PF deputy national chairperson Davies Chama says President Hakainde Hichilema is a “cry baby” because he has continued to find excuses for everything.

And Chama says UPND’s fight against corruption is, indeed, tribal because only people from one region are being targeted.

Commenting on remarks by President Hichilema that the measures that government were putting in place to fight corruption were being resisted and were tagged to ethnicity, Chama said the Head of State should not rule the country on excuses.

“I don’t know why the President wants to be crying all the time, trying to find excuses at very opportune time to blame somebody. That is not how you want to rule the country where every time you are blaming, crying all the time in the past. Why can’t he be focused in terms of delivering on the promises that they made without looking over his shoulders? It is like the past government is really haunting him or stopping him from performing his duties. I don’t understand why he is a cry baby, I don’t know why! It is laughable but seriously, you have been given the mandate to function and it looks like you are failing to function because of the people who are in government previously, is that possible?” he asked in an interview.

And Chama said only people from one region were being targeted in the corruption fight.

“Fighting corruption is putting in place systems, it is not about the President to fight corruption, it is about the institutions that we have put in place. Right now corruption is taking place, now is it corruption when you target whatever happens in the past? Is that fighting corruption? That you will only be seen that you are effectively fighting corruption when you are targeting certain individuals? Zambia has 3 ethnic groups, 10 provinces, so if you are now complaining that you are being stopped to fight corruption because it is just like you have just limited to a certain ethnic group, so only one ethnic group was running this country?” Chama asked.

“So there is no Southern Province? There is no Western Province? In Southern Province everything was clean? That is why there is this perception. No one is stopping him from fighting corruption, no one can stop the institutions of government from fighting corruption. But if you as politicians want to get involved, you don’t want these institutions that fight corruption to be professional and you want to micro manage them to target a certain group of people, people will start complaining that you are perceived to be targeting a certain ethnic of people. You can tell me that in Western Province or people who originate from Western Province are not involved in issues of corruption. Corruption was only taking place in Lusaka and only one ethnic group was involved, it is not true!”

He said it was in order to perceive the corruption fight as tribal.

“Why is he crying over it? Is he the one who is fighting corruption alone? Why is ACC not crying? Because the ones who are supposed to complain are the Anti Corruption Commission or the Drug Enforcement Commission that we are not executing our duties, our responsibilities were being prohibited by certain individuals, not the President. No one can stop the government from fighting corruption, the present corruption or the past corruption. If you just target certain people like I have said, you just target Mr Chama, Mr Chitotela, you target Mr Chliufya, you target Mr Mulenga, then people will perceive that are these the only people who are involved in corruption,” said Chama.

“I can tell you that when you go around the country, whether it is in Southern Province, whether it is Western Province, people have built property everywhere. Here in Lusaka, every individual from all the provinces, they have built mansions, they own so much property. Not only one tribe owns property. Not only one tribe has been in government. It is like a cry baby all the time, trying to blame somebody. Remind the President that he has been given a mandate, let him strive to unite this country. He wants to find a scapegoat, he wants to find someone to blame, it is just failure to work. Tomorrow you will hear that I am failing to appoint PSs because people are resisting me or that the PF is manipulating all my supporters not to bring in their CVs. Just get to work!”