By Isaac Zulu
Our members of parliament that have been appointed to ministerial positions have grown big headed and have detached themselves from the people, a UPND official in Lusaka district Costain Chilikwazi has charged.
And Chilikwazi has observed that individuals that have been appointed by President Hakainde Hichilema to serve in government positions are engaging in illegal activities and tarnishing the name of the President and making the UPND unpopular.
In an interview, Chilikwazi, who is UPND Lusaka district vice information and publicity secretary for mobilisation, said that most members of parliament and councillors in the UPND have detached themselves from the party structures and the people that elected them, stating that this is making the ruling party unpopular.
He reminded individuals that have been elected as parliamentarians and civic leaders that they are servants of the people, adding that the UPND has a huge task of delivering on its campaign promises.
“Our members of parliament that have been appointed to ministerial positions have grown big headed and have detached themselves from the people. These people should remember where they came from. They should know that they belong to a political party and that is why they were elected. They should not forget the party structures – the branches, the ward officials, constituency officials, district officials and the national management committee,” Chilikwazi said. “Most members of parliament in the UPND have detached themselves from the party structures. They have lost touch with the grassroots. With the councillors it is worse. And this is what is making the party unpopular. We have a lot of work to do in order to deliver on our campaign promises.”
And Chilikwazi has observed that some individuals that have been appointed by President Hakainde Hichilema to serve in government positions and engaging in illegal activities are tarnishing the name of the President and making the ruling party unpopular.
“Of late we have seen and heard that some people that have been privileged to be appointed by the President are having dark corner meetings of which the Zambian people are not happy with. When we were campaigning we promised the Zambian people that we are going to run a corrupt free government. But we are now learning that some of the people appointed by the President to different portfolios are engaging in illegal activities,” said Chilikwazi, who once served as Patriot Front Kapiri Mposhi district vice youth chairman. “And that is tarnishing the name of the President and making our party unpopular. Those that have been appointed to serve in government positions should serve the people diligently, otherwise they will be fired by the President because President Hakainde Hichilema is not short of people to appoint to government positions. PF was rejected by the Zambian people because of corruption and cadreism, among other things. And those are the things we should avoid getting into.”
