going to happen,” Mr. Mutale said.
He further questioned the reported rebranding of the PF. “I hope the PF members and former Ministers can see where they went wrong. They are calling it rebranding but I don’t know what they are rebranding because rebranding comes with a lot of changes. Since I am not involved in what they are doing, nobody speaks to us, some of us are just watching from the fence and we wish them the best because I can’t say much. I don’t know what they are doing. I have never been engaged nor have I engaged them.”
“We just say hello to each other, nobody speaks to us. Some of us are just watching from the fence and we wish them the best. Even before PF came out of office the majority of leaders had sidelined us. They were not talking to me and some people who came and joined PF from MMD will not even greet us like we are sworn enemies for reasons I don’t know. Some people lost elections to me and I became an enemy to them. Up to today nobody greets me for that reason. So I am just watching. I don’t know what they are doing and where they are going,” Mr. Mutale said
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