Vice President, DMMU accomplices of electoral crimes in Chilubi

By Anthony Bwalya – UPND Member

Let’s be clear: The Patriotic Front (PF) regime are NOT as popular as they claim to be. This is why they cannot and can never go into any election without BRIBING the electorate.

This is the reason why even in Kabushi Constituency in Ndola, the current PF Member of Parliament knows, he and his party cannot come to Kabushi and compete on a sober platform without bribes. They will lose and they know it. The PF have no nationwide message to sell to the people anymore – they just do not.

With respect to CHILUBI, I had to go over numerous government’s own reports into Zambia’s hunger crisis, a crisis they still continue to deny actually exists for all intents and purposes, to try and get a real sense of what the rampant food donations using DMMU resources was all about. The closest the Patriotic Front (PF) administration have come to admitting the presence of a hunger crisis in Zambia, is to state that only 58 districts, although some independent assessments put the number at 87, across Southern, Western, Eastern, parts of Lusaka and Central provinces, are or have been affected by the crippling hunger crisis arising from the 2018 – 2019 poor rainy season.

Further, I have struggled to find official government, or indeed independent accounts, that put Luapula, particularly CHILUBI, at the heart of any food crisis to warrant a response from the Disaster Management and Mitigating Unit (DMMU) at the scale that we are witnessing in CHILUBI.

As we have this discussion, there are people dying of hunger due to government neglect in Shangombo, Lungu and Gwembe districts. No tangible government relief efforts have reached these districts, nothing compared to the CHILUBI operation the country is witnessing.

Now, if you are looking for a blatant, arrogant abuse of state resources by the PF, in order to tilt the balance of the outcome of an election, look no further than CHILUBI. And the Vice PRESIDENT, Mama Inonge Wina, for all the respect the country harbours for her, not only for being the first female Veep of our Republic, but also one who has served the country reasonably well, she is now endangering her legacy by allowing herself to be used as an avenue and accessory to crimes against the Zambian people.

Mrs. Inonge Wina and the DMMU, as it stands, are accessories to electoral crimes against the people of CHILUBI and the country at large. The outcome of the election in CHILUBI is already rigged even before the election has taken place. And the rigging is being perpetrated using public resources, through the abuse of office by individuals like the Vice President and her officers at DMMU. If not, the Veep and DMMU owes the people an explanation as to what disaster has occured in CHILUBI to warrant the sort of DMMU response, when areas of actual disaster are well known and currently being deprived of the help they so desperately require because the PF are intent on diverting disaster mitigation resources towards influencing the outcome of elections in areas of By-elections.

The public might also wish to recall, that it is the same PF government, that abused Social Cash Transfer resources by redirecting these resources to By-elections, leaving millions dependent on this lifeline destitute.

When the time of reckoning does come calling, those occupying the position of Veep and officials at DMMU, should not cry political persecution when they are cited for abuse of office because the crimes they are perpetrating are all too evident for all to see.

The PF are underestimating the resolve of the Zambian people. And if the PF are “confident” about being popular, why are they panicking flooding illegal donations in elections jurisdictions… clearly, this is a party on a knife edge and fighting for survival rather than delivering on their core mandate – provide leadership.