PATRIOTIC Front secretary general Davies Mwila yesterday led party members into donating over K300,000 at St Pius Catholic Church in Chililabombwe.

And Mwila says once the Vedanta case is disposed of, miners will receive their benefits.

Speaking when he attended mass at St Pius, Sunday, Mwila donated K100,000 cash.

“On behalf of the party, with the powers that I have been given by the party and the President the following are the contributions we are going to make, as the party we will contribute cash of K100,000. Because of the progress that we have seen and powers given by the President, tomorrow I will send another 50,000 from the party. The last contribution, individually now I will send you another K50,000,” Mwila said.

Meanwhile, Chililabombwe District Commission Roy Ngosa donated K4,000. Copperbelt Provincial chairman who is also the mayor Nathan Chanda contributed a 20,000 cheque. Aspiring mayoral candidate Trudy Ng’ambi donated K3,000.

Mines Minister Richard Musukwa also donated 500 pockets of cement worth K70,000, pledged to buy a bus and further donated K10,000 cash.

The District Chairman donated K5,000 while Lydia Mpempo a former deputy mayor in Chililabombwe donated K700.

The Deputy mayor of Chililabombwe Gift Musukwa contributed K5,000, while Kangwa Nsofwa donated a K3,000. Another PF member Joyce Kapundwe contributed K1,000.

Mwila bragged that he moved with an entourage making it easy for them to donate huge sums of money.

“Ba father you will forgive me I am the CEO of the party that is why I don’t move alone. Njenda ne gundi echo ne ndalama shifulila kaili nga naeba ubikepo takane (I move with an entourage that is why we give out so much money) And I’m the number three in the party. President Edgar Lungu, mama Inonge Wina then myself so I have the powers,” he said.

Mwila said the government would continue working with the church to improve the lives of citizens.

“As a party in government we will always join hands with the church and work closely together with our quest to make the lives of our people better. In fulfilling this commitment, we have been mobilising resources individually and collectively and making donations to various churches to assist wherever we have been called upon. We are here not only to celebrate the mass with you but also to make a contribution at the completion of the school that you are building. Let us learn to love one another when you love, you freely give. Without love you cannot give. Without love, you cannot sacrifice to others. I would like each of us to give from the abundance of our blessings, let us all reach out and make sure that we contribute something towards the completion of the school building,” Mwila said.

“I have noticed that as a parish you are building a three storey school. We in the PF believe that education is not a privilege for a selected few, rather we believe that education is a basic human right for all. It is for this reason that the PF government under the leadership of His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has invested a lot in making access to quality education affordable for all. The PF government has built more schools, more colleges and more universities. Moreover, before we were in power, there were two government universities CBU and UNZA. Now we have Palabana, in Chinsali we have two, we have Mulungushi, there are now a lot of universities. The PF government has significantly reduced school feels and increased the number of beneficiaries of student loans and government scholarship. I wish to commend the Catholic Church for its effort in supplementing the government’s efforts in the provision of education in Zambia. The Catholic church is playing a major role in assisting ordinary citizens especially those coming from disadvantaged families mostly in rural parts of our country to access quality education at the many Catholic schools dotted around our country.”

And Speaking when he met party members in Chililabombwe, Mwila emphasised that Vedanta was not coming back to run the mines.

“Ine nga ndeakanya shipela umuntu ndeba ati iwe K200 wemwine waikatila. Nama benefits tulefwaya abene bakaikatile abene, bakailile abene. On that one, natupanga decision tatulebwelela kunuma. But miners be patient we are working on that issue ba minister wenu the Minister of Mines is very much aware, Vedanta took the matter to court once ng aba chita dispose of, we have to pay the workers. Bena, pantu twali beba ati Vedanta tale bwela, elo twabeba ati tulelipila ama benefits kanshi nachibapesha amano ba UPND. Kaili bena baleba ati Vedanta abwele ifwe twaeba ati awe teti alechuchunganya abantu besu muchalo ichili chesu. Awe kuyabebele. (We want miners to have their benefits so that they enjoyed it themselves. We have made a decision we are not going back. Vedanta took the matter to court, once it is disposed off, we have to pay the workers. When we told the people that Vedanta is not coming back and told them we will pay the miners, UPND got confused. They wanted Vedanta to come but we said no. They can’t be making our people suffer in our own country),” said Mwila.