HH! HOW MUCH DID FQM GIVE YOU FOR CAMPAIGNS? By Brian Matambo | Media Director – Tonse Pamodzi Alliance President Hakainde Hichilema should be the last person mocking any political party for fundraising. In 2015, he openly asked the public to donate to his election campaign. In 2021, UPND launched the “14 by 10” campaign, […]

HH! HOW MUCH DID FQM GIVE YOU FOR CAMPAIGNS?

By Brian Matambo | Media Director – Tonse Pamodzi Alliance

President Hakainde Hichilema should be the last person mocking any political party for fundraising.

In 2015, he openly asked the public to donate to his election campaign. In 2021, UPND launched the “14 by 10” campaign, asking ordinary Zambians to contribute K10 daily. Today, when NRPUP invites its supporters to contribute voluntarily, the same man suddenly finds fundraising laughable.

What is truly laughable is the hypocrisy.

Public fundraising is transparent, democratic and accountable. It allows ordinary citizens to finance the political cause they believe in.

What should concern Zambians are the serious allegations contained in the recent Global Witness investigation linking First Quantum Minerals and associated interests to the financing of UPND over several election cycles. FQM has denied those allegations, but they raise legitimate questions about the influence of powerful foreign corporations over political parties and public policy. 

NRPUP would rather be funded openly by thousands of ordinary Zambians than secretly beholden to one powerful foreign mining company.

UPND must stop pretending that fundraising became wrong the moment the opposition started doing it. When UPND did it, they called it people power. When NRPUP does it, they call it desperation.

The hypocrisy is showing.