NEW Heritage Party president Chishala Kateka says the cancellation of the Kabwata by-election is a blessing in disguise.

And in an interview, Monday, Kateka said her party was currently looking for a candidate so that they could participate in the by-election.

“You know what, God is a God of second chance and the cancellation of the Kabwata by election has given us a chance to participate in the election. So we are looking for a candidate. We are in the process of looking for a solid candidate and one of the things we want to avoid is not to just get somebody who can be bought and they can pull out at any time. We have to find a solid person, we don’t want to play games, we really have no time for playing games,” she said.

Kateka called for integrity among candidates from various political parties who will be adopted.

“Once adopted, let them not further waste resources and time. We are appealing to those who will be adopted to make sure that they go to the polls to avoid any further delay. We are urging who so ever will be adopted from various political parties to first think for the people of Kabwata and the Zambians at large. We need to see a process whereby politicians begin to be people of integrity and not always thinking about themselves,” Kateka said.

Kateka also said UPND and PF needed to mature politically.

“The battle between these two political parties will not end in my opinion. In everything, it is always about them quarreling. We cannot live like this, we are actually tired. You know when two elephants are fighting it is the grass that suffers and in this case it is the Zambian people who are suffering. We urge the two parties to mature. One of them must start leading the nation and the other must just act as a mature opposition party, “Kateka said.

Meanwhile, Kateka challenged government to provide timely updates on the outbreak of the fall army worms in some parts of the country.

“As the New Heritage Party, we have always asked the new dawn government to be very communicative. Everybody is complaining about the fact that they do not adequately inform the nation on important issues like this one [army worm outbreak]. It is so important to effectively communicate especially when it comes to issues of national food security. We have been affected by the late rains and now we have been affected by the army worms. And so, it is important that people prepare themselves by means of being given information because knowledge is power and forewarned is forearmed. If informed, people may be in a position to take precaution in regards to army worms,” said Kateka.

“The army worms are as dangerous as Covid. If we are kept abreast with Covid on a daily basis, why are we not been kept abreast with the army worm because people will think that it is an isolated case when in the actual sense they are spreading.”