PF Secretary General Davies Mwila says Dundumwezi is “on fire” and will vote for the ruling party in 2021.

But Dundumwezi UPND member of parliament Edgar Sing’ombe says PF will get less than the 252 votes in that area.

Speaking when he met various Dundumwezi headmen, Wednesday, Mwila said PF had done a lot of work in Dundumwezi.

“Dundumwezi is a constituency, which is very popular and the President has been talking about Dundumwezi because in 2016, Dundumwezi gave us 252 votes. The party and the President has focused on Dundumwezi despite them giving us 200 votes. President Edgar Lungu and the party made a commitment to develop Dundumwezi and the whole entire Southern Province because Zambia is for all Zambians. When it comes to development, PF has made a commitment that there will be no segregation, no one will be left behind. And you have seen what we have done in Dundumwezi; the constituency chairman said we have given them communication towers; previously, they used to write letters only. But now, they are using their cellphones. PF worked on the roads in Dundumwezi; PF took electricity to Dundumwezi. So, I want to assure you, the people who have come, the headmen, that President Edgar Lungu and the PF will continue supporting Dundumwezi,” said Mwila.

“So, we will continue supporting you because you are Zambians. I want to thank you for coming to give support to the President and the party. I want to say that Bill 10 is dead, but the UPND should not forget that we are going to the people to explain to the people the contents that were there in Bill 10 so that people will be able to understand who has been telling the truth and who has not been telling the truth. So, colleagues, you have done the right thing, the whole entire country is watching that Dundumwezi is on fire, they want to vote for PF! We have done too many things and the people of Zambia will judge based on what we have done.”

But in an interview, Sing’ombe said the ruling party was merely attempting to reduce “some degree of embarrassment”.

“They have been saying that ‘we are tribal,’ what has changed? We are still the same people. PF is probably trying to reduce some degree of embarrassment. I want to challenge Davies Mwila to tell me how they are going to garner votes from Dundumwezi where the PF government failed to issue NRCs. In Dundumwezi, we have plus 10,000 people who were not issued with NRCs if we were to cast our vote today, PF would not even get what they got in 2016 because they have frustrated the people by not issuing them will NRCs,” Sing’ombe said.

“Indeed, the PF are wasting their time. We know what they are trying to do, but that perception will not build their image. Even the voter registration is haphazard. Nothing will stop Hakainde (Hichilema) from taking over the governance of this country; he has told us he is ready now. No tricks of any kind will change. If I can count, PF got less than 10 votes in 2016 some of those votes were by those who were managing the elections. Those were their people. They don’t have the numbers, if they manage to give people NRCs, they would have managed to get 500 votes. PF will be swimming in their own blood. I can put my money on that, they will get less than 252 votes.”

Sing’ombe claimed that PF intimidated Dundumwezi residents to travel to the party secretariat.

“I want to state that the picture that the PF is portraying is not the correct one. I can tell you that PF picked anyone who wanted to go to Lusaka. PF could not even manage to have all their positions filled in because there are no people. I may not know their party structures, but they could not manage to fill all the positions. I can challenge them that some of the officers they picked work for Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA), they were intimidated! It is fine for them to have that group, they will not underrate our programmes in Dundumwezi,” said Sing’ombe.

“Some of the headmen were stranded, they were calling people to come and pick them from town. They could not take them where they picked them from. What is embarrassing is making our headmen start kneeling before the PF officials. For us, it is an embarrassment! Headmen are a representation of our traditional leadership and I don’t think there is any chief, who can kneel down before his subjects. So, for the PF to force our headmen to kneel down before them is a taboo! They have seen the Head of State, Edgar Lungu, kneeling before the chiefs. So, you can see the high degree of poverty that PF has injected in our people.”