By Patson Chilemba
Southern Province minister Cornelius Mweetwa says Former Finance minister Ng’andu Magande is well informed, and he would rather understand what he is saying rather than picking up contestations against him.
And Mweetwa said President Hakainde Hichilema was working on uniting the country and the Church, and that now as opposed to the era where there were Christians for Lungu, now the country only has Christians for God.
Mweetwa further said the UPND would never sign for any practices that are contrary to the Christianity values and the country’s norms and beliefs by signing on to gay rights.
Speaking with Daily Revelation over the observation by Magande who wondered why concessions should be given when the price of copper was at its highest and the value of mining was at its best, and that late president Levy Mwanawasa told Anglo American when they attempted a comeback into the country that he would give them conditions of someone whose behavior he now knew after they abandoned 60,000 people on the Copperbelt, Mweetwa urged against dismissing what Magande raised.
“Well the former minister of Finance is well informed, and I think that he acts in an advisory role. So rather than picking contestations with what he says, I would rather we take time to look at what he is saying so that we understand the value of what he is saying and what the nation could benefit from his advise. I think that is a way we look at things,” Mweetwa said.
Mweetwa said the UPND “religiously” believes that governance was about doing what the people wanted.
“The moment you begin to be reactive and frown upon commentaries coming from people who are speaking as independent minds then there is a problem. We will listen to all voices. We will give room to hear even things we may not like to hear, because it’s not about us. It’s about the people. It’s about the nation. We are just a vehicle temporarily in government,” Mweetwa said. “We will leave, there will be others to take over. We shouldn’t create a situation where things that must be done now should wait to be done later. No! So we are open to advice and we will always maintain an open door policy.”
He said a government was a creature of the people and that time for impunity should not return as the people spoke vehemently against impunity and “we are not about to re-engage in the same.”
And Mweetwa said the UPND government is not advocating for any gay rights, saying they will not sign for any rights that are contrary to Christianity, Christian values and our traditions and customs, saying those rights were alien and that keeping the sanctity and serenity of our customs provides solid platform for social stability and order in the country.
Mweetwa argued that the media should not be used as “a political doormat” for anyone who wants to do political games, saying an Embassy denotes that that place is considered a foreign country, territory and therefore the laws of Zambia do not apply at the Finish Embassy and Swedish Embassies where the gay flags were recently flown by the two missions.
He said that was why if one committed an offence and ran into an Embassy, they were as good as being in Finland.
As for the Siavonga event where people met under the guise of promoting “rights”, Mweetwa said he was not privy to the event in Siavonga and would not speak on what he did not understand, save to say that the UPND administration would not entertain gay rights and has been clear about that.
“We have a President who is unifying not just the nation but the body of Christ. We no longer have Christians for Lungu. We don’t have Christians for HH. We have Christians for God. As simple as that,” Mweetwa said, and that these issues were being peddled by people who have run out of issues to criticise the government of the day on because they were seeing things happen.
He said when the UPND government came into office, inflation was at 24 percent but has now reduced to 10.2 percent.
Mweetwa said critics were seeing that the actual parameters of the economy were beginning to indicate positive signals and that on the governance side there was the the rule of law, now they wanted to bring in the debate about gayism.
“Why should we even be debating about gay issues when we know that that is a nonstarter? Why shouldn’t we talk about public private partnership dialogue and the benefits?” asked Mweetwa. “Those are the issues that should prime our debates not gay, these things. Let’s move away from sensational issues that add no value to our well being.”
