Advocate for People’ Prosperity (APP) Interim president Mwenya Musenge has said he has lost
confidence and trust in the leadership of President Hakainde Hichilema and has since advised
him to step aside and call for early elections because he has failed to live to the expectation of
majority poverty-stricken Zambians who voted for him.
Mr Musenge said many Zambians voted for the UPND and President Hichilema because of his
campaign promises of reducing mealie meal, fertiliser and generally improving people’s lives
which has turned out to be the opposite as poverty and hunger has worsened in communities
In an interview in Kitwe yesterday, Mr Musenge said poverty and hunger has continued to
worsen in communities and the cost of living has continued to escalate hence the majority
poverty stricken Zambians losing confidence in government of President Hichilema
“As Mwenya Musenge, interim President of APP, I have lost confidence and trust in the
government of President Hichilema because he is not taking us any anywhere. Poverty and
hunger is worsening, while the cost of living is escalating every day.
“President Hichilema has failed to live to people’s expectation of reducing mealie meal to K50
per 25kilogramme bag, reducing fertiliser from K650 to K250 per 50kilogramme bag. The bag of
mealie meal is now almost K200, while that of fertiliser is more than K1, 000. He has generally
failed to improve people’s lives. So the best thing for him to do, is to step aside and call for early
elections,’’ Mr Musenge said.
Mr Musenge said it was sad that some sections of society were perceiving President Hichilema
as a liar who used lies and deceit to get to power because he had failed to fulfil his numerous
campaign promises which included reducing mealie meal to K50 and others.
“Any leader is not supposed to be telling lies. Even those political parties which are coming up,
they should not tell lies to win elections, but they should talk about policies, ideas or
programmes that they believe in and that they will come and implement. A political party should
research and find out how their programmes can be implemented
“Taking advantage of the vulnerable people is a sin, even the Holy Bible warns against taking
advantage of the vulnerable to get what you want. You take advantage of the vulnerable by
promising them Heaven on Earth, but after voting for you, you neglect them, you subject them to
worsening poverty and hunger. It is not good. It is a sin,’’ he said
He said the UPND and its ‘Praise Singers’ do not know the gravity of suffering which people on
the ground were going through and so they have resorted to being defensive and calling their
critics all sorts of names
“People are wallowing in serious hunger and poverty in communities, but the UPND is
defending itself. Do they know the sufferings people are going through? ,’’ he said
On Free Education, Mr Musenge said the New Dawn government has not solved any problem
but has only overcrowded the classes and made the work of teachers difficult and at the same
time, compromising education standards
“That is not free education which is creating confusion. You cannot start celebrating that we
have free education in crowded classrooms like a political party rally. No. If President Hichilema
and his ministers believes that is free education, why can’t he and his ministers take their
children to those schools whose classes are crowded like political party rallies? ‘’, he said
