By Staff Reporter
PF are like jackals barking at the moon and thinking the moon will fall, HH should should just wear blinkers and ignore them, says Colonel Panji Kaunda.
But Zambia’s former Ambassador to Ethiopia Emmanuel Mwamba said the economy is worse now than it was seven months ago when the UPND took over power.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Col Panji said if he were President Hakainde Hichilema he would not bat an eye, but would simply wear blinkers and just move on, despite the criticism against him.
He said “there will always be jackals who will bark at the moon.”
“That’s what PF are. They are like jackals barking at the moon, thinking the moon will fall. No matter how much they bark they are still outside and will never be back in power,” Col Panji said.
He said he would only judge the UPND after their five years is done, saying “If in five years what the President promised is not done, I am going to blame them.”
“We are on the long tough journey which will be very bumpy,” Col Panji said.
He challenged those in PF to show what progress came under their administration, as the economy nosedived at their watch.
“If you follow what the PF is saying you will get lost. What have they shown to Zambians apart from corruption and nepotism? We have seen how rich the PF leadership are, and if the state asks them where they got wealth, that is not persecution,” Col Panji said.
But put to him that the UPND he campaigned for were not living up to several of the promises made including the fact that people would not be arrested without charge, that the Kwacha would improve instantly upon President Hichilema being sworn in, and fuel prices would reduce, yet all those things were going in the different direction, among other things, Col Panji said the UPND has only been in office for the last seven months, and no one could argue that they have not made some achievements during that period, including free education, increased CDF, and no cadres in the streets.
On the Police arresting people without charge, Col Panji said he would not justify their action, but the ball was in the hands of the Inspector General of Police Lemmy Kajoba as the President has already made directives in that line.
He said it would take time to change the attitudes of police officers, whose attitudes he said was poisoned during the PF reign.
Col Panji said he was hopeful that things would come right.
“There is no government that does everything right in seven months, where the economy was ruined. What is coming out of PACis frightening. Fuel will go up and down according to the market cost. Right now there is a war going on, do you expect HH will find money to go and buy cheap oil?” Col Panji said. “We in Zambia must be prepared to suffer to get things better in future. No two ways about it.”
But Amb Mwamba said PF maybe departed from where late president Michael Sata started from as a pro-poor party, but they remained just that, but that UPND was a liberal party that will care more about corporations.
He said the UPND would rather provide incentives to the mines while removing subsidies to cushion the suffering of the poor people.
Amb Mwamba said the economy has nosedived, with the Vice-President Mutale Nalumango spurning the opportunity to properly explain the government’s economic drive and only pointing towards the inflation rate number which had reduced while all the other things were going up.
He said the PF left fuel prices at K17 but the UPND has increased that to K22, adding that the war in Ukraine should not be used as an excuse, as all the Zambians were aware that among some of the conditionalities the IMF had given was removing fuel and electricity subsidies and the Farmer Input and Support (FISP) programme, among others.
“Let’s tell Zambians the truth,” Amb Mwamba said.
He further opposed moves to promote bigamy and abortion, wondering how one could promote such when the country witnessed about 20,000 divorces last year partly due to bigamy. He said even the tujilijili were now back on the streets.
“Is promoting immortality part of the values of this country?” asked Amb Mwamba, adding that instead of getting the criticism they were sponsoring their youths who probably sit somewhere, popularly known in social media circles as “ba Praise Team”, to counter the criticism.
More @ www.dailyrevelationzambia.com
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