PF media director Sunday Chanda says UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema should unveil his 2022 budget so that people can criticise it and determine whether he has the capacity to run government.

During a radio program on Byta FM, Tuesday, Hichilema said he was so ready to rule that he had already already crafted the 2022 budget.

But in an interview, Wednesday, Chanda said Hichilema had been singing the same song since 2006.

“I think the starting point is that Mr Hichilema enjoys living a lie. He loves massaging his own ego and he is within his rights to do so but you remember that this is someone who has said that he is ready to govern since 2006. So when he repeats the same call in 2020, 14 years later, this is the call that he makes, for 14 years he has been making this very call. This is not something that comes as a surprise to the Patriotic Front, for a fact we expect him to say this. He is that predictable. So, this is a song that he has sang and so it’s just monotonous and I don’t know who is believing him. And I don’t know who wants to believe that 14 years later now that he is ready. This is a man who has stood for five elections and he has lost,” Chanda said.

“Mr Hichilema said he was ready when he stood against President Levy Mwanawasa, he said he was ready when he stood against Rupiah Banda, he said he was ready in 2011, he said he was ready in 2015, he said he was ready in 2016 and he keeps telling us that he is ready for 2021. So that is not something that would sell. We even wonder why such a statement from Mr Hichilema would even warrant a headline in a distinguished and prominent newspaper like the News Diggers because that is a common song that Mr Hichilema has sang. Secondly, Mr Hichilema and the UPND do not have the capacity and we say this without any malice. They don’t have the capacity to develop any budget. The UPND of late Anderson Mazoka had the capacity to making and unveiling alternative budget with policies and competing substantively with the Mwanawasa regime that was sort of leadership that Anderson Mazoka provided.”

He insisted that Hichilema had proved that he had no capacity to run government.

“This is 2020, Mr Hichilema would want Zambians to believe that he has in place what he calls as the 2022 budget. We challenge him to make that budget available for the Zambia people to critic. We know that he has never had any experience in public office, we know that he has never offered any alternative budget and how does he expect Zambians to trust something they have not seen? So, for once we want to challenge him to unveil that budget to the general public. Let members of the public critic that budget and I think we would welcome and we challenge him to do that because its only by so doing that Zambians will understand whether Mr Hichilema has capacity to run government. Because for 14 years he has been in opposition he has never unveiled any budgets,” Chanda said.