People’s Party president Mike Mulongoti says President Edgar Lungu is frustrating Zambian by the creation of new districts when the already existing ones have no proper infrastructure.

On Wednesday, President Lungu declared six more districts to foster rural development and easy administration of the areas. Among the districts created were Chasefu, Chipangali,Kasenengwa, Lumezi, Lusangazi and Chifunabuli.

The creation of the named districts was provided for under statutory instrument no. 26 of 2018, for the provincial and district boundaries act order of 2018 issued.

But Mulongoti told News Diggers! in an interview that the president was wrong by thinking that creating new districts would make him popular because the country already had too many problems.

“He has been copying through this approach. He thinks he is going to make himself popular like….when there is no money. Just understand that in the process, he frustrates and annoys people. So it’s not the right approach. When you make commitments, complete them so that people know they got the service. Going mentioning names of districts is not right. What we want him to ask himself is ‘is the budget going to support those districts?’ how many districts has he declared in the past which her not operational? They are many. It doesn’t make sense at all. So to try and be popular over that is not fair,” Mulongoti said.

Mulongoti urged President Lungu to finish the already started projects before embarking on new ones.

“There are too many problems which the President should attend to rather than wasting time mentioning new districts. What value is it naming districts when there are no services rendered? And he should relate those pronouncements to the provisions of the budget and strictly enough to make a plan. It’s not enough making those pronouncements. Let them become reality through the planned 2030 vision, the MDGs and all that,” said Mulongoti.

“You can’t say you are carrying everybody with you when you have got no money. The treasury is empty; IMF has refused to give him money. There are roads which have stalled, there are infrastructures which have stalled. So why pretend you have money when you don’t have? Finish the projects that are there first then you start the new ones. You want to show that you care for the people when in the mean time, there is not even a single house or an office for those districts. You are annoying people. Let us be fair with each other. Nobody is pushing him to do that. But he thinks by so doing he is going to make himself popular, he won’t. People are angry with him.”