GOVERNMENT Chief Whip Stafford Mulusa says UPND will be in government for more than 20 years as it has set out to address people’s challenges.

And Mulusa says there are a number of PF members of parliament who want to join UPND.

In an interview, Mulusa said the current economic challenges the country was facing like the hike in fuel prices would be resolved by the end of 2022.

“We shall stay for more than 20 years, we are staying for more than 20 years. I can assure you that even the CDF that we are yet to implement will bring change from the rural part of this country. You know it is the same change, the same development and we expect a lot of people to be involved in the economic activities of this country at a ward level. So you will expect that the UPND will be loved from the rural parts up to the urban areas. So this is just the first time and we are going to see how it goes, so far MPs are in their constituencies conducting CDF meetings, sharing the money, allocating the projects and all that. Come August we are going to assess how useful this fund is in the constituencies,” he said.

“I can assure you that is a game changer, K25 million in each and every constituency it has never happened. This is taking money closer to the people and UPND has done it. So the temporal bitings that we are experiencing now, like high fuel levels, all that, beyond 2022 it won’t be there, the economy will be stabilized. So UPND is here to stay, I don’t see us going out of government soon. I think they will be leaders that will come, leaders will come and go but the party will remain very strong.”

And Mulusa said a number of PF members of parliament wanted to join UPND.

“Zambians are happy that PF is no longer there, no longer in government because everything bad that happened under their leadership was about the people that they are governing. So it is bye bye PF! They are gone, nobody should even think about PF, even those who are fighting to be president of the PF, they should just know that they are just fighting an empty shell. There is no party there, it is just a shell. Just to say because [they] have members of parliament, so this time they can survive but very soon even those members of parliament are quoting UPND. So there is no PF to talk about. A lot of MPs, actually even when passing bills we have enough members in Parliament. We have more than enough inclusive of the PF MPs,” Mulusa said.

“There is no competition but you see in a democratic country like ours we expect that the opposition will be a bit strong not the way they are now. They will be weaker because we have a leadership that is giving out what Zambia wants. So very soon in the next three years you will see the country stabilizing, the economy will stabilize and there will be no opposition to talk about.”

Mulusa said the recent victory in all the three by election indicated that people were looking at the UPND to turn around the country’s economy.

“So, we want them (opposition) to be very strong and also to be very objective even as they are in opposition. The three by elections were peaceful, the police were professional, there was no complaint whatsoever from all the political players and it has come out that the UPND has gotten all the three. So that tells you that the people are looking at UPND to turn around the economy that the PF messed up. If you go to their strongholds, Socialist Party is coming up strong, it means that there is no confidence in the PF. So those who are thinking that PF will survive and be present in the next general elections, we might have one or two members of parliament or nothing beyond 2026 that is what it is. So people should know that PF was a very bad party, they will not even remember it because of the corruption that they led this country with,” said Mulusa.

“So there is no opposition, maybe we can monitor what SP is doing though he is also just in one area where he comes from. I don’t see him to be strong also, he is taking advantage because of too much money that he has to give around that he has to give around and all that. Those kinds of politics are long gone, we don’t want to have those kinds of politics where people say tantameni (stand in line), you start giving money, we don’t want that and Socialist Party should realize that is not the time. So they should just do the correct politics of convincing people effectively.”