President Edgar Lungu says the UPND will never rule Zambia because the opposition party does not listen to what the people want.

And President Lungu has vowed that he will retain power in 2021 and rule the country until 2026 because the people of Zambia want a peaceful leader like him.

Speaking at a public rally in Chilanga where he went to drum up support for district council chairperson candidate Annie Patricia Brown in Namalombwe ward, Monday, President Lungu took a swipe at UPND, saying it would never form government.

“Ababambi kuwayawayafye necifukushi panthu ngamwalolesha uko bafuma, ifwe twali mu opposition for 10 years, twaya mu State House. Seven years later icalo cacinja. Bena kale bapangile party yabo ai? Yakwata imyaka inga? 20 years. Kwena nangu chakweba ati tawenda, baleishiba abantu ati takende uyu umwana tiyeni tumutwale ku hospital. Panthu umwana nga afyalwa, afwile ayamba ukutanfula bwangu bwangu. Aiminina, kwashala ukwenda. Tabakateke! (Some people are useless and bitter and you tell by looking at where they are coming from. For us, when you look at where we are coming from, we were in the opposition for 10 years and after that we went into State House, seven years later, the country has been transformed. But the UPND formed their party 20 years ago, but they are not progressing. Now if a child can’t start walking, people can tell that this child will never walk, they can even say he needs to be taken to the hospital because when a child is born, they have to start learning how to walk and within a short time, they start walking. They [UPND] will never rule!),” President Lungu said.

“Echo tabakatekele, tabonfwa efyo abanthu balanda (They will never rule because they don’t listen to what their members are saying). Someone says go and wash your face, you have mucus dripping from your nose but they say ‘no, I am just okay’, people will start shunning you. A party needs to listen to its members.”

He insisted that the UPND needed a change of leadership.

“Nalilanda ilya day ati democracy tekuipatikisha but iwe ati komafye ninebo, komafye ninebo, mwampatafye ine pantu ndi mutundu umbi. Tefyo chaba (I said it that day that in a democracy, you don’t force anything but for you, you keep insisting that it just has to be you and you accuse people of hating you because you come from a certain tribe, that’s not how it is). For us when Mr Sata died, we sat down and agreed on who to put there and they picked me and even me when the time comes, I will go and we will put someone else. Not whereby when people say its time to go, you accuse them of hating you,” President Lungu said.

He invited UPND members to join the ruling party.

“So for you who are there, just come and join us so that we can take this country forward. It’s not having hate for someone, no. But if you are in grade seven and you keep failing five times, it’s just to tell you that time is up, we need to find younger ones who also need education. So PF is your party, there is a difference between democracy and dictatorship. In a democracy, you choose for yourselves and you say what you want. There is enough room in PF for all of you. Just come and join us,” he said.

And President Lungu charged that the UPND planed to force a government of national unity by inciting violence

“After the election in 2016 balitampile ukulauma abanthu. Ku Namwala, Ithezhi-tezhi, they began beating people deliberately. Intention yabo yali yakweba ati balete kafwafwa muchalo, elo abakunse abanabo sana balande ati ikaleni panshi mulandishanye. Fyalichitikepo kuchalo chimbi ku west Africa na ku east Africa. Abanthu ba vota bwino bwino fye, ati awe tatusumine nokutampa ukulalwa. Out of the fighting, elo bayamba ukulauma abanthu. Elo balanda ati ikaleni panshi mulande, uyuwine uyu ni vice-president. Efyo balefwaya, nalikana ine. Twalibakanga, twalibapesha (After the 2016 election, they started beating people. In Namwala, Ithezhi-tezhi, they began beating people deliberately. Their intention was to cause havoc in the country so that their friends from the international community could advise us to sit down and talk. It happened in west Africa and in east Africa, people voted just okay but others disputed the results and started causing violence. Then they were advised to sit down and discuss and that the other person would become vice-president; that’s what they wanted and I refused. We stood firm against that). Their intention was to form part of government of [national] unity through the back door, by bringing havoc in our country. Twalikana. So mulekana by keeping away from violence,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Lungu said he would rule until 2026.

“I hear them saying we will have elections before 2021, those are just lies. We are ruling until 2021 and we will come back again in 2021 until 2026 because we want peace. You cannot say ‘bring the child we share, a child that is not yours…They are writing stories about baseless issues in the newspaper and I say this is useless. What they want is to cause havoc in this country so that people can come ku Commonwealth uku ati tulanshanye. It will not work. We will dialogue about the Constitution yes, we will dialogue about electoral process, we will dialogue about the Public Order Act, that’s all. What else is there? We have a government in place,” said President Lungu.