Dear Editor,
AS campaigns heightens and arguably at their climax, Zambians must be wary of candidates who want to ride on deception to assume political authority.
It is clear fact that patriotism has been substituted with the insatiable appetite for power therefore it will be strange for the opposition to constructively engage the government. Their preoccupation is that the government of the day must fail and that the citizens must detest it in preference to their desire to win political power seemingly at all cost.
There are some documented facts that found UPND wanting as principal actors in thriving on politics of lies and deception.
Recently, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) released its Trends Report for 2020 asserting that about K2 billion was lost in suspected illicit financial activities.
Without taking time to comprehend, UPND Presidential spokesman Anthony Bwalya went loose and make unfounded accusations with their usual generalisation.
Again this is calculated to willfully mislead Zambians regarding the reported financial practices. Mr Bwalya usurped the mandate of the law enforcement agencies and the courts of law all in the name of political expediency whilst he make innocent citizens drink from the UPND spring of deception.
How did Mr Bwalya manage to fill in the blank spaces to identify the culprits of embezzlement when FIC uses anonymous characters and that he himself is not an investigation officer?
This is an example of the politics of lies and deceit.
Furthermore, Mr Hichilema projects himself to be the proponent of the constitution and laws of the land whilst on the other hand not respecting law enforcement agencies and the decisions of the courts to punish his close associates.
On one hand, he criticises the supremacy of cadres before the law while in actual sense he has conferred jailed Cornelius Mulenga aka Chellah Tukuta with the hero status despite his conviction for defaming and scandalising former Information and Broadcasting Services Minister Dora Siliya.
It is deception to misrepresent the humble suggestion by PF national chairman Samuel Ng’onga Mukupa where he encouraged Zambiand to diversify their eating habits by utilising the native foods such as sweet potatoes fondly referred to as “kandolo.”
Mr Hichilema has taken on that to deceive Zambians that eating kandolo is synonymous with poverty when such foods are part and parcel of the Zambian diet.
Driving back the memory lane, during the 2016-21 Parliamentary session, the UPND made its parliamentarians pledge allegiance to a political party rather than the people of Zambia.
Unfortunately, about 56 opposition MPs were misled into believing that primary allegiance is to a political party and that they serve his interests and not the electorates who entrusted them with the responsibility.
This was conducted alongside the propagation that President Edgar Lungu was not eligible to contest for his term of office until the Constitutional Court gave the authoritative interpretation of the constitution.
It is therefore immoral for the UPND to portray itself as a political entity that seeks to bring change when it is using deception as a currency to be entrusted with the responsibility to lead the country. Zambians beware!
MARVIN CHANDA MBERI,
Lusaka.
