FORMER finance and national planning minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane says it is dangerous to vote for the Tonse Alliance because they might “repeat their bad ways” from when they were under the PF.

Dr Musokotwane adds that there is lack of understanding from the Tonse Alliance on what constituted helping the poor.

Commenting on the continued remarks by NRPUP Leader Brian Mundubile that the UPND had failed to priortise the poor, Dr Musokotwane in a write up stated that there was no difference between the Tonse Alliance and the PF.

“The Tonse Alliance leadership claims their priority is to uplift the lives of the poor Zambians rather than focus on what they call meaningless statistics that claim to report development. They criticize the UPND for not prioritizing the poor. The Tonse Alliance is an offshoot of the PF and their mannerism and thinking is the same, including making false promises to win votes. It is therefore not surprising when they make such a false claim of caring for the poor when they achieved the opposite during their 10 years rule. They seriously hurt the poor while at the same time some of them became very wealthy in mysterious ways. Their conduct in government disadvantaged the lives of the poor, not just then but also going into the next generations. I will explain by giving examples of their performance in areas of interventions that are relevant for tackling poverty,” he said.

He said the UPND government had taken measures to re-open new mines and secure more investment for expanded production.

“Livelihoods: Gainful livelihood provides income to people, which helps alleviate poverty. A government must always quickly strive to encourage as much employment as possible for both the self and hired jobs. PF is vividly remembered for destroying jobs especially in the mining sector. The key mining companies like KCM, Mopani, First Quantum and Barrick were either closing or on the way to closure. Mining cities became ghost towns, unleashing unprecedented poverty. Functioning mines provide livelihoods in the mining towns not just to miners but also to people engaged in other economic activities through indirect effects. Which poor people were the PF taking care of when they were closing the mines. Or, is it simply a lack of understanding on their part that closing mines enhances poverty rather than generate prosperity?” Dr Musokotwane wondered.

“To address the chaos left by the PF government, the UPND government has long taken measures not only to re-open the mines but also to secure more investment for expanded production. The mining towns are back to life as miners and contractors begin to spend again. Further, old abandoned or struggling mines like Luanshya Shaft 28, Lubambe and Kalengwa have been revived. New mines have started to open such as Ming’omba in Chililabombwe and Kitumba in Mumbwa. In the next five years more new mines will open on the back of vigorous explorations that are currently underway. Indeed, opening new industries where jobs and businesses are created is the correct way to help to reduce poverty. Not the PF idea of fighting poverty by closing mines and failing to encourage the setting up of new industries”.

Dr Musokotwane said under the UPND a number of economic sectors had seen an improvement.

“Other economic sectors have seen improvement. This year’s maize harvest close to five million tons, a record since independence, is clear proof that many farmers will earn more and reduce poverty. In manufacturing, Zambia now exports fertilizers to the region. Mulungushi Textiles in Kabwe is back to life. More firms exporting copper wires have been established. Batteries are now being locally produced. Many other manufacturing firms are active,” Dr Musokotwane said.

“Can the PF/Tonse tell the nation which new mines or industries they opened in their 10 years of rule? In a country where the population of young people is rapidly rising and looking for jobs in large numbers, how can anyone dream of caring for the poor after spending a decade without any tangible achievement in opening a mine or any other serious industry? Tonse seem to think poverty will be tackled by mere declarations. This beats all logic and clearly demonstrates that they have no clue about what to do in government. For UPND, continuing to push for more industries in our country is an important part of fighting poverty”.

Dr Musokotwane said the introduction of free education had increased school enrollment.

“The remarkable result today is that since the free education policy kicked in, school enrollment has jumped by about 2.5 million children. Clearly these were children from poor families that were shut out of school under the PF government because their parents could not afford to pay. These children, their own children and their grandchildren were destined to be permanently trapped into poverty. Which poor children then did PF take care of, because if they did, UPND would not have found so many poor children out of school,” he said.

He added that PF’s actions in the social security sector worsened the conditions for poor citizens.

“Every government must put measures in place to support people who are genuinely unable to look after themselves. The measures include a functional system for retired employees, supporting people during famine arising, for example from drought, availing small grants and loans, etc. On all these counts, PF actions deepened the troubles for the poor. For example, the waiting time for receiving retirement benefits during PF was 42 months. Now it has been reduced to 13 months. During the drought of 2019 few people benefited from organised relief food because of poor administration and corruption that saw priority being given to PF party officials. In the 2024 drought relief intervention, the UPND government gained national and international recognition for outstanding relief operations through enhanced Social Cash Transfer, Cash for Work and reverse maize sales at FRA buying depots. This was a practical demonstration of caring for the poor which was never seen during the PF administration,” Dr Musokotwane said.

Dr Musokotwane said the UPND had managed to curtail lawlessness.

“The lawlessness under PF has no parallel in the history of our country. One example of lawlessness that widely injured poor people was in markets. Farmers who came to some markets like the Soweto in Lusaka were compelled to surrender their produce to PF cadres who insisted they must without fail sell the farm produce for the farmer and take forced commission from the farmer. The PF government was fully aware of this extortion that was hurting poor people but they did not care. Lawlessness also found itself in land and farm invasions. People woke up to find their land was invaded by PF cadres who illegally subdivided land pieces for themselves. Reporting this lawlessness turned out to be useless because the Police became powerless to enforce law and order. Overnight landowners, especially farmers lost property. If this Lawlessness was understood then by the government of the day as a way of fighting poverty then the beneficiaries coming out of this poverty were only the PF cadres,” Dr Musokotwane said.

“Today the Tonse say they care for poor people! Under the UPND administration, lawlessness has overwhelmingly been curtailed. The few who have attempted the old bad ways have been quickly nabbed. This allows everyone, including the poor, to work peacefully in the markets”.

Dr Musokotwane said promises from the Tonse Alliance of caring for the poor were false.

“In conclusion, the Tonse Alliance is composed of personalities who have clothed their old PF party into the sheep skin of the new name. Now the party claims if it is elected into office, it will focus on caring for poor people. This is a false promise for the sole purpose of deceiving people to vote for them. If PF had cared for poor people, they would have done so in the ten years they ruled. In this note, I have given examples of measures that PF instituted that hurt poor people instead of improving their lot. It becomes dangerous to vote Tonse Alliance in because they will repeat their bad ways of hurting the poor while thinking they are helping them. There appears to be no understanding from them on what constitutes helping the poor out of their problem,” said Dr Musokotwane.