Sun, 21 Jan 2018 08:53:18 +0000
By BENNIE MUNDANDO
A CALL by Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba (GBM) to Zambians to vote for rich people because they cannot be corrupted is immature, senseless, and evidence that UPND is too desperate for State House, says a former UPND official, Edwin Lifwekelo.
Mr. Lifwekelo advised the UPND to mobilise the rich people to vote for them in 2021 since the poor ordinary majority Zambians were useless and could not run the affairs of the country.
Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr Lifwekelo, a former UPND spokesperson, said Mr. Mwamba’s pomposity and pride over his business empire was an insult to the ordinary Zambians who were looking for credible people to run the affairs of the country.
He feared that Mr Mwamba’s remarks had the potential to bring divisions between the poor and the rich in Zambia.
Mr Lifwekelo said it was wrong for a leader who aspired to lead the country to issue such baseless and careless statements by claiming that the rich could not be implicated in corruption as though every poor person participated in corruption.
“They are saying that Zambians must only vote for the rich because they cannot be corrupted and that statement alone means the party has nothing do with the poor, not even those within their rank and file,
“And so, in UPND’s Government, that is if they will form any, will be about the rich and elite while the poor will only be watching from the sidelines as they will not be given any jobs because they are corrupt.
Mr Lifwekelo said to UPND, every poor person was corrupt and that meant only the rich would vote for them since they would be the only people to have a stake in national leadership.
“This is how petty the UPND can be and this comes as no surprise because even their party leadership is structured in a similar manner where only those who are seen to have money are given bigger positions and responsibilities,
“That is why GBM himself was appointed to a very senior position the same day he defected to the UPND purely on account of the money he has accumulated while sidelining loyal members of the party without money,” Mr. Lifwekelo said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lifwekelo chided the UPND for politicising the cholera pandemic by suggesting that Government had no heart for the marketeers and street vendors who it removed from their trading places.
He said no single responsible leader would agitate for people to remain on streets and markets when the same people’s lives were at stake.
Mr Lifwekelo said while UPND was alleging that it would not have removed them from their trading places, the party had not explained how it would have resolved the cholera pandemic without putting in place measures aimed at making the towns clean.
“They are now accusing President Edgar Lungu of being heartless for removing street vendors from the streets and asking them to trade from designated areas yet they are forgetting that human life is paramount above all things,” Mr Lifwekelo said.
