VICE-President Mutale Nalumango says the UPND in opposition didn’t promise roses but hard work, adding that citizens shouldn’t vote back those who want to “eat reserves”.

And Vice-President Nalumango says her prayer is that government would be ready to pay farmers when they deliver, adding that people just want mealie meal prices to be reduced without care for the welfare of farmers.

Meanwhile, the Vice-President has accused Brian Mundubile of being a populist opposition leader who didn’t meet the criteria to be in Edgar Lungu’s Cabinet.

Speaking when she appeared on Friday’s “Let the People Talk” programme on Phoenix FM, Vice-President Nalumango said citizens would feel the effect of the work done in the past five years in the second term.

“We worked on the debt, and when people are suffering, they should see that the suffering is not being caused by government. What are we doing? That’s why we are saying now, we have built, we found negative 2.8 economic growth, we have grown it now to a point where now it’s time to build on. The next five years is growth, it is set for growth, and that’s when the people will start feeling the real effect of the work that has been done in the sphere of the economy, that’s not my space normally but this is ordinary thinking. Now that we have grown the economy and we want to grow it further so that people’s lives change, then someone who destroyed [it] wants to come back? Aikona man (No way). The people who found a good economy and destroyed it and they want to come back? No way. Zambians you have already suffered, but now we are where we want to enjoy then we go back to Pharaoh?” Vice-President Nalumango wondered.

“Yes, we didn’t promise roses, we said there will be hard work, and this is one of our values and the President has laid in the hard work by working and negotiating with those lenders to forgive us and give us relief, and now when the time want to eat’. You eat? Like a child? ‘Bring we eat now, tomorrow will sort itself’, any mother keeps a little for tomorrow. So, this is growth time”.

Meanwhile, the Vice-President said she heard Mundubile promising to pay farmers before they delivered, arguing that government was already planning better.

“There was a challenge last year, but you see where the problem is, I did hear that they are going to pay even before [harvesting]. I don’t know if they are going to pay at planting or at harvest before delivery, who buys like that? Those are lies and exaggerations, that’s not possible, how are they going to pay? Which measure? Last year in particular, there was a challenge [of paying farmers] because our production exceeded the projection as at planting and we had a challenge, but we managed to pay. We produced more, now we are planning better. It’s my prayer that we are ready to pay when people deliver, at the right time, it’s not an easy task,” she said.

“What we didn’t want is to leave our farmers to give the briefcase buyers who exploit them, because this is the challenge. People want to think of the consumption saying ‘reduce mealie meal prices’, they don’t care about the farmers who toil throughout the year. Prices get determined from where the maize comes from. To you farmers, they want mealie meal prices to reduce, how much will you sell your maize? So, mealie meal prices go with what you are doing, even though government comes through to help, you remember Eagle Milling”.

And when a caller condemned the calibre of the opposition like Mundubile who he said didn’t understand how the economy worked, Vice-President Nalumango said under him, the country would be worse than under Lungu.

“He talks of the calibre of opposition leaders, I can tell you Zambians that his observation is very important, I believe they are populists who are just saying anything to please the crowds, how can you promise things like eating reserves? It shouldn’t be like that. If we can choose someone who even Edgar Lungu didn’t even consider to be in his Cabinet, how will it be? We will go backwards. It will be worse under him, he wants to eat and give away the reserves and give excavators to marketeers, it shows that they don’t know what they are talking about. We don’t hate them, we love them, we are a government of love and Zambians love each other, but we will choose not based on wrong things, but those saying what’s working. They just want to come and eat, it’s not that they have a message or plan for the people. You want to come back? Zambians really? To Pharaoh? To go again to people who don’t mind about the reserves? How can you trust a president who says ‘don’t just count money, we want to eat’. You eat? Like a child? ‘Bring we eat now, tomorrow will sort itself’, any mother keeps a little for tomorrow. So this is growth time,” she said.

“You can’t sit in Zambia and say you haven’t seen a good thing? What did you see [in the previous] government, that’s why someone said they didn’t even appoint [Mundubile] that’s who you are going to pick? Someone who failed to meet the criteria of a government that wasn’t focused and did all the wrong things, that’s who they put up as a candidate, no way”.

Further, Vice-President Nalumango questioned whether Mundubile wanted to bring back corruption when he stated that he want to run the country like Lungu.

“The PF were beating the opposition, who is beating Mundubile? Today you are even bragging about rallies, isn’t that freedom? You don’t want the freedom which Hakainde is giving to people? They are even lying to the people about graders, ‘we will govern like Edgar Lungu governed’, someone who was voted out, why was he voted out? Does he want to bring back corruption? You want to bring that back? No way, It won’t happen,” said Vice-President Nalumango.

“We love Mundubile, but we won’t give him power to govern because leadership can’t be about talking about giving graders and excavators to marketeers and giving [away] dumpsites that belong to other people. That’s grabbing of things and it’s dangerous statement to make for any leader, to point out a mine that belongs to other people, given probably under them if not MMD, not given by this government and then you start declaring that you will give a mine, or is it Black Mountain that belongs to someone, is that lawful? And Mundubile is a lawyer, you don’t do that”.