Lusaka Province UPND chairperson Obvious Mwaliteta has called on the PF to hold a joint-press conference with the opposition in a bid to tame their cadres ahead of this month’s Mayoral by-election.

And Mwaliteta has asked government to quickly work on the Mazabuka-Kafue and Kaoma roads, which are both in a deplorable condition, or people will protest and stop paying toll gate fees in those areas.

In an interview with News Diggers! Monday, Mwaliteta challenged the PF to hold a joint-press conference with the UPND to tame their cadres and avoid the usual political violence that mars elections.

“In Lusaka we are asking for peaceful campaigns. No finger pointing. I want to challenge the PF that we should have a press conference, together, to tell our cadres not to get involved in violence. We don’t want violence, we want to campaign peacefully because the day of elections should be an exciting day for Zambians to go and cast their votes. They should be happy and not be worried of whether they will come out of that booth safe or not. They should be excited to choose the leaders they want, that’s what we want to see,” Mwaliteta said.

And Mwaliteta, the former Kafue PF member of parliament and Lusaka Province Minister, observed that the Mazabuka-Kafue and Kaoma roads were in a deplorable state despite government collecting money from toll gates.

“Mazabuka-Kafue road and the road in Kaoma, there are two toll gates government is getting money from. From [the] motorists who are using that road. They are collecting money every day, but they are not paying attention to those roads. What do they want people to do? People want to protest, to stop using those roads, which will be sabotaging the economy because these roads are [also used by] trucks. Government has to do something now! This issue of Inyatsi [Company] should stop! They should just take a very serious contractor to do these roads. It’s high-time they do that or else people will stop paying toll gates there. Because they are paying toll gates and using bad roads,” lamented Mwaliteta.

Late last month, Minister of Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela disclosed in Parliament that collection of revenue from entry ports during the first quarter of this year jumped to over K186 million, surpassing the K132.4 million collected in the corresponding period last year.