By Isaac Zulu
PF presidential aspirant Brian Mundubile has appealed to President Hakainde Hichilema not to appoint people based on tribe or regionalism.
And Mundubile says UPND administration has mismanaged the agriculture sector.
Speaking on The Conversation with former Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba, the Mporokoso member of parliament said the UPND government has failed to put in place effective systems that would ensure that the agriculture sector thrives.
He said, unlike the UPND, the Patriotic Front government had placed a premium on the agriculture sector and it is the reason why it was running effective systems in managing the agriculture sector.
“The Patriotic Front was running effective systems and placed a premium on the agriculture sector. It is also important to note that 60 to 65 per cent of the Zambian people depend on agriculture. But this government, the UPND government, has mismanaged the agriculture sector,” Mundubile said.
He said PF members of parliament had advised the UPND government to halt the exportation of maize in order to ensure that the country is food secure, but that advice was ignored.
He said MMD left a bumper harvest while PF also left enough maize in reserves but when the UPND took over office, they started exporting.
“The MMD did a good job in terms of bumper harvest and the PF left 1.5 million metric tonnes of maize in reserves. But when the UPND came into power, they started exporting maize. We advised the UPND government against the idea of exporting maize because we knew that we were not food secure. But they did not listen pantu aba abanensu nibamano njikwatile( they think they know it all). And the shortage of maize has a huge impact on the high cost of living. If you look at the distribution of farming inputs, it’s been chaotic. This is what we are experiencing today,” Mundubile said.
He also said the UPND administration has purged the civil service, saying President Hakainde Hichilema has been appointing people to serve in the civil service on tribal lines.
Mundubile charged that President Hichilema has been on record condemning tribalism and regionalism, and wondered why the Head of State is making appointments on tribal lines.
He said about 300 civil servants are waiting to be dismissed just because they served under the PF government.
Mundubile appealed to President Hichilema to stop appointing people on trial and regional basis.
“And our appeal to the President is that he should not be appointing people to serve in his government based on tribe or regionalism. The Patriotic Front, under the leadership of late President Michael Sata, retained civil servants that worked in the MMD government. And even promoted some of them,” said Mundubile.
He also agreed with Ambassador Mwamba that under the UPND government, foreign policy was in tatters and also insisted that he is still leader of opposition in Parliament.
