PF deputy national chairperson Davies Chama says he is worried about the UPND administration because they have focused more on investigating the previous government than “fixing” the country.

And Chama says the UPND government is shocked about the kind of development left by PF and doubts whether the current ruling party will have anything to point at after its stay in office.

In an interview, Chama said the UPND government was only interested in receiving investigative reports about what the PF did.

“[UPND’s governance so far is] very disappointing because as leaders, what we say is what we are supposed to do. But I think they are backsliding on what they promised the Zambian people. You have heard the comments from the President about the debt that the country accumulated under the PF administration and what the Minister of Finance said in Parliament. So far according to the statement, they are more of investigators than leaders. I think they are more interested in reading investigative reports. To me, they appear like they are [in power] more to find out what went wrong rather than go into government to sort out the problem they had planned to fix,” he said.

“So when they were in opposition, they were saying they are coming to fix. I had assumed maybe they had made a very good assessment of where we are as the country so that when they get into government, they will go down immediately to start fixing. But I think they are losing focus. I think they are wasting most of their time trying to read reports about who did what. They are more like investigators, that’s what it appears to me and that’s why they will fail to deliver because you can’t, I was a minister of defence and I never inquired about my former minister, not even one day to find out what they were saying, what they were doing. That’s why I’m worried about this administration, they are only interested in receiving reports about what the PF did.”

And Chama said UPND was shocked about the development left by PF but were too proud to acknowledge it.

“Someone was telling me that they are even shy to go to Ndola to go and commission the airport that was built by the PF, and it’s a marvel. Someone who landed posted something, he was shocked and said ‘kanshi bali bomba aba abantu (these people worked)’. You know, the problem is that ‘umwana ashenda atasha nyina ukunaya’ (meaning if you don’t travel, you will not appreciate what happens in other communities). If you don’t move around, what the PF has done, you will not know. They were busy just condemning. Now I think they are perplexed, they are shocked by what we did. Now the problem is that they are too proud to acknowledge that,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chama doubted whether UPND could have anything tangible to show for their time in office.

“I think we started the transformation of this country and I was projecting the time I was in government that if the PF continues to be in government for the next 20, 30, 40 years, this country would have been totally different. Nomba aba, kuwaya waya fye, katwishi nga baka sonta at anything (I doubt these people will point at any works [done by them]). They will not sonta at anything. If you go to Kabwata constituency, Chalala, the roads that have been built. You know we were gradually transforming every township because we wanted to make sure we transform where the Zambian people stay, to resemble a developed country. Tapali efyo baka sonta, tapali, I doubt (they won’t point at anything),” said Chama.

“They are not even fixing, they are dismantling. You should go to the banks right now, the money is not there, the dollars are not there, you can’t find the dollar. You go into the bank to say you want to buy the dollar, you want to do this, you won’t find the dollar in the financial institutions. We should have been expecting according to the promise that was made by the President that ‘when I’m sworn in at 10:00 hours, by 14:00 hours the rate will improve drastically’, but it is going the other way every day. They are not fixing anything.”