FORMER Tourism Minister Ronald Chitotela has assured that the PF will not be malicious when offering checks and balances but will definitely hold the UPND government accountable.

But UPND Alliance partner Josephs Akafumba has wondered why Chitotela wants to hold the UPND government accountable when he failed to do that for the PF administration.

In an interview, Chitotela said as an opposition party, PF would remind the ruling party to fulfill the promises they made to the people.

“We are in opposition, we shall represent the Zambian people to remind our friends in the ruling party to fulfill the promises they made to the Zambian people. We wish them success, we promise not to be malicious but we shall remind them of their commitment. We promise our brother the Republican President, Hakainde Hichilema and his government that we will not be malicious. But we shall hold them to account. A lot of parents are saying they are sending their children to school for free and they expect our brother Bally to fix it,” Chitotela said.

“We shall remind the UPND of their promises. We will remind them about reducing the price of mealie-meal to K50, the farmers are waiting for their promises to be fulfilled where they will start buying maize at K150. We are waiting for the dollar to appreciate below K10. We are waiting for the reduction of the fuel to K5. We are waiting for the free education implementation for all.”

And Chitotela said he would comment on PF’s loss in the last elections once a post-mortem report was rendered.

“As you remember, our vice-president (Given Lubinda) did issue a statement that we have constituted a post mortem committee. Until the report is rendered, a comment would be premature. Any comment relating to how elections were conducted, it will be informed by the report. Then after we shall tell the nation what happened,” said Chitotela.

But in a separate interview, Akafumba said Chitotela should be the last person to want to hold the UPND government accountable, arguing that PF was a criminal gang.

“It is extremely too soon but one thing he must be assured of is that let him watch the space. Unlike the PF who used power to empower themselves, we are going to use power to empower people. We are going to do what the PF failed to do. PF at every point of industrialization, they put in middlemen so that they can reap money. It is possible to put fuel at half price, there were a lot of financial linkages along the way which we are going to seal. Chitolela knows that a lot of them came into government with slippers and now they are going out with helicopters. He must be the last person to say he wants to hold this government accountable. Why did he fail to hold PF accountable? PF under (Edgar) Lungu was simply a criminal gang who wrecked this country,” said Akafumba.

“The UPND Alliance are men and women who have dedicated themselves to make a difference. All the promises we have made, we are going to do them. For example, we have to ensure that the price of fertilizer is affordable to reduce the price of mealie-meal. We are able to sell fertilizer at K250 rather than the K850 they were selling at. We will shame them, we mean well for the people. Wasn’t it shameful to the PF that we had graduates going to vote dressed in graduation gowns? Let Chitotela wait and judge us from the next 100 days and he will see changes. He can see from the word go that all the cadres have been chased from the markets and bus stations which they failed to do.”