NEW Heritage Party president Chishala Kateka says it’s utopia to think that opposition political parties in the country will come together for a common cause because people form political parties for various reasons.

Speaking when she featured on Capital FMs the Big Issue program, Kateka said that making alliances on the basis of removing the PF won’t work which is why cracks are being seen in some alliances.

“The moment you start to make alliances that are not based on a common goal, and if you think that the common goal is to remove the PF, you won’t have that glue to hold you together because the moment that reason that you think is there is removed, you will crack and that’s what you are seeing. The main reasons alliances do not work is that this common ground is not there, and that glue melts. The damage done to those parties who are in the alliance is enormous because resources, time, effort has been lost. Even the public looking at you, they begin to judge you, they begin to look at you in a certain way. It’s a marriage right, and even in marriages, when marriages break, people start to look at you different even if it wasn’t your fault,” she said.

“Theoretically, when you are outside the political arena, people really get upset and say why can’t you do this, and it makes sense, that’s the way it should be, that’s the way it ought to be, but that is utopia. In an ideal world, this is what should happen, let me explain. Different people have different motives for forming political parties and I have been observing the political parties because obviously even we wouldn’t mind getting into an alliance. However, you need to look at it, it’s like a marriage, you don’t just marry because there is a man and a woman okay, it doesn’t work like that.”

She added that there are very few people that form political parties to genuinely bring solutions to the country as many are in politics for personal gain.

“So people form parties for different reasons, for some people they do it out of envy of the next chap. If Chanda Mwiko can become president so can I, so nabo bapanga party. Others do it for egotistical reasons, ‘me myself, I have achieved so much, I have made so much money, I can also be president’. Others for opportunistic reasons, ‘you know if I become president then I can do that deal and that deal’, and what I am telling you is the truth. A number are surrogate parties, they are formed by either one or the other of other parties. Others form parties because they can genuinely. They feel, they believe they can genuinely bring solutions to this country, those are few and far between and those are the only ones that you can make an alliance with,” Kateka said.

“Don’t think that people don’t engage in these discussions. I think that to show your hand before you are ready is not a mature thing to do, I think you should come to the public with something. I don’t want to say I am having these discussions, every month I am saying there are these discussions going on, until it’s more concrete. People need to give politicians the benefit of the doubt, it’s not like we are unthinking people it’s just that you have to try and make it work. There must be a commonality of purpose that’s what you are trying to do because there is no point. There are some people, believe me I just need to look at them and I know I can’t work with this person. What’s the point of even engaging in those discussions? But having said that, there are some good people out there, there are some very good Zambians who desire to do the right thing for this country and there is hope for this country.”

And Kateka said she had to have her grade seven, nine and 12 certificates replaced because she did not think she would need them after having advanced in her education.

“I went to Kabulonga School for girls, I mention that because of the form five requirements. It has become so important, I had lost my form five certificate I had to go and get a replacement. I didn’t realise that that document would be so important, I mean once you get other papers after that, you think oh I don’t need this. So I have decided that I must get my grade seven and form three certificates, you never know when they just may need your grade seven certificate. And just to say that I am so impressed with ECZ because they have all the records, I couldn’t believe it,” Kateka said.

Meanwhile, Kateka said Malanji is lucky that he didn’t buy a helicopter under her watch.

“I posted about that helicopter thing in my Facebook page and I said the Honorable minister is really lucky. Look, all things are permissible but not all things are beneficial. Yes you are right you can do this but wisdom dictates that don’t do this because of the times we are living in and I ended by saying the minister is really lucky that he didn’t do it under my watch,” she said.

And Kateka added that government did what it could by offering the K10 billion medium term refinancing facility but wondered whether it was administered in the correct manner.

“I believe that because of the situation we are in, the government offered what they could offer. Now, was it done in the correct manner? The package was offered through the Central Bank and could be accessed through commercial banks. That straight away tells you most of the Zambians could not access that amount. So those that are on the fringes of financial inclusion, were not able to access that fund and just so that you know, that fund has not been exhausted up to date,” said Kateka.

“I think it was important to do something, every responsible government does something when the country is going through issues that we have been going through. There are certain businesses that were more impacted than others, so do you allow them to die, do you allow them to stay alive, etc. So the 10 billion, however, we must ask ourselves the questions, was K10 billion adequate, in the big scheme of things that is called, is a stimulus package if K10 billion, was it adequate, were the terms soft enough in this economically hostile environment because there was not a grant, remember. How many people were able to access this facility, I am just asking. Have we offered more to the business sector as the economy continues to be challenged?”