Lungu will win by 65% in 2021 – Chitotela

Housing and Infrastructure Minister Ronald Chitotela following dabate in parliament on September 26, 2017 - Picture by Tenson Mkhala

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Housing and Infrastructure Minister Ronald Chitotela says President Edgar Lungu will win by 65 per cent in 2021.

And Chitotela says government will continue borrowing for developmental projects so that the opposition can have nothing to talk about.

Speaking when he delivered a K75,000 cheque to Rufunsa youths Sunday evening, Chitotela, who is also national PF youth vice-chairperson, said contrary to public perception, the PF was growing stronger and the Head of State would win by 65 per cent in 2021.

“Now ba PF, let me tell you, these elections in 2021, ba Lungu bakakwata 65 per cent,” Chitotela said.

“Balechita ati nga bapita, bambi balelanda ati Luapula yaliya, naleseka sana. If it went, it went to PF. Even in Eastern Province you have seen what is happening…so don’t worry, if it is in Lusaka, don’t even talk about it. I want to assure you the people of Rufunsa that we are together, we want in 2021 to produce a member of parliament here, to have all the 10 councillors in Rufunsa plus a mayor. We will do everything possible to make sure that is done. I am the minister in charge of development.”

He asked party officials to manage their ambitions.

“I want to assure you, it is time to work hard and persevere. Ambitions, all of us, 90 per cent of us want to be councillors and the way life is, you become a councillor, you are not satisfied, you want to become a DC, you become a DC, you want to be the MP. You become MP, you want to be a minister, you become a minister, you are not satisfied, you want to become the president. Why? We must be taking one day at a time, we must be satisfied with that which we have and we must work hard to protect the interest of the party. Leadership must be service above self. We must be there to work for the people of Zambia,” Chitotela said.

And Chitotela said the opposition was discouraging government from borrowing so that they could criticize PF leaders for failing to deliver projects.

“You can see the difference between us and them, you are seeing the development today. If PF is stealing, where are we getting the money to implement development? They want to scare us from borrowing so that if we don’t borrow, we fail to develop and they say we stole the money. So we will borrow so that we take the country forward so that they have nothing to tell the people,” he said.

“They want that when they talk, we answer them so that we can mess up but we are very clever and when they talk, we will just pretend that we didn’t listen and in the morning they will say ‘aah, bafikamba aba’.”

He also insisted that those accusing government of corruption should provide evidence.

“There are some people who when they build houses, they are hard working but when their friend builds, they are a thieves. They are the only ones who can work hard, others can’t work hard so it is up to you to question their morality. And I want to assure you that ours is to work for the Zambian people. We will not be disgruntled by some elements because we know their intentions because they have nothing to offer the Zambian people. Others we were with them and they were defending government saying ‘you cannot throw a stone if it falls, it will at least fall on some of the developmental projects being implemented by PF’. So they know they can’t go to the people and say ‘PF is not working’ so the only thing is let’s distract them because they know Zambian people hate criminals and those who steal. But if someone has stolen, you need to say ‘this is what they have stolen’,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chitotela asked the youth to utilize the resources allocated to them prudently.

“We had one of the most successful fundraising and we sat down and said ‘what will this money do to us at the national level to use? Let us spread it across all the wards. Let’s show people how to catch the fish and not to give them the fish. This is not money for you to share but money for you to put to good use. I heard you saying that even the women need empowerment but what will motivate us to raise more money is how you are going to utilise this money. If you squander, you will discourage us from further investing,” said Chitotela.