UPND Alliance chairperson Charles Milupi says PF was not ready to be in the opposition and they will have difficulties finding their feet in that capacity.

Commenting on remarks by PF vice-president Given Lubinda that President Hakainde Hichilema was not ready to form government and was only ready to petition the election results, Milupi said the PF were the ones who were shocked to be in the opposition.

“What is happening is that Mr Lubinda, Mr Lungu and all the other people were not ready for opposition. Because they were so sure that they were rigging, they were cheating, they were buying people, they were stopping the opposition from a level playing field, all these anti-democratic things that they unleashed, they were very sure that they were going to work and they were going to continue in government. So, they are the ones who are shocked that they are no longer in government and therefore finding their feet in opposition is going to be a problem because they were not ready for that. They don’t even know what it is that they are even supposed to oppose,” Milupi, who is also newly-appointed Minister of Infrastructure, said.

“You see, he was Minister of Justice under Mr Lungu so we expect him to be credible in whatever he is saying. Let him look at the law, let him look at the constitution which they passed under Mr Lungu. Let him look at the transition act and inauguration act and all those things. To obey the law, you actually need a transition of 14 days or so. It is a legal requirement, what President HH is doing is obeying the law. Today we are coming to the end of that 14-day period.”

And Milupi said PF would die quicker than UNIP and MMD.

“Mr Lubinda is attempting to be PF, we wish him all the best, we know that it is a boat that has already sunk. It is not like UNIP, not even like MMD. When UNIP sunk it was the question of policies not working and so on, when MMD sunk it was one or two specific people, specific families being accused of corrupt activities. PF is different, it is the whole shoot, whether it is a cadre, president, vice president, ministers, cabinet, it is everybody who is now walking afraid of what is going to happen. It will be quicker for PF to die completely compared to UNIP and MMD,” he said.

Meanwhile, Milupi said President Hichilema was already working by stopping cadres from collecting money in bus stations and markets.

“So now the theme song from them is ‘he was not ready to form government’, haven’t they seen what Mr Hakainde is able to do? For example, by stopping cadres from operating in markets, councils are collecting revenues from markets and bus stops. Let them go to Lusaka City Council and see how much revenue they are collecting which in their day was going in PF’s pockets. By the way, we are instructing these councils to work out actually how much revenue they have lost as a result of them having been disabled to operate at bus stations and markets,” said Milupi.

“Let them work out especially under the seven-year period of Mr Lungu [so that] they present a bill to PF so that they can pay that money back with interest. That is the money that should have been in the coffers of the councils. They don’t have to be instructed by the UPND Alliance to do that, it is their right. If someone has deprived them of revenue they should go and collect it.”