Democratic Party (DP) president Harry Kalaba says cadres under the PF leadership have held the three arms of government hostage.

And Kalaba says it is his hope that when President Edgar Lungu meets with Zesco managing director Victor Mundende, it is not just for wine or whiskey but to discuss ways of making the power utility company viable.

Meanwhile, Kalaba says once he is elected President, married civil servants will not be separated by being posted to different towns.

Speaking at a press briefing in Lusaka, Thursday, Kalaba said cadres had become too powerful.

“Cadres have held all the three arms of government hostage. Today, the Judiciary can no longer perform their jobs without receiving insults and threats of resignation from cadres. The Legislature can no longer and independently make a position in line with the demands of the electorates without threats from cadres. The Executive is equally scared of cadres. Police can no longer perform their functions as cadres have been sanctioned to be above the law. The bus stops and the markets built with government resources are now owned and managed by cadres. We are not going to walk the path of the PF and the UPND. Both the PF and the UPND have destroyed our beloved country. Let us not lose our fundamentals for a K50, for a pack of Shake-Shake or Junta. Ulubuli fiko (fighting is dirty),” Kalaba said.

Kalaba said President Lungu and Mundende must not only be meeting for wine and whiskey.

“Our country is facing the worst energy crisis of all time. The failure by both the Ministry of Energy and Zesco to enhance and diversify energy production is not a reason to blame climate change. I can only hope that when the President meets with the MD for Zesco, they will not just socialize and have wine together or have whiskey together but they will begin looking at how they can diversify and invest and ensure that Zesco becomes viable and that the energy sector is introspected and interrogated thoroughly as opposed to what is obtaining now. The Zesco payroll is full of people that have nothing to do with Zesco. The PF is doing everything possible to prolong their stay in power,” he said.

He also accused the PF of distributing 50,000 blank NRCs in all the provinces perceived as their strongholds in a bid to rig the 2021 elections.

“As a desperate regime, it is, which has nothing to offer you, the PF leadership is resolved to rigging the 2021 including through distribution of 50, 000 blank National Registration Cards (NRCs) in each province they consider their stronghold. And they are distributing 10, 000 blank NRCs in provinces where the opposition are considered strong. As we speak today, there is mobile registration going on in Luapula, Muchinga, Coppebelt, Northern Province and parts of Central Province because according to the PF, those are their strongholds. And when you go to the National Registration office and you ask who is paying monies for those people, they don’t know who is paying because they have not been funded, but mobile registration is going on. So they are doing that to perpetuate their stay in power,” Kalaba charged.

Meanwhile, Kalaba promised to put an end to deployment of married civil servants to different provinces.

“If there are people who are suffering in this country, it is the teachers. The government doesn’t feel for the teachers. The other day I was in Mazabuka and I was saying look at the way the teachers have been separated, there are very few families today as we speak where you find that the teachers are together. More often than not you find that the husband is working in Chinsali and the wife is in Kitwe. You find that the wife is a nurse and the husband is a civil servant in agriculture. The husband is in Lusaka and the wife who is a nurse is in Mulilansolo in Shiwang’andu. When we come to power as government, we have said we are doing to stop this nonsense of separating couples not only in the education sector but in all the sectors,” said Kalaba.