UPND deserves credit for effort on taming caderism

By Daily Revelation Editor

They say give credit where it is due.

The UPND administration needs to be commended for the efforts in curbing caderism in markets and bus stations. Yes, it is still going on discreetly in some places, but credit to the leadership that has continued insisting and preaching against the same.

More effort will be required however, to root out all the elements of this vice that had come to define this country’s culture from the vigilante days during UNIP, to the caderism in the MMD, which reached boiling point especially during the administration of former president Edgar Lungu.

The former president actually referred to those unruly thugs as part of his office, and they went about with impunity to impose their thuggery on the Zambian society.

They could literally do whatever they wanted. They became so powerful such that even ministers feared them. They would demand hard little money marketeers earned at will without the slightest iota of sympathy towards their fellow citizens. As for the police, they couldn’t even get near them. Who was a police officer to those thugs?

Yes, there are still some elements of this behavior currently happening but not at that industrial scale as during the previous administration. If there is one area where there has been a noticeable difference from the previous administration, it is in this area. It is true that Hakainde Hichilema and the UPND have largely not lived up to their claims and promises, in fact most of the fundamentals have actually worsened under the UPND as compared to the time the PF was in office. One only needs to consider the price of fuel, mealie-meal, fertilizer and the exchange rate to see how things have gone from bad to worse. However, among the many achievements Hakainde and the UPND administration has scored is on how they have managed to tame their cadres to some semblance of normalcy.

It is not common for instance to see UPND cadres just about spontaneously go on the streets and disturb traffic flow with impunity as used to happen during the PF administration.

We all remember for instance how the market or bus station ‘commanders’ were deemed to be more powerful than the mayor and the council for instance. Cadres used to get the much needed income meant for the councils and thereby affecting council revenue greatly. We have reason to believe that despite some hurdles to be overcome, councils revenue collections have simultaneously

We wish to encourage the UPND to just enhance on the good work they have done thus far, by going after those stubborn ones who have insisted on carrying on with the old habits. Any reasonable Zambian out there will agree that markets and bus stations are no longer the war zones they had previously become. The UPND must not sit on their laurels but work even harder to restore the markets and bus stations to the very specific role they were established for.