TONE DOWN, HH TOLD

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 11:05:54 +0000

By Oscar Malipenga

HAKAINDE Hichilema should tone down and allow President Edgar Lungu to govern following his release from prison, former Home Affairs minister Lameck Mangani has said.

And Mr Mangani said the Patriotic Front is still an attractive vehicle and there is no leadership vacuum.

Mr Mangani, who is a former Eastern Province PF chairman, has advised the United Party for National Development (UPND) leader, Mr Hichilema, to give President Lungu breathing space to govern.

In an interview with the Daily Nation, Mr Mangani said after a general election a few turbulences were expected but that did not mean political fortunes for the PF were diminishing.

“PF is at the level when MMD entered its second term in 2006. This is not a signal of end of PF,” he said, adding that the ruling party was still an attractive vehicle for Zambians.

He said now that the Director of Public Prosecution had entered a Nolle Prosequi in Mr Hichilema’s case, the opposition leader needed to “give us time as Zambians to move forward. The situation in Zambia is the same in the United States of America, immediately when Donald Trump was declared the winner, Hillary Clinton tactfully withdraw to give chance to Trump’s administration to govern.”

Mr Mangani appealed to the opposition leaders to give President Lungu enough time to deliver because Zambians were now looking for fulfillment of campaign promises (development).

He said development could not be delivered to Zambians through continued politicking, adding that time would come for all political players to start campaigning.

Mr Mangani said the prison experience which Mr Hichilema went through should not make him bitter because he was a leader who needed to treat the prison experience as history.