Patriotic Front deputy media director Antonio Mwanza says New Labour Party leader Fresher Siwale and his counter party of the All Peoples’ Congress Party Nason Msoni are frustrated because President Edgar Lungu has denied them jobs.

And Mwanza has charged that PF Bahati Member of Parliament and former foreign affairs minister Harry Kalaba has no impetus to resign from the PF, despite branding it corrupt because he has no morals.

Speaking when he featured on UNZA Radio’s Lusaka Star programme, Thursday, Mwanza said Msoni campaign for President Lungu in 2015 because he wanted a government job, but added that the President left them out because he would only employ qualified people.

“It makes sad reading to know that we have such people who claim to be leaders of the opposition political parties engaging themselves in such trivialities. We however understand that these gentlemen are running what Mr Sata would refer to as ‘Nashala neka party’ where you have no vice president, you have no secretary general, you have no secretariat, it is just a nashala neka party, so we understand that they are looking for political relevance. The motive of these gentlemen of claiming that president Lungu is not a Zambian is that they are trying to steer xenophobic sentiments in the people of Zambia, that the people should hate their president. This is the opposition that thrives on bitterness and hatred,” Mwanza said.

“Because first of all they know that President Lungu is a Zambian, they know that the mother and the father are from Petauke in cheif Kalindawalo and comes from Mukwama and Simambumbu villages, they understand these things, for instance for Mr Msoni who campaigned for the president in 2015 and 2016. So the other reason is that these people are bitter because they were not given jobs. But the constitution is very clear that the president should only employ people who are qualified not because they campaigned for him or because they know him. So ii nkani ya President Lungu’s nationality ni nkani yamukachasu, it’s been driven by people who have no direction and should be ignored.”

And Mwanza challenged Kalaba to resign from the ruling party for branding it corrupt.

“It is very important that Honourable Kalaba speaks the truth because leadership requires that all of us must speak the truth, the truth of the matter is that it’s the fire tenders purchased by government that quenched the fire, It was not Harry Kalaba who quenched the fire using a bucket. Secondly, the issue of the price of the fire tender is the issue that has been debated including in Parliament and that issue has been resolved, the minister in charge of Local Government Honourable Vincent Mwale gave a comprehensive ministerial statement and members of the house and members of Parliament did debate that issue, so this is water under the bridge. If there were any issues, it was up to Parliament to find corruption with regards to the purchase of the fire tenders,” he said.

“But I also find it very strange for Honourable Harry Kalaba that he is still a member of the PF and he served as a senior cabinet minister for a very long period of time. So for him to be speaking ill of the PF, the party that he served for a long period of time, the party that he is still clinging on to, is totally immoral! If the PF is this bad, why is Mr Kalaba still clinging on to the PF, why doesn’t he resign so that he can go to the Party that he thinks is morally upright since he says the PF is immoral and corrupt? It doesn’t make sense and actually the People of Zambia are not daft. So we want to challenge Honourable Kalaba to leave the PF, to resign from the PF if he says that it is immoral and corrupt. Why wailimbikila PF if you think it’s corrupt, if he is a clean man, what is he still doing in a corrupt party? That’s conflicting and it shows that he does not have the moral impetus to talk about morality or corruption.”

Mwanza also stated that there was no democracy in the UPND as party president Hakainde Hichilema had continued leading the party for a long time

“I have problems debate with the UPND because first of all UPND does not believe in democracy and this is why Hakainde Hichilema has been president from the time that my son Romeo was in grade three and now is in grade eleven at Munali Boys and they have never gone to the convention. So as a political party they don’t believe in democracy, they believe in wamuyayaya and Mr. Hakainde Hichilema is untouchable, it’s like a cult,” said Mwanza.