MMD president Nevers Mumba says the resumption of business in Nakonde District risks increasing the number of COVID-19 cases in that area.

In an interview, Mumba said it was not the right time to resume business in Nakonde.

“I think on this point, the President and I, or the PF and MMD have gone to separate directions. We had insisted from the beginning that this virus is real and the people that we have seen dying in the USA and Europe are real human beings. There is enough science and research that has been done by Boston University, for instance, and London College that stipulates that our peak period stands to be around July, August. We can only pray that doesn’t happen. But if that science is accurate, it means that we are not out of danger yet. So, to open the country wide like we have done, the interactions have begun, there are traffic jams in town and everything is going back to normal, that is not our position as MMD. We had asked for a lock-down for some time, then we are going to start unlocking the country slowly, especially after the peak has been reached,” Mumba said.

He observed that government was only reopening Nakonde because it had failed to mitigate people’s suffering during the lockdown.

“So, the opening of Nakonde goes in line of the policy of the PF, but they have accepted the fact they are not going to stop anything amidst the virus, it will be business as usual. Our proposal is that Nakonde should not have been opened at least not so early. I know that there was a reaction from the people when they demonstrated, but again, in our locking down of some of these centres, our proposal was that government should have moved in with the DMMU and help the most vulnerable with the little as they can in order to sustain the period of the lock-down. Obviously, I am very worried about our people across the country that with all that we are going through, government has given nothing to the poor or has mitigated nothing to the poor, except continued taking away from them and asking them to buy their own masks. There is nothing much government has done for the poor during this time,” lamented Mumba.