Choma UPND member of parliament Cornelius Mweetwa says government’s intentions to sale Jacaranda school in Lusaka should not surprise Zambians because such decisions has been in waiting for a long time.
And Mweetwa has called on Lusaka residents to vote for UPND in the June 5th, Chilanga Parliamentary by-elections and Mayoral elections, as a way of sending out a signal to the PF government that citizens were not pleased with its governance.
Mweetwa explained to News Diggers in an interview that Zambians needed to maintain a vigilant eye on State House and the PF government in general, saying PF leaders had demonstrated their inability to run the country.
“It is not shocking to hear that government has intentions to sale Jacaranda school. What is happening should not shock many people because these are the things that citizens should have expected a long time ago. We were telling the citizens that you cannot vote for a party that professes no vision for the country. Where can they take the country? If you do a close analysis of our colleagues in the PF, you get to a very safe conclusion that this is a group of people, with the majority without a clear idea of where to take this country. These are people who are just in government accidentally, not by design or what should be done for the people but just because, using the power of incumbency in 2016, relying on political violence, electoral malpractices and denying the opposition an opportunity to sale themselves to the public, they somehow found themselves back into office,” Mweetwa explained.
“It’s a tragedy, we are now talking of Jacaranda and other four properties that are going side by side with Jacaranda school. We are talking about Kamwala Prison, we are talking of NRDC… what next? I think the people of Zambia must be very careful because next time we may be told that State House or part of State House grounds have also been auctioned, they may tell us that ‘the grounds are too big and we can’t have State House so big with just animals grazing when we need development’, so they’ve given it to Chinese. There is a possibility, so we need to maintain a vigilant eye on State House. On a very serious note, these are worrying signals to the people of Zambia because we have seen that most of these properties or land that is being auctioned is going into foreign hands,” Mweetwa said.
He regretted that Edgar Lungu- led PF had abandoned party founding President, Michael Sata’s vision.
“These are the exact things that PF under Mr Sata as an opposition leader fought against. But PF has now become the flagship carrier of taking away land from Zambians into the hands of foreigners. We need to put this to a stop because if not, the future generation, not too long from now, could become foreigners in their own country. They will just be Zambians by name but will have no land which will be called their heritage. So this is very wrong and it’s worrying.”
Meanwhile, Mweetwa called on Chilanga residents to vote for UPND in the upcoming local government by-elections so that it could give a signal to PF that people were unhappy with the way the country was being run.
“The people of Chilanga are being requested by the whole country to take a lead role in providing a signal to the PF that the governance trajectory that they have put the country on is a wrong one. You cannot have a situation where you go on rampant debt acquisition. And Zambia is rapidly sliding into a situation where now you can no longer borrow because your debt stock is becoming worrisome for debtors. So you now look around for what you can auction and sale. Now where is this country going because this is a very worrying signal and ahead of 2021, when the euro bond begins to yield, I don’t know what will be left for Zambians. So I really think that the people of Chilanga should give a signal to PF on Tuesday to say ‘no we are not happy with the way you are governing’,” said Mweetwa.
“Also the people of Lusaka, very soon will be called into action. For me, Chialanga and Lusaka is an examination. This is a litmus test for the people of Lusaka as to how they view leadership, and if people continue to vote for PF, then PF will continue to use that as a test result that they are still popular even when we know that there has been a lot of violence and vote buying. But we are happy that in Chilanga so far, it is relative and we do hope that the people of Chilanga will be given an opportunity to go and cast their vote in peace. The people of Chilanga must give a signal so that the rest of the nation can know how to treat PF in 2021.”