People’s Alliance for Change president Andyford Banda says the Patriotic Front has dug such a deep hole for themselves which it is impossible to crawl out of within the next three years.

And Banda says it is disheartening that 32,000 citizens can compete for 200 prison warden jobs as it signifies a crisis.

Speaking on Millenium Radio’s The Interview, Monday, Banda observed that the PF was doing everything possible to hoodwink Zambians into believing that everything was okay.

“The hole that the PF has dug themselves into is so deep that three years is too short for them to get themselves out of that [debt] hole. For them to get out of that hole, they have to do something radical, they have to listen and call stakeholders on the table…The Chilanga by-election should be a wake up call for the PF, they won it yes but let them not cheat themselves that ‘we are popular’, what popularity? We will see. The hole they have dug for themselves, three years is not enough to crawl out of it,” Banda said.

“There are some things you cannot hide, just like pregnancy. You can try to do certain things to tell people that you are still popular and that you are here to stay but realistically, as long as there is damage being done under ground, if people don’t have jobs, businesses are going down, people are going hungry, the cost of living is high…in as much as you may try to hide and depict a picture that everything is fine, as long as that is not reality, you are just wasting your time.”

And Banda said having 32,000 candidates compete for 200 jobs indicates that Zambia is in a crisis.

“Today (Monday) if you look at the headline in the Times of Zambia, and this is a government newspaper, 32,000 people applied to work as wardens at Zambia Correctional Services; 32,000 against 200 vacancies. This is a clear indication that we are in a crisis, there is no other indication. and these are people that are not teachers, accountants, nurses or any other professions. I am sure these are people who have just basic qualifications. So what about those that are qualified and they do not have a chance to get a job? So it tells you that there is a problem. We need to provide solutions to such things, that’s when people are going to say ‘this political party, the People’s Alliance for Change has a plan for me in their manifesto’. It will give someone a reason to stand up and vote,” he said.

He asked Zambians to show PF a strong signal in the upcoming mayoral elections.

“People need to understand that the corruption that is happening in this country, the lack of priorities in government is what is making it possible for them to have jobs, for them to ensure that they have got trading places and to have issues like cholera. The Zambian people need to think deeply, stand up and vote in the mayoral elections in order to indicate, to demonstrate and give a signal that now is time for an alternative…I know that the PF are very happy that they won in Chilanga and they don’t see anything wrong. That makes us happy actually because it shows that they are complacent, they are in denial so it is okay, let them remain in denial. The PF have got short memories, trust me. The MMD machinery was so huge in the 2011 elections but the PF won by about 300,000 votes, that was not a joke, it was a landslide. We are not scared about the machinery because you cannot stop time and the only thing that is constant is change,” said Banda.