Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) faction national secretary Raphael Nakacinda says he hopes the National Dialogue Forum (NDF) resolutions will be adopted by Parliament because there are a number of “very progressive resolutions” that can sanitise the Zambian political landscape.

And Nakacinda says the UPND is irrelevant to Zambia’s governance process because its only resolve is to criticise government.

Meanwhile, Nakacinda says it is a shame that Zambians are calling on government to declare the hunger situation as a national disaster when the country boasts of having 40 percent of fresh water in the SADC region.

In an interview in Kabwe, Friday, Nakacinda said Bill 10 would be adopted.

“There are a number of very progressive resolutions that came out of the NDF which we think if implemented will help sanitise the Zambian politics and save the Zambian people colossal sums of money that is gobbled through having unnecessary by-elections. We may not have agreed with all the resolutions of the NDF but we are bound by collective responsibility. It is anti the spirit of democracy for us to start going against the principle of collective responsibility by denying the collective responsibility of the NDF,” Nakacinda said.

And Nakacinda said UPND was irrelevant to the governance of Zambia.

“If you are going to use UPND [as an example to ask] if the opposition is relevant in the governance of the country, my answer is no. The Zambian people are looking for alternative programmes and policies that will improve their lives. But the UPND is just into the business of criticism. For example, in 2016, the UPND were in forefront saying this Edgar Lungu constitution is bad and should not even be assented to. Today, the UPND and their surrogates are saying the current constitution is a perfect one. What kind of double standard is that?” he said.

“Away from the UPND, the MMD is an opposition political party. Watch the space! We are reorganising ourselves and ours is to give constructive checks and balances.”

Meanwhile, Nakacinda said it was shameful that Zambians were talking about declaring a hunger crisis.

“It is a shame for us as a country to be wanting to declare the hunger situation as a national disaster as a result of a drought when a country like Israel which was a pure desert, didn’t even have running water in terms of rivers, today is one of the leading producers of different crops including fruits like apples. Now Zambia boasts of 40 percent of fresh water in the region and we are complaining about drought. The difference clearly is the farming methods. I think let’s look to the future. What is it that we should do to improve the agriculture yields? It is basically to give our farmers superior farming methods that they can use under the circumstances,” said Nakacinda.