MINISTER of Transport and Logistics Frank Tayali says politicians should have substantive careers so that they do not go into leadership to serve themselves but the people.

And Tayali says the style of leadership UPND is providing is one which will see to it that Zambians never allow masqueraders to occupy public office again.

In an interview, Saturday, Tayali said the previous government led the country through personal aggrandizement.

“First of all, I think that in UPND we believe that politics is not a career. It is very important for a politician to have their own career so that when they are called upon to serve, it’s not to serve themselves but the people. I think these are the traits we looked for even when the founding president passed on. We looked for a leader that had similar traits to the founding president and we found that in the current President, His Excellency Hakainde Hichilema,” Tayali said.

“Politicians ought to be true to themselves. Do not masquerade to be a leader when you cannot offer anything, [when] you are simply looking for an opportunity to serve yourself. So I think leaders ought to do an introspection. Do they truly mean well for this country? Because as we are beginning to learn, as we are beginning to unravel, in particular the previous regime and the decisions they were making, you wonder. These people were not our leaders, they were not our servants, they were serving themselves. There was blatant corruption, abuse of authority and they led this country through personal aggrandizement.”

And Tayali said the style of leadership UPND was providing was one which would see to it that Zambians never allow masqueraders to occupy public office.

“We are hoping that Zambians once they have gone through the style of leadership we are bringing to the table, they shall say ‘never again shall we lower the bar to allow masqueraders to begin to occupy public space’. The bar we have set is very high but obviously, we shall wait and see because at the end of the day, we are just starting our journey. Once we are done with our first term, we will be able to look back and say this is what we promised and this is what we have achieved. We are very confident that we shall walk the talk,” said Tayali.

“You have seen from the way we are carrying ourselves that the message has never changed from 1998 to date. The message has always been economic emancipation, rule of law, and free education. We have not veered off course from what we originally envisioned. We rededicate and recommit to those founding values that we promised ourselves and the Zambian people, that is reuniting Zambia, bringing all tribes together, no favoritism, no nepotism. This is what His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema has carried through to the latter and that Zambians ought to be patient. Here we are as a young government, we are beginning to walk the talk and in the shortest possible time people will see that this party through its President, means well for Zambia.”