PF media director Sunday Chanda says the opposition UPND still looks forward to a day when the presidential election case would be heard and Hakainde Hichilema would be inaugurated as President of Zambia.

Speaking when he featured on Joy FM’s the Platform programme, Chanda said the narrative of President Edgar Lungu being a dictator was being circulated by the UPND.

“Zambians know what a dictatorship looks like. What is dictatorial about Preisdent Lungu? Because if you tell President Lungu to interfere in a matter that is live before the courts of law and he tells you ‘I don’t have that kind of power under the constitution’ you say no this man is a dictator but when did enforcement of the law amount to dictatorship and what is it that the President has done outside his mandate that qualifies him to fit into this dictatorial narrative that people have been circulating?” wondered Chanda.

“You and I know that this agenda of Zambia sliding into a dictatorship locally is being circulated by UPND because in their wisdom, a day is coming when their leader is going to be inaugurated as President of this country. They believe a day is coming when an election petition is going to be heard in the courts of this country, But I said before and let me repeat it that this country has got laws, we are a nation of laws and not men.”

He urged the UPND to forget about the 2016 general elections and focus on 2021.

“If the UPND is thinking of any election, let them focus on 2021. This whole idea of causing anarchy and giving Zambia a bad narrative so as to increase someone’s political fortune is not going to work and we are not going to give in to sponsored pressure that is funded by people who we know are actually enemies of the Zambian people and are only interested in wanting to come and control our mineral rights,” he said.

And Chanda regretted that the announced maize floor price was devastating to farmers.

“On the question of the maize price which I think has become a matter of concern and a bit unsettling to our farmers, let me digest it a bit because this is very important. We would want to place on record that as the Head of State had stated, it is not the desire of the PF to politicise this particular matter but today, the Zambia National farmers Union (ZNFU) has urged farmers country wide to hold on to their maize until it has had a meeting with FRA. Of course there have been reports of farmers being exploited by private traders who are buying maize at as low as K35 per 50kg bag, this is so disturbing and we condemn these malpractices by private traders exploiting our farmers,” said Chanda.

“We look forward to the outcome of the meeting between ZNFU and FRA on this particular matter of price. Our farmers across the country can be assured that they have a listening government committed to protect and safeguard the welfare of small scale farmers and we look forward to what will come out of this meeting and the interest of the Patriotic Front is to see a win win situation where the farmer is not disadvantaged in any way.”