Africa-Press – Zambia. PF PRESIDENTIAL aspirant Geoffrey Mwamba has charged that UPND has failed to build on the former ruling party’s infrastructure development programme that they cannot even mend potholes at State House.
Featuring on Millennium TV’s the Pulse Nation programme on Friday evening, Mwamba said it is over one year in office and the UPND has not fulfilled its promises to the electorate.
“They are saying they have employed health workers and teachers but without the PF building hospitals and schools where were they going to put those people? Where were they going to place them?” Mwamba wondered. “So they have not done what they were preaching about when they were in the opposition. They are trying to portray that PF did nothing. I am surprised that there are still people saying PF left this country in a mess. Which mess? There were unprecedented developments from the time PF took over power.” Mwamba claimed that no government had ever performed the way PF did.
“Look at the roads, if it were not for the roads which PF built where were you going to drive your vehicles? In one year we (PF) showed the people of Zambia that we were serious in as far as infrastructure was concerned. If they have not started building roads today, when are they going to start? They have been in office for one year seven months,” he said. “Did they tell the nation what they found in the coffers? I do not believe coffers were empty. If there was no money, this government would have collapsed but it is striving. It is doing well because of the money that we left. Mind you, we must not forget that the infrastructure which we undertook as PF, of course, had to take a lot of money. We had to borrow; you cannot put up infrastructure without borrowing. How can you drive a car if you don’t borrow from maybe your employer or maybe these institutions which lend money?”
Mwamba said it was not true that PF left the country in dire stress. He bragged that during the PF reign people had money in their pockets, which they do not have now.
“I think that is not true. We had put up a lot of infrastructure. Just right behind you (Longacres) was there a flyover bridge? Look at the roads, already have you seen what has started happening? Potholes. Now even at State House there are potholes. When are they going to mend those potholes? Is that the government that you are going to believe? We left money,” he insisted. “Who are they trying to please? Is it the Western world that they have five billion, 10 billion in the reserves when the Zambians are crying out there. Come on, it does not make since! How do you say we’re stabilising the economy when I am hungry? Look at the SMEs today they are totally broke. They have no money. Government is not putting money in circulation. Everyone today is crying. Go into markets. Tomatoes are rotting because no one has spending power to even spend on tomatoes. Look at Christmas eve, those who were lucky could only push half a trolley.”
Mwamba said UPND will only boast of having performed if people begin to have three meals a day. “You say an economy is striving when people are full, if people can manage three meals on the table every single day. But if they can only eat once then you say the economy is not good. It is not good. When you eat at State House, you are full, you must think about Zambians. Start finding out privately. You have the OP machinery to tell you what is happening,” Mwamba said. “I can challenge UPND we left money in the coffers. Our brother Hakainde Hichilema and his team have failed lamentably to fulfill their promises. I worked under him for four years. I thought what he was preaching in the four years I was with him is what he is going to implement but it has turned to be different. I feel ashamed.”
He warned President Hichilema that he does not have the luxury of time to deliver his promises. “He has already done one third of the tenure of his office. If he has not performed now when is he going to perform? When exactly is he going to perform? You see, if he thinks he will perform in the third and fourth year, those are election years. Whatever he does will be politics, everyone will not trust him,” said Mwamba. “They will think it is just politics. What he would have done when he came into office is come with a bang and implement half of what he promised. People have lost confidence in your government. I think the Zambian people have learnt a lesson under UPND. There are two lessons. So they will pick the best lesson. The PF lesson or the UPND lesson.”
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