MANGANGO UPND member of parliament Luhamba Mwene says some PF members of parliament are not supporting the President’s speech to Parliament because they might be implicated in corruption.

Debating the President’s address, Tuesday, Mwene said the Head of State’s speech needed to be supported because he did not back corruption.

“I feel we all need to support the President’s speech. Madam Speaker, the other reason as to why I support the President’s speech is because he talked about fighting corruption. Corruption was so rampant in the PF government. As it is today, we all know that the current President is one that doesn’t support corruption. This issue he actually talked about coming up with the fast track [courts] that is going to deal with the corrupt practices in the past, present and future. And that is one of the reasons as to why some of the members on your left are not able to support this speech because perhaps they might be implicated in one way or the other, we don’t know,” Mwene debated.

“Madam Speaker, when we are talking about corrupt practices that were performed in the previous government, we might not know them all but we know that some of the issues that were happening were not rightful. There are question marks. Most of the people could not understand how some of the matters were happening. For example, my brothers and sisters in Mangango were dealing in timber, Mukula trees. You would find the previous government would impound trucks that were ferrying Mukula trees, after that, the trucks were not seen. Where the money went, we don’t know.”

Mwene further said there was no regional or tribal balancing in the PF cabinet.

“Madam Speaker, when you look at our President’s speech on page 46, he is talking about tribalism, there will be no more tribalism, actually, it has already finished in Zambia. This is attested by even just the formation of his Cabinet. It is comprised of all the members from all the provinces, this is opposite to what our colleagues did, the PF government. Madam Speaker in the PF government, there was no tribal and regional balancing in their Cabinet. The people on your left Madam speaker know very well that they could not balance that but the current President has done that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mwene said President Hakainde Hichilema would come up with mechanisms to create jobs for all youths.

“Our President Madam Speaker, on job creation, the President is going to come up with a mechanism where all the youths will be able to have jobs in Zambia. Madam Speaker, not only that, the President talked about creating a conducive environment for businesses and that is what is needed in Zambia. For a country to develop, it needs businessmen that would be able to invest in the economy and because of that, another portion of jobs will be created for the Zambians. I get surprised, Madam Speaker, that our colleagues that are on your left-hand side, some of them are failing to agree and support the Presidential speech,” said Mwene.

“It is very discouraging to have such kind of people that cannot support a President that is talking about job creation, a President that is talking about businesses in Zambia, then what do they represent? If there are people in their constituencies crying for jobs like the people in Mangango who need businesses, then somebody is coming here and opposing the Presidential speech on such grounds. Madam Speaker, it gives us a great doubt of such representation. Madam Speaker, the President talked about infrastructure development in Zambia and that is what we need in Mangango as well.”