Governance Activist Brebner Changala has charged that the Patriotic Front has become too arrogant after looting the country’s Treasury to a point where the party now has more money than government.

And Changala says President Edgar Lungu is the only Head of State in the SADC region who has no time to think and plan about his own country’s failing economy but has got all the time to gallivant around the country and dance at every by-election he smells.

In an interview with News Diggers, Changala said Zambia had reached a stage where the government was borrowing money from PF which had cash readily available for whatever it wanted, including sending cadres to beat up protesting government workers who haven’t been paid.

“I know what is going on, when people’s mandate has waned, they use all sorts of tricks, manners and insolence, thinking that is a way out of a serious challenge as we face it today. I call upon the people of Zambia to keep the President of the Republic of Zambia in check and rise and protect their absolute rights as citizens…PF at the moment is behaving as if it has more money than the Treasury, the Treasury which they are looting day in, day out,” Changala alleged. “We have reached a stage where the government can now borrow money from PF as a party. They have cash readily available for whatever they want to do, including sending cadres to go and beat up those who are protesting for not being paid for six months. That is the break down in the rule of law…”

He accused President Lungu of becoming the ringleader of lawlessness in the country.

“We are living in very strange times where victims have become offenders of the powers that be. I am sending a word of caution and in the same manner warning to the President, he will not run this country through unmitigated threats. First and foremost, he has abused the Treasury and the abuse of the treasury has got consequences. Many workers in this country are going without a pay after their toil and when they ask that they must be paid, he must listen to them and mitigate their suffering. He will do better to sober up and help the situation other than resorting to threats,” Changala advised. “The University of Zambia lecturers and Copperbelt University lecturers have got a genuine case, they have rendered a service to these institutions and through the institutions to the Republic of Zambia. Now when they speak so that they are attended to, he must not respond in a manner that borders on arrogance. The University of Zambia lecturers and those on the Copperbelt have a genuine case, all they need is a listening government, a listening President. A President with enough time to attend to national challenges, not to abuse those people who are in distress and need care.”

Meanwhile, Changala said President Lungu had no time to address issues affecting the country’s economy because he was only interested in dancing at campaign rallies.

“I want to be as polite as possible to the Head of State but I am failing to find suitable words. Our Republican President is being unreasonable in many areas. Can he pay those people so that everything comes to rest? He must not threaten anybody, it is not his duty to use State powers to threaten those with genuine cries, genuine needs. And I appeal to the Head of State to understand that he is the President who should oversee the many challenges that our country is facing and one of them is the failing economy. He has never had time to address the people of Zambia on the State of the economy but he has been gallivanting all over the show and dancing everywhere he smells a by-election,” said Changala.

“Times to dance are gone, this is a time to think and plan and see how to salvage this failing economy. He is the only President in SADC who has no time to address issues with the people that he claims to govern. I must tell him that his time is running out and running out very fast. Those threats will not save him, neither those crowds of PF will come to his aid. He must be humble. The same humbleness that he portrayed when he wanted to grasp power from the people of Zambia, he must exhibit that humbleness, not the arrogance and insolence that we are witnessing.”