By Staff Reporter
Former commerce minister Bob Sichinga says PF is history in as far as Zambians are concerned, warning that the UPND would follow them out of the door if they continue making the same goofs they are making.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Sichinga said Zambians have mastered their power over the years, and will not tolerate any government that cheats on them.
“The problem that you would have is people don’t want to go back to PF…so you will see that there is a remnant of that good will still for the UPND right now. So if UPND does its homework they will win that seat (Kabwata),” Sichinga said.
He said those in the UPND should not keep on talking and talking without implementing what they were talking about, as that would take them nowhere.
“The issues we are talking about now is people are raising questions regarding corruption. It’s a fact. Why are we buying fertilizer at 1400 dollars per metric tone? And I am giving you this myself, when I was minister we bought fertilizer from Saudi Arabia, top dressing at 393 dollars per metric tone. Why are you paying 1400? The market price for fertilizer right now you can go on Internet is around 400 dollars, why are you paying 1400 and that happened under the UPND government?” Sichinga asked. “How about fuel, what did you say to the people? ‘We have already worked out, we know the middle men, we are aware what they are doing, they are stealing. When we come into office the price will be between K12 and K13 per liter.’ What has happened? It was at K17 so instead of it coming down, what happened? It went up.
“Why did it go up? Have you checked the middle men? Have you established where it was coming from, where the problems are? The answer is no! You haven’t told us that. If you have share with us what you found out.”
He said there was ongoing corruption in the UPND government.
“We are talking about corruption. You can’t go and appoint your sister. You can’t go and appoint your wife…how about all of us that were ministers? Our wives were not qualified? You can’t do that…if you are saying you are fighting corruption, fight corruption conclusively. There should be no sacred cows,” Sichinga said. “That’s what you said. Tell us the truth. The trip by the President to South Africa was definitely not a state visit, everybody knows that. Why are you telling us lies? Why not just state that the President had gone to attend this particular launch of this book. It’s important because there are lessons to be learnt from there. So to encourage the contents of that we were to grace that occasion. You can make trips anywhere except it should not incure government cost.”
Sichinga said President Hakainde Hichilema’s government could not afford to make silly mistakes, and failing to honour the very things they said they would be honoring once elected.
“It’s not correct because the people will simply lose confidence in them. And with time some political party will emerge and people will say let’s try this one. So there needs to be proprietary, there needs to be sensitivity to the fact that. And to say that the president is not worried about re-election in 2026 then what was the whole purpose of him offering himself, if that is the case?” Sichinga asked. “They were not chosen because they were the best party, but the people were protesting against PF. So the success of the UPND must be seen in that context.”
He said as far as Zambians were concerned, UNIP, MMD and PF were gone and should forget about coming back into office, saying Zambians have a mentality of not entertaining parties which have already served their time and were voted out.
“So what you have right now is the goodwill because people were protesting against PF. Therefore it depends, if UPND continues to make the goofs that they are doing now they will be kicked out as well. Remember they lost Kaumbwe in Eastern Province after Chagwa Lungu had already lost. They had not explained themselves well in terms of the policies,” said Sichinga.
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