3 months of UPND disappointing – Kateka
By SIMON MUNTEMBA
THE three months of UPND in Government so far is very disappointing, New Heritage Party president Chishala Kateka has charged.
Ms Kateka who mockingly called the ruling party a “United Party for National Disappointment” said Zambians had high expectations from the UPND Government following their many campaign promises but so far, their performance was below par.
She told the Daily Nation that her party was disappointed with the UPND Government because so far, there was no roadmap to massive job creation they promised apart from mere rhetoric.
Ms Kateka said Zambians especially the young people who were promised jobs amongst other things, were hurting due to unfilled promises.
“As people ask for the jobs after the elections, the President then responds to the effect that jobs do not come from rocks. Answering with ‘penalties’ will not help these young people financially. They are looking for solutions and guidance,” she said.
She said the least President Hakainde Hichilema could do was give them hope by way of an explanation of your roadmap to the job creation that they were promised, otherwise, “the way this is being currently handled is disappointing”.
Ms Kateka also said that the new dawn Government’s policy of moving Zambia’s dependency from East to West was disappointing.
As a country, she said, we have simply stopped looking to China (the East) for solutions but are now looking to the West.
She said as long as Government continued to look elsewhere and fails to find home grown solutions, the country shall continue to go around in circles.
“This for us, as the New Heritage Party, is one of the biggest disappointments of the UPND government,” she said.
Ms Kateka further said the intention by the new dawn Government to hinging Zambia’s economic salvation on an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in spite of many citizens advising against that route, was disappointing.
She warned that the IMF with its austerity conditionalities would bring a lot of hardship on ordinary Zambians.
“How can our entire economic plan hinge on a bailout from IMF? 23 years in opposition and this is the outcome? Disappointing indeed!,” she said.
She said the 2022 national budget had also failed to address critical economic challenges such as issues that are crippling the debt burden that the country was facing
To sum up the 2022 National Budget, Ms Kateka said, it is “populist in messaging but disappointing in the detail of where Zambia ought to be going.”
“How do we expect our SME sector to function if they cannot be paid for goods and services already delivered? There can be no confidence from lenders to the private sector, a critical ingredient to unlocking growth and opportunity,” she said.
She also said the UPND Government has failed to guide or admonish its Cadres who were storming and locking up of public offices.
She recalled that recently, the UPND cadres stormed and locked up council offices in Kabwe and Solwezi, as well as taking the law into their own hands in Choma when they closed the business place belonging to PF member of the Central Committee Kebby Mbewe.
