UNPD Alliance Chairperson Charles Milupi says Brian Mundubile’s promise of no thieves under his government can’t work as he was from the PF administration which was involved in the abuse of public resources and stealing. Milupi was responding to NRPUP presidential candidate Mundubile who made that promise during a press briefing on Wednesday. In an […]

UNPD Alliance Chairperson Charles Milupi says Brian Mundubile’s promise of no thieves under his government can’t work as he was from the PF administration which was involved in the abuse of public resources and stealing.

Milupi was responding to NRPUP presidential candidate Mundubile who made that promise during a press briefing on Wednesday.

In an interview, Thursday, Milupi questioned how many people Mundubile reported for theft when he was a Cabinet minister under PF.

“If he is aware of theft in the UPND, we ask him to report it. The government has directed that if anyone is caught with that kind of thing, that is public resources and so on, they are on their own. Number two, I think it is well known that PF, of which he was a Cabinet minister, was very much involved with abuse of public resources, including expensive contracts, uncompleted contracts. How many people did he report? He was a minister. How many people did he report? Nothing. So you go by history, they were in government, both of them, both himself and his running mate, they were in government. How did they run government? He himself has said that he will run the country like Mr [Edgar] Lungu did. So when someone tells you something, believe him. So, we believe what he has told us,” he said.

“The fact that when he was in government, he didn’t do it. He now says he’s going to do it. When we compare what was happening under president Lungu’s government with this government, people were fearful of pangas (machetes). Markets were being burnt by cadres. There was burning of markets. There was gassing. The economy was destroyed. Was that not suffering? The kwacha moved from K5 when they took over to over K24. They destroyed the economy. The economy was destroyed. Was that not suffering?”

He said Zambians needed honest people who fear public resources.

“Like the former minister of Finance said, they claimed to be pro-poor but produced poverty through their bad governance on the economy. There was a lot more suffering. What the UPND government has done is clean the mess that they left. The only people that were not suffering were the ones that were in government stealing. Some of them are in prison right now. They were buying helicopters from public funds, private helicopters. Is that the type of life that you want to bring back? This country does not need a person like that. It needs people that work hard, that are honest and they fear public resources. In his government they were not doing that. That’s why a number of their former ministers have cases. People were getting contracts, road contracts and not delivering at all. They were being paid advance payments and going away with the money,” he said.

And commenting on Mundubile’s claims that FRA would pay farmers two weeks before elections as a way of UPND wanting to buy votes, Milupi wondered if Mundubile has tested the maize for moisture content, adding that he’d rather listen to FRA.

“FRA has told us why they have not announced the floor price, they are saying it’s because of the moisture content. Has he [Mundubile] tested the maize to see that the moisture content is okay? If so, according to his test, what is the moisture content? Because FRA are waiting for 12 percent in the maize. So if he has tested, where has he tested it? Because I am aware how to grow maize. I am a farmer myself and we are harvesting maize right now. So I would rather believe what FRA says than a man like him. If he can show me where he has grown his maize, then I can listen to him,” said Milupi.