PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says PF is a dead party will will never bounce back to power.

Speaking during a rally at Nyamphande Primary School ground in Msanzala Constituency, Eastern Province, President Hichilema said PF was dead and buried.

“If a party was in government and it is out, that party is gone chili ku manda (it’s in the grave). PF, people rejected it, the whole Zambia rejected the works of PF. So, in Lusangazi if you think that the PF party will bounce back, no chili ku manda. Those who go ku manda, they don’t come back, ku sala vibanda, so PF nichi banda, chili ku manda ([dead] people who are buried at graveyards don’t come back, so PF is a ghost). So, on 21st of October on Thursday, people of Lusangazi don’t make a mistake that you go back ku chi banda (a ghost),” President Hichilema said.

“There was UNIP, UNIP was in government for 27 years. In 1991 the MMD came and it removed UNIP, UNIP went for good. 2011 came the PF removed MMD, on the 12th August 2021 UPND came and removed PF, we buried PF. So, if our friends from the PF come and lie to you that they will come back to government, that is a lie! Wenye (lies) soon you will start seeing by next year, you will start seeing that the numbers in PF will be reducing because they don’t want to go to the grave. Come to the UPND. The PF is finished.”

President Hichilema said voting for PF would mean that people were happy with the violence which was portrayed under the previous administration.

“I am happy that you gave us votes, here you gave us 49 percent of the votes. Those are a lot of votes. I came here to say thank you. Your votes helped us to win the election with a landslide. The whole country, the people that went to vote, they voted for UPND. Without your votes, we wouldn’t have won by a landslide, that is why we thank you. You did a good job,” he said.

“PF used to beat people, we used to be beaten here in Petauke. If you reach at a bus stop, if you are not a PF member, you are wearing a T-shirt or a chitenge for UPND, you will be beaten. In Lusaka it was war, in markets women were beaten. So, if you go back to the PF then you were happy with being beaten. People from Eastern Province, don’t get used to remaining behind. Change has come, let us move together. “

President Hichilema said PF was voted out of government due to corruption and violence.

“The reason why the people of Zambia removed PF is because of their works which were bad, violence and corruption. We are getting back the money they stole, we want it to come here so that we give you water. Now if you vote for the PF you will be telling me that ‘we don’t want water here, we don’t want schools for our children, we don’t want desks’,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Hichilema said people would be happy with the UPND budget.

“The law says the new government that comes in August, it works with the budget of the former government until December. So, the budget we are working with is for PF and the programmes are for PF until December. The months that have remained, October, November, December, we are in the PF budget. So, we are in the budget for the PF until December. You will see by January how we will fix things ourselves,” said President Hichilema.

“So, we are going to do our best to push more money. I have asked the Minister of Finance that even though our friends in PF did not allocate money to pay farmers, we are going to find money from other areas, working very hard so that farmers get their money. UPND programmes will begin in January 2022, you will see the UPND budget, it will be different, you will be happy when you see the budget.”