By Staff Reporter
Losing UPND parliamentary candidate for Milanzi in the 2021 general elections, Christine Phiri, says President Hakainde Hichilema is not as stingy as his opponents like to assert, saying her campaign was sufficiently funded such that she remained with K12,000 change after the elections.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Phiri, a former diplomat in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, said some people might think President Hichilema is stingy because he does not engage in “tantameni” neither in a situation where “a former president used to move with a DMMU official in the back of his vehicle and distributing money to the people.”
She said if President Hichilema was stingy he would not have managed to guide the UPND to power as the party would have died with the demise of Anderson Mazoka.
“He gives big time and when he gives it benefits many. Me I am not a bootlicker to just praise but I am speaking the truth. I joined the UPND, I stood in Milanzi. We were being given money on a weekly basis, K6000 weekly from the secretariat, and in between that something was also coming in. So I am surprised a person like Kelvin Fube who did not stand saying Kaso (stingy),” Phiri said. “I was left with K12,000 or so after the elections. He is saying nibakaso ku UPND because in PF the secretariat never used to work.”
She said as opposed to the President moving in a vehicle with some government officials stashed with sacs of cash, President Hichilema channels funds through the secretariat, saying even her petition following the loss of her seat was handled in that same fashion.
“In UPND there is protocol…the last time I went to Ncwala pa Ndebele with the President, the moment some saw me disembarking they said give us money because that was what they used to do in PF where they would get money from the borders, Zesco and give people,” she said.
Phiri said she was saying so not because she wanted to please the President and the UPND, but as someone who believes in honesty and telling the truth.
“Even this issue about the July event (event on suspected homosexual promotion) I am told they have been summoned and the government has given a position but if I found the government wanting you will see how I can come out against this,” said Phiri. “If I see that there is nothing happening over those summoned you will see how I will speak out.”
Phiri also said those in the PF must not politicise the fight against corruption saying it was targeted against the Bembas, saying it was their fellow Bemba, Chishimba Kambwili, who was on record as having said “aba abantu niba pompwe (these people are thieves)”, and that he even mentioned names.
