PF DEPUTY national chairperson Davies Chama says US President Joe Biden was misinformed because PF was not voted out of office due to corruption.

In an interview, Chama said challenges like COVID-19 and droughts cost PF the August elections.

“It is an unfortunate statement by the President who I think was misinformed. The PF government was not removed because of corruption. It does not mean that. In the US itself there has been a lot of change of governments. The republicans win, the democrats win. Is he telling us that whenever there is a change of government when the democrats lose, then the democrats are full of corruption in the United States of America? So unless he is telling us that whenever the democrats lose elections, they lose elections in the United States of America because there is so much corruption. I think that is a narrow way of looking at things in the dynamic of politics. That statement lacks substance, it lacks truth, and it lacks a deep understanding of the Zambian situation and political landscape. I think he was talking from a very uninformed position and it is a very unfortunate statement that was made by the President of United States of America,” he said.

“A lot of people have started regretting because they were saying ‘give us time’. Yes, we are giving them time because we are waiting for the budget which will be approved by the end of the year. By January we will have the UPND budget and that budget must have a lot of issues to do with the free education that they promised. Things that they said are on record and in writing and audio. And people now want to justify that they did not promise and it is very unfortunate. You know politics must be decent and for me anyone who tells a lie or is deceptive, I do not think I can support that kind of a person, not at all. People are regretting and they will continue to regret big time. So if you were to ask me what caused the loss of PF, yes we could have done one or two things that may not be correct in the eyes of the people but we meant well. It is only that we had a number of challenges that were faced with as a nation. COVID-19, droughts are among the issues.”

He also admitted that PF made some mistakes.

“It is not like we did not make mistakes, we made mistakes because we are human. We are not perfect because we are not God. There is no economy that has not been hit by COVID-19 and we were not an exception. But where people start lying to the Zambian people that ‘when I come on the scene I will be a messiah’? Anyway, I do not want to justify our loss. We lost and we want to give them chance to see what they can do but I can promise you, anything that is obtained by deception, nothing will be done to change the situation. I have no confidence that they will change the situation, if anything, everything will be worse off. I can foresee that Zambia will be worse off sooner than later because for us we wanted to improve where Zambian people live so that the benefits of governance can trickle down to the people,” Chama said.

Meanwhile, Chama said most people were deceived by the UPND Alliance, adding that their election victory would not last because it was based on lies.

“Most people were deceived. You know when you do not have a job and someone tells you that I am going to give you a job and he lies to you but because you are desperately looking for a job, most likely you will go for that person. You know you are a lady, you meet a gentleman and he starts proposing love to you. He starts telling you all sorts of goodies of how he will buy you a car, house and that he loves you so much. When you get into marriage then you know the true character of that person and you will know that you were deceived by just a con-man. You have already heard statements about people changing positions. They promised free education but they are changing that they did not promise free education. They promised that they are going to reduce the price of fertiliser, the price of commodities will drastically reduce, the cost of living will drastically reduce and immediately they are sworn in, the Kwacha rates will appreciate and a lot of things that they promised the Zambian youths and entire population,” said Chama.

“For me, there has been so much deception and people believed those lies that were peddled by the people who are not holding the instruments of power. We do not need to repeat what has been said already and a lot of people are debating these issues where someone tells you they are going to do this and immediately they are voted in, they start changing positions. It is very unfortunate. So for me, the winning of elections that transpired on the 12th of August, was not based on truth. You know in politics we should learn to tell the truth regardless of how hard the truth might be because the truth will set you free. You know lies have short legs and sooner than later people are realising that they were duped. Basically, Zambian people were duped.”