Alliance for Community Action executive director Laura Miti says the ruling Patriotic Front are a bunch of thugs who must go because she does not trust them.

But Miti also says UPND, which is the biggest opposition, is even more broken than PF because it has no shadow cabinet.

Meanwhile Miti says the protest by the Luapula Province PF structures on Friday to have the former foreign affairs minister Harry Kalaba expelled from the party was stage managed.

Speaking when she featured on Radio Christian Voice’s “Chat Back” program on Tuesday, Miti said UPND was as broken as the Patriotic Front.

“When you listen to HH, he is a very clear thinker so he seems to well articulate certain ideas. But the whole party [UPND]is as broken as PF. They don’t like me for saying this. But they don’t have a shadow cabinet. How can you not have a shadow cabinet? If you are talking about the issue of cholera, who do you think is responsible to understands these things in UPND? We can’t have the president [HH] saying everything, we need to have a shadow cabinet. As for FDD, ni Antonio [Mwanza]. Elo Antonio makes sense manje eka? (Antonio makes sense but he is alone), there is no much hope,” she said.

And Miti said she wanted to put it on record that she was decampaigning PF because the party had failed to govern.

“Non of these politicians so far have my loyalty. Non has proved to me that this is exactly how I would run the country. Nobody is saying ‘this is how I would change the systemic failure’. At this point, I would like PF to go. Yes at this point I’m decampaigning PF. If you are sitting right now at home, you can’t go to town [traders], why on earth are you going to vote for PF again? You heard about the fact that we bought 42 [fire] trucks for $42 million, those trucks, one of them could have bought 20 garbage disposal trucks. I hope government understands right now that when they blink, we don’t trust them,” she said.

“People say ‘so mwaona so kuli cholera bafuna kuba? (there is cholera, they want to steal)’. That’s the level of mistrust I feel. I do not trust this government. I will not trust them if they say the sky is blue, I will have to check for myself. That is a very dangerous place to be. And what I’m saying to President Lungu, there is still time. All we want is for the country to run.”

She said PF was a violent, disorganized party run by thugs.

“There is no control [in PF]. Its a party that is being run by the bottom of the party. Its a party that is being run by cadres, thugs, by all kinds of unruliness. Mrs Mumbi [Phiri] should be ashamed of herself to come and sit here and tell us that the party does not allow [people abusing the logo of the party and cadres to collecting money from the market]. It is one thing to say it when the experience of citizens is different. I think they know that they need this thug power. Somehow PF has decided that they cannot survive without the thuggish power of their cadres. The result of it is that you have the President saying one thing, the secretary general saying another thing,” she observed .

“Our experience is that Pilato is in hiding right now because he has been threatened by PF cadres. So we can safely say that PF is a violent party, PF is a disorganised party, PF is a lawless party. If they think I’m wrong, I would love to be proved wrong. Cadres have more power than the President in this country. The President is scared of cadres.”

And Miti expressed shock on the appointment of Alexander Chiteme as Minister of National Planning saying the ministry needed someone who understood planning.

“Hounourable Chiteme, planning? The Ministry of National Planning is a very technical ministry. We have gotten used over the years that the minister of planning, the minister of finance, the minister of foreign affairs, these three ministries have been occupied by someone whose résumé speaks for itself. Without really casting aspersions on honourable Chiteme, I’m a little surprised… we would want someone who really understands planning. But honourable Chiteme? I really hope that he surprises us,” she said.

Miti said the protest by the Luapula Province PF structures to have Kalaba expelled from the party were stage managed.

“Citizens have a right to protest. So if those citizens feel that Harry Kalaba should leave PF, they have a right to express that. I would think it was stage managed. That’s my personal view but I have no proof for it. I looked at the banners they all looked like they had been printed by the same person. They were exactly the same. Same font, same design,” she said.