United Progressive People (UPP) Leader Saviour Chishimba says President Edgar Lungu has failed Zambia.

And Saviour says it is unfortunate that the PF and UPND, “Zambia’s most violent and corrupt parties”, had put the country in a crisis.

At a press conference in Lusaka today, Saviour said that no one with five senses could fail to see that the spate of fires and other acts of sabotage were by the PF.

He said the declaration of a Threatened State of Public Emergency is a well orchestrated move by the Patriotic Front to further push their agenda of hate

“From the initial fires immediately the election results were announced, through to the various acts of economic sabotage including the latest Lusaka City Market, no one with five senses can fail to see that these actions are part of a well orchestrated scheme to undermine our democratic state and peaceful co-existence of all tribes in Zambia. No one with five senses can fail to see that from the initial statements of the Minister of Home Affairs that the state of emergency was going to be declared and a statement by the PF accusing the UPND of the most atrocious act of arson through to the statement by President Edgar Lungu on arrival at the Airport that he was going to become a dictator and the eventual proclamation under statutory instrument number 53 of 2017 that a situation that may lead to a state of public emergency exists in Zambia by reasonable efface appear to be a typical conspiracy of the state against its own people,” Chishimba said.

“No one with five senses can fail to see that President Edgar Lungu may mean well in his heart but the best for him is not good enough for this country. He has failed Zambia and he must admit. He told the nation that his own Ministers were corruptly depositing huge amounts of money in their accounts but to this day, the people of Zambia have not been told how much has been stolen by the PF-MMD Ministers and whether or not the illegal allowances that Ministers were getting when they continued in office illegally after Parliament was dissolved, has that money been collected? The people of Zambia want these answers to be given to them.”

UPP president Saviour Chishimba at a press conference in Lusaka on July 7, 2017 – picture by Tenson Mkhala

Chishimba noted that the Threatened State of Public Emergency would pass in Parliament given that the PF had the numbers in the House.

“The President is surrounded by wrong counselors and advisors who do not love him at all. They have succeeded in putting him on a self destructive path which will lead him in big troubles in the days the Lord shall decide to end his reign for whatever begins, must end. No one with five senses can fail to see that the PF dominated National Assembly will vote in favour of the declaration of the state of emergency which shall undoubtedly shatter the little vestiges of hope to rebuild the economy which has been ravaged by corruption and bad leadership,” he said.

And Chishimba said it was worrying that the PF and UPND had put the country in a crisis.

“No one with five senses can fail to see that it is the smallness of the politics at the hands of the worrying PF and UPND which has put the nation in the crisis and sustained state of election campaigns that we are in as a nation. These two militia groups as we called them even during the elections with the most violent and corrupt elements, had long declared war against each other,” Chishimba said.
He observed that the bitterness between the two political parties was not healthy for ordinary citizens.

“While the key leaders of the PF and UPND have their livelihood, the ordinary marketeers of Lusaka City Market have become the latest victims of misguided politics, hate speech and bitterness, sabotage and all kinds of imaginations anybody can ever think of. As all these things are happening, no one with five senses can fail to see that the declaration by the PF of Satana tawakatekepo ichalo [devil you will never rule this country] apparently referring to the UPND as a party that will never rule Zambia on one hand and on the other hand, the UPND having declared Armageddon if they lost the elections are the two words of prophetic doom that have come to pass before our very eyes. We were just listening to Parliament today, the PF is talking about what UPND said but the PF is forgetting what they also said. They vowed at all costs that the UPND was not going to raise to power, in other words they wanted to remain in power at all costs,” Saviour said.

Meanwhile, Chishimba said he had information that credible investors had decided to start withdrawing their investment from Zambia on accounts that the proclamation by the President was an early warning sign that Zambia was becoming unsafe.
“Over the past 48 hours, I don’t know about you but for us, we’ve received information filtering through from credible investors who have decided to start withdrawing their investment from Zambia on accounts that the proclamation by the President is early warning sign that our country has become unsafe for more investments. The manner in which the proclamation has been made remains a mystery. The Head of State and government has not the nation on whether or not all the suspects that the police have arrested ever since the suspected acts of sabotage begun belong to terrorist groups or political groupings, we have not been told that here is a list of the names of individuals who have been arrested,” said Chishimba.

Take a listen to the full press conference: