By LUCY PHIRI
IT is no longer an accusation that the UPND has failed to govern as all sectors including health and agriculture have suffered immeasurable damage and should therefore call for early elections so that those who are capable can take over, says Harry Kalaba.
Mr Kalaba, the Citizens First president says the UPND should consider calling for early elections because there had been monumental failure in the country’s governance as the economy was in shambles with money becoming scarce for citizens.
At a media briefing in Kitwe yesterday, Mr Kalaba said he was concerned with the lack of leadership being displayed by the UPND government after being in office for 16 months.
He said the UPND seemed to have perfected the habit of lampooning every blame and failure to manage the affairs of the nation on the Patriotic Front, the former ruling party.
“Let us not play with energy (electricity). Once you play with energy it means you have played with all sectors of the economy because it is the main driver of the economy.
In this government money is scarce and people are suffering, They need to understand that if you cannot govern better, you should call for early elections so that Zambians put people who deserve the seat,” Mr Kalaba said.
Mr Kalaba said Zambia was experiencing serious state capture of a global nature and if the citizens did not wake up to start questioning what was going on, there was a real possibility that nothing would have been left by the time the UPND leave office.
He stated that the despondency displayed by the UPND government was cause for concern as it showed not just their clear lack of heart but also the inadequacy of the leadership and capacity which if unchecked, would cause untold misery to Zambians.
“Literary everything that has happened over the last 16 months has been blamed on the PF and yet it is UPND in government. This to the Citizens First shows that the UPND was not ready and is still not ready to govern. You cannot continue playing a blame game and calling civil servants names when they are the one who turned up in large numbers to vote for you,” Mr Kalaba said.
Mr Kalaba also stated that one of the campaign messages that resonated well with Zambians and caused them to move in their thousands in favour of the UPND in the August 2021 general election was a promise to address the cost of living.
“Today we are told that Zambia’s currency is the best performing across the continent and that we have a single digit inflation and yet the cost of living keeps increasing.
“With the poor management of the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), it is projected that next year the situation will be even tougher for a common man to afford even a single meal a day. “We have families that are rationing what others eat today the others eat the following day but those in government do not see the urgency to address such and instead have opted to give foreign large corporates concessions while taxing their citizens into abject poverty,” he said.
Mr Kalaba urged the new dawn administration to act urgently act on the issues on the cost of living, FISP, mining corruption – FQM / ZCCM-IH tax, youth unemployment, Indeni recapitaliaation, Public Order Act and tribal division as per promise.
He assured Zambians that the Citizens First is a progressive party that does not believe in making empty promises but rather seeks to provide solutions that are transformational in nature.
