Mundubile promises government that buys low, sells high… and never says “Salti Sana” Brian Mundubile has unveiled what could be Zambia’s first government with ambitions of becoming the country’s biggest agricultural trader, anti-tribalism preacher and full-time customer of struggling farmers, all while insisting it won’t scare away the private sector. “The difference between us is […]

Mundubile promises government that buys low, sells high… and never says “Salti Sana”

Brian Mundubile has unveiled what could be Zambia’s first government with ambitions of becoming the country’s biggest agricultural trader, anti-tribalism preacher and full-time customer of struggling farmers, all while insisting it won’t scare away the private sector.

“The difference between us is simple,” Mundubile declared in essence. “They’re counting numbers. We’re counting people.”

Lundazi, 29 June – Addressing supporters in Lundazi on Saturday, the NRPUP leader declared that while the UPND spends its days romancing spreadsheets, graphs and impressive-looking economic figures, his party is more interested in the troublesome creatures known as human beings.

According to Mundubile, governments shouldn’t merely admire economic statistics from a distance. They should apparently be standing at the farm gate with an open cheque book.

His proposed solution is refreshingly simple: whenever tobacco prices collapse, government buys the crop. When prices recover, government sells it. It is essentially “buy low, sell high,” except this time the investor is the taxpayer.

Private buyers, he assured farmers, need not panic. They would not be chased away. Instead, they would simply gain a new competitor with considerably deeper pockets and access to the national treasury.

Mundubile reserved particular sympathy for tobacco farmers trapped in credit arrangements where buyers recover only the value of loans, leaving producers to struggle with the remainder. He branded the system “slavery” and argued that government should intervene before farmers are driven into despair.

He also promised that maize floor prices would no longer arrive fashionably late. Under his administration, they would be announced during the first week of June, denying opportunistic middlemen their annual festival of bargain hunting.

Moving from crops to country, Mundubile diagnosed Zambia with another disease: tribalism. Employment, he argued, increasingly depends on political databases, party colours or where one’s grandparents happened to settle.

His prescription was straightforward.

“Our tribe is Zambia,” he declared, calling for national unity in the spirit of founding president Kenneth Kaunda.

The campaign promises continued arriving at harvest speed.

Social Cash Transfer? It stays.

Constituency Development Fund? It stays too, although Mundubile reminded aspiring MPs that CDF belongs to citizens, not elected officials, their cousins, business partners or anyone planning to defect immediately after winning an election.

He also promised to revive the Ministry of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs, saying traditional leaders deserve greater recognition and respect.

Perhaps the loudest applause came when Mundubile assured supporters that ministers serving under his government would not be specialists in the mysterious phrase “Salti Sana” whenever citizens requested action.

Instead, he pledged that roads such as the Chipata-Lundazi route would move from campaign speech to construction site without requiring linguistic gymnastics.

As election season gathers momentum, voters are once again being presented with two competing visions of governance: one side promising better numbers, the other promising better lives. Whether either eventually masters both remains the billion-kwacha question.

Whether voters ultimately choose welfare over spreadsheets remains to be seen. But if campaign promises were agricultural produce, Mundubile’s rally certainly produced a bumper harvest.

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