United Party for National Development (UPND) deputy spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa says President Edgar Lungu last Friday gave the most hypocritical to Parliament in the history of Zambia.

In an interview Mweetwa who is also Choma Member of Parliament, said the speech was not in tandem with what was happening on the ground.

“It appeared very much to be a speech which is completely opposite to what the President and his government are doing. Because when you talk about democracy, the tenets of democracy, when you talk about good governance, the rule of law, when you talk about treating each citizen as equals, this is completely different with what is happening. When you see people being fired, when you see people being retired in National interest, they are viewed to be associated with the opposition UPND. Young people who have been trained at a great cost by the taxpayers are viewed to be connected to the UPND, are being retired in National interest,” Mweetwa observed.

“Then you come to this House, to give a very romantic speech in order to mislead the nation and mislead those who are not following issues, mislead the international community that all is well in Zambia, its not fair. We think that actions speak louder than words and therefore if President Lungu is desirous that his speech should be taken serious we demand that before he comes to this house, his leadership should exemplify what he comes to talk about. Not coming here to give a good speech but, on the ground doing totally different things, very discriminatory.”

He said the PF was a very vindictive and insecure political party.

“Look at even us to hold a rally, we have to go and confront the minister, for the minister to instruct police to say leave these people to go ahead. So these values that he (President Lungu) was talking about of morality, equality, good governance, we want to see that corruptions begins to go down. When he talks about corruption, he says that you come and show me how to improve the fight against corruption, it means he does not understand why he is there. He is there and has the government state machinery to help him. There are institutions. All we are saying is that let him stop interfering in the fight against corruption and let those in his government who are corrupt stop corruption. It doesn’t need anybody to go to State House and tell him how to improve the fight. They themselves must lead by example,” said Mweetwa.

“I’m not saying that this speech should not be taken seriously what I’m saying is that this speech does not run in tandem with what is happening on the ground. What is happening on the ground is completely opposed to what the President is saying. The speech, if you just follow the speech, you will think all is well. But on the ground, there is too much discrimination, there is too much victimisation of citizens for being perceived to be associated with the UPND and so on and so forth. And so, we are not happy, we think that this is one of the most hypocritical speeches ever given on the floor of this House. So, there is nothing to smile about this speech.”